Blog Archives

Leverage existing in-wall wires for low-voltage power

When I moved into my house, it had an old 1980s-style tape deck intercom system that I replaced with a custom Home Command Center. That meant the intercom units on the walls were basically just non-functional eye-sores: Recently I received

Posted by Matt Chiste
September 10

LED light strips make great low-energy pathway lighting

I had motion-controlled lights on my front steps for about a year when I decided I could do better. While it was nice to move up and down the steps without having to hit a light switch, the overhead lights

Posted by Matt Chiste
October 25

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

Posted by Matt Chiste
August 8

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

Posted by Matt Chiste
July 27

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

Posted by Matt Chiste
July 18

Let’s talk Drywall

We’ll take a break from our regularly-scheduled programming now to talk about something that’s a little less glamorous than an Insteon-enabled Smart Home: drywall. If you’re starting to get serious with home improvement and automation, it’s inevitable that you’re going

Posted by Matt Chiste
July 7
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