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[Brian H]

Noam; Be very careful with those wires. The
Mini-Controller is line operated. So
potentially each wire may have 120 VAC to an
external ground.

[Noam]

Brian -
Thanks for the warning. There was no mention
of taht in the instructions, but I decided
to test it myself. sure enough, my meter
shows voltage between all of the contacts
and ground. I used a circuit tester instead
of a voltmeter, so I can't verify that it is
110V to ground, but I can do that test
later. Since I am not using it at the
moment, perhaps it will stay in the box with
my other X10 stuff for a while....

[dev_dave]

hey noam, i connected a powerflash to my
doorbell.  I connected mine to the bell
terminals.  On my doorbell they were
prominently displayed (on inside) and these
terminals conduct only 15v dc.  So while
the doorbell drives its power off 110, it
sends the bell 15v (on mine).. that voltage
only exists when the doorbell is being
rung.  I had to connect alligator clips and
extensions to see this voltage 'while' i
was ringing doorbell.  It works great and
knowing the voltages applied are the lower
15v dc gives me comfort in leaving this
wiring attached while away.

[Noam]

Dave -
The PoweFlash is definitely the safe way to
go. As I said, I haven't yet used my
modified Mini-cotnroller, and I probably
won't end up using it, as the PowerFlash was
better for what I needed.
I do want to test the actualy voltage and
see what it is, but if those terminals carry
110V-to-ground all the time, then they
probably aren't the safest thing to use.

[Brian H]

I am also using a Powerflash for mine. I am
using 1/3 of an ELK-930 Doorbell; Telephone
Ring Detector for mine. Using the bell low
voltage is also fine. My ELK hooks in series
with one of the transformer wires and sends
a closure to the Powerflash. Mine triggers a
chime module if either the front or back
bell is pushed as it is triggered by the
common transformer wire.

[steinie]

The VCR Commander has no USER Stop command.
It sends a Stop Command 5 Min. after the
last Record command. This bugs me. It needs
a USER stop command so you can record for 2
Min. or 3 Hrs. or whatever. Also it needs
to be controlled through the power line as
well as RF.

[roger1818]

Steinie:  Thanks for pointing this out.  I
had no idea that the VCR commander had this
limitation.