X10. What do I need? (1 Viewer)

[ScottATL]

Ok, I'm not much of a fancy gadget guy but I want to be able to turn off/on and dim lights by remote. I'd also like to have the ability to dim from the wall switch. I've looked around on www.smarthome.com but I'm new to all of it, so can someone help me out.

the Home Theater room is new construction, and I plan on doing two sets of recessed lights on different switches. One around the perimeter of the room, and one directly over the seating. I may also put in a couple of sconces on teh wall for dim lighting to stay on during the movies.

The game room is beside the HT room, also new construction. I don't have much plans for this room, except a pool table, air hockey, and a couple of pin ball machines.

The bar/lounge will be behind the game room, I plan to do a TV wall for football game watching, recessed lighting and under cabinet lighting on the bar itself. Haven't thought too much about this room as I'm trying to get the the HT room done first, then I'll come back to the rest of the basement.

I do plan to put my office downstairs as well, should I run cat 5e line throughout the basement for any of this? I have lumber being delivered next week, and I am going to start framing Nov 6 and plan to do the wiring over Thanksgiving.

Can someone help me out with the switches and such.

 

[marc]

x10 just updated their starter kit and it now includes a computer module that connects via USB. It includes a few other modules and a basic remote. Depending on what remote you have, pronto, whatever, you can add an ir to rf adaptor and use it for turning off lights and etc.. I programmed my house to turn on and off outside lights and living room lights and have my HT setup via my pronto to slowly dim the lights upon hitting play for the DVD player and slowly bringing the lights back to normal upon hitting stop, after the movie. Smarthome is a great place, you can also try x10.com or homeautomation.com. Hope this helps.

Marc

 

[Tim K]

www.x10.com

Basically, you'll want to pick up an X10 switch for any lights you want to turn on/off only. You'll need an X10 dimmer switch for any lights you will want to Dim. If you are using any electrical equipment on a switched outlet that you want to control you will need an appliance module to plug them into.
Any X10 remote will work any X10 device....however if you are using a universal remote like a pronto you will need the IR543 (or IR543AH) to convert IR to X10 signals.

X10 is easy to use, easy to setup and inexpensive. You can incorporate your lighting into macros on a universal remote and have your whole system power up, the lights dim and the movie start with the press of a button.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Add patience to the list. X10 is very sensitive to noise in the electrical signal.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I don’t know if they’ve improved things since I used them a few years ago, but their wall switches crapped out pretty fast when they saw a lot of manual use. Then they could only be used with the remote.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt