Archive
Laser-etched KeypadLinc Buttons
When we covered the KeypadLinc, we talked about how you could get a 50-pack of buttons with different text or use a 4-Color LED Color Change Kit to get different colored buttons. But, to truly give your 8-button Insteon KeypadLinc…Gather useful energy consumption stats with the eMonitor
As you’re building your Insteon-enabled Automated Home, you may start developing an interest in other things related to a Smart Home, such as power consumption. When I got this energy monitoring bug, I did some research and found the eMonitor…Build a Home Command Center for your Smart Home
Remember those old tape deck-based intercom systems popular in the ’80s and ’90s that allowed you to play music and page different rooms of the house? When I bought my house in 2011 (built in ’89) they still had one…Insteon-Controlled Thermostat
While I was installing my home command center, I also took the opportunity to replace my existing thermostat with an Insteon Thermostat (well, technically a slightly older-looking model). Wiring these guys up is pretty straight-forward: you simply pop the cover…Use wired ethernet instead of Wi-Fi when possible
LifeHacker, one of my personal favorite blogs, recently ran a poll on how many of their readers use a wired network in their house as opposed to wireless only. A surprising minority were exclusively wireless, with most people reporting at…Wiring ethernet between floors
Now that we’ve determined ethernet offers much better download speeds than wifi, how do we make it happen? There’s a great article on Instructables (via LifeHacker) covering some high-level topics, and I encourage you to check that out. I’ll try…Insteon TriggerLinc
Today’s feature is a simple addition to our home automation system – the Insteon TriggerLinc. This device is about as simple as they come: it’s a magnetic sensor that reports its open-closed status to your Insteon network via scenes or…CyberPower UPS
Whether you’re a computer consultant like myself or fall into the category of DIY Home Automation Person, an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is a great piece of hardware to have in your arsenal, even if you don’t suffer from frequent…Insteon IOLinc
The Insteon product line is incredibly comprehensive, but at times you’ll want to extend your home control network beyond the stock devices. For these instances you’ll find that one option is the INSTEON I/O Linc, which provides one input an…Add your doorbell to your Insteon network
Now that we’ve taken a look around the I/O Linc, let’s see how these guys can be used in practice. Today’s exercise will focus on getting your doorbell integrated into your Insteon home automation system. Why, you ask? Because once…Neato XV-11 – a robot vacuum cleaner ready for (light) duty
You’re here because you’re into home automation, right? It’s now the future, so why aren’t our homes solving all the world’s problems, and where are our robot butlers and maids? I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for that. But…Morning Industries RF Deadbolt Locks
Keys? So old-fashioned! We’ve been able to unlock our cars for years with a key fob, so why not unlock your door wirelessly as well? The Morning Industries RF Deadbolt is a great product that allows you to do just…Receive a text message when your doorbell rings
Continuing with the theme of setting up a smarter doorbell, let’s take a look at programming the ISY-994i to send a text message and/or email when the doorbell rings, so that we are aware of package deliveries or other visitors…Blue Iris: A must-have for Foscam camera owners
Foscam cameras (they go my many brand names) are great; you can get live feeds through the built-in web-interface or through an app like MobiLinc. But neither of those interfaces allow you to use these cameras to the best of…Portable Insteon Scene Control with RemoteLinc 2
MobiLinc on the iPhone or Android is great for quick access to your Insteon smart home – you can quickly do anything you need right there on your phone. But, what if it’s not quick enough? It is still a…Insteon FanLinc works without a dedicated switch
Many rooms have an overhead receptacle for either a light, a fan, or both. Some of those rooms have the wiring for two separate switches at the entrance – one to control the fan and one to control the light.…Control your Morning Industry RF door locks from anywhere with MorningLinc
We’ve already set up a MorningLinc RF-based lock that can be opened from 10 feet away with a simple key fob, but what if we want to be able to lock or unlock the door from anywhere in the world,…Jailbreak an old AppleTV 1 or 2 for some XBMC Love
A big part of any modern home is a comprehensive media center that can play any kind of media you can throw at it – movies, music, TV shows, and pictures – in all kinds of formats. We’ll cover various…Add the Network Module to your ISY-994i for enhanced functionality
The ISY994i is great, but like the out-of-the-box AppleTV, it’s a little bit of a walled garden in the sense that you can’t deploy your own code to the device, and can’t really directly tweak the functionality of what’s available…Insteon-Integrated Smoke Detector
We’ve covered Insteon devices that allow you to control things in your home, such as lights and door locks, and we’ve covered devices that allow you to sense things in your home such as motion sensors and doorbell buttons. Today’s…
- 3d printing
- 2450
- amazon
- amazon echo
- app
- blue iris
- camera
- control device
- dd-wrt
- doorbell
- drywall
- electrical
- energy
- ethernet
- geo-fence
- green energy
- hdmi
- home automation
- home improvement
- insteon
- intellihome
- iolinc
- iphone
- isy-994i
- isy994i
- KeypadLinc
- led
- lights
- light strip
- lock
- makerbot
- media
- mobilinc
- morninglinc
- motion sensor
- network
- outletlinc
- programming
- quickstart
- scenes
- security
- sensing device
- thermostat
- wiring
- xbmc
