X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Topic started by: flux on April 05, 2007, 05:02:26 PM
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Is is possible to extend the DS10A antenna?
I'd like to use it to monitor a mailbox. The mailbox is metal so it won't work inside. I placed it outside but the weather got the better of it so I'm getting another one. Instead of putting it in a plastic box on the outside of the mailbox, would it be possible to put it inside the mailbox and thread an antenna to the back?
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Is is possible to extend the DS10A antenna?
I'd like to use it to monitor a mailbox. The mailbox is metal so it won't work inside...
I've been successfully using a MS12 (IIRC - the FIRST model with the FIXED ~6-8 minute timer) in my METAL mailbox for several years to run a macro that turns on a signal lamp and 'rings' both the CHIME module and the MACRO RUNNING Universal module. I found the "How-To" in the newgroup: NEWSGROUP: Comp.Home.Automation (Read 5926 times) (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=9769.0).
Briefly, it involves disassembling the MS12, drilling a small hole in the back, running a length of insulated wire through the hole and wrapping it a few turns around a coil (which is actually the MSxx antenna). Search the NG for "motion sensor metal mailbox" and you should find it (with pictures, IIRC).
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Mount it so it is exposed when opened, such as this:
http://www.smarthome.com/74661/Mail-Chime-Wireless-Mail-Alert-System/p.aspx