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[HA Dave]

I spent a good part of the day today... tracking down a signal sucker.

I keep good tabs of new (and moved) electronics on my powerlines (I thought)... and was surprised at how much time and effort it took.

Without going into (too much) detail.. because BVC (Kate) announces many of my X10 actions... I knew yesterday that a macro had failed. I heard something "turn on" when a conditional macro should have prevented that.

Today I looked at what had failed and found a powerflash module wasn't signaling the CM15A.

My first thought was what has changed... what is new? Was it the:

• Wii console.
• wii handheld controller, charger.
• ipod charger/powered speakers.
• foot-switch (with LED lights (bought for Christmas lights... kept on-line for seldom used uplighting).
• new (used) office TV.
• new LCD TV in the bedroom.

I was shocked at how many new devices had been added during the holiday. My problem turned out to be a signal sucker... the 19" new bedroom LCD TV. I found a work-around for now. I need to order a filter. Did anyone else have any holiday surprises?

[Knightrider]

Can't really call this a surprise, but the kids got new phones.  Fortunately, I've trained them as the where in the house they can plug in the chargers.

Now if I could just train the dogs to stop getting into the trash.....

[dave w]

Being a gray haired child, Santa brought me a robot arm with USB interface.

http://www.imagesco.com/robotics/owi-535.html

I promptly made a battery eliminator using two Panasonic switching power supplies (yes, I play with fire). 

[HA Dave]

...Santa brought me a robot arm with USB interface.

http://www.imagesco.com/robotics/owi-535.html

Nice arm!

I am planning on following up with my plans for SARA during the next few weeks. Then I want to try another robot. RED didn't turn out to be as useful as I had hoped. The technology is here... or nearly here. But exploiting the available technology so as to make it useful... hasn't been easy for me.

[Knightrider]

Being a gray haired child, Santa brought me a robot arm with USB interface.

http://www.imagesco.com/robotics/owi-535.html

Being a balding, coffee swilling child, I'm disappointed that it only lifts 100 grams.  I'm guessing, that to dump the coffeepot, I'd need to beef it up 200 times.

 

[dave w]

Being a balding, coffee swilling child, I'm disappointed that it only lifts 100 grams.  I'm guessing, that to dump the coffeepot, I'd need to beef it up 200 times.

Knight, If you and Dave X10 got togeather, you guys could probably build a flame belching, mobile, coffee pot slinging arm out of an Erector Set, Bimba air cyninders and a Roomba. 

Yeah, the arm is anemic but kinda fun to play with. It comes as a kit. I'm not sure which was more fun to build: the arm, or Jeff V's XTBM. However just like most Christmas toys, it will probably get put on the shelf in another week. 

[HA Dave]

.... Knight, If you and Dave X10 got togeather, you guys could probably build a flame belching, mobile, coffee pot slinging arm out of an Erector Set, Bimba air cyninders and a Roomba. 

I was wondering if we could make our own air cylinders out of PVC pipe and steel rod?

[bitman]

I got my dear wife a Kodak 1011 wifi digital picture frame.
Killed 1/2 the stuff in the upstairs living area.

I put a filter on it.
Crisis abated.

[HA Dave]

... a Kodak 1011 wifi digital picture frame.

Are those the ones that can be directed to other networked devices to display stored pictures and videos? Could it be set to show the camera images/videos stored on a HA PC... so as to work like a security monitor?

[bitman]

... a Kodak 1011 wifi digital picture frame.

Are those the ones that can be directed to other networked devices to display stored pictures and videos? Could it be set to show the camera images/videos stored on a HA PC... so as to work like a security monitor?

Well, it is as far as I google, one way. The frame has sort of a network neighborhood on it where you can see devices from which to transfer (at that time) images from. You will see: It's memory stick and any pc on the local lan segment that has it's windows media player 11 or higher library shared. 

It has no way to just send files to it via a pc anytime, you must grab the remote and go stand in front of it to get files from connected pcs.

More secure I suppose. Keeps unwanted images off your frame, but I would have liked to see ftp or something.

 

[HA Dave]

............ you must grab the remote and go stand in front of it to get files from connected pcs.

Still would be a great way to review the HA PC's image file. And a great way to view normal family pictures too.