Apple II Home Automation

Copyright (C) 1997 by Josh Smith

You have to get up every morning to the sound of an alarm clock buzzing in your
ears.

Every morning when you go to work, you have to get out of your car, open the
gate, drive through, and then get out again and close the gate. You are carrying
a ton of junk, and you drop it as you are trying to open your front door. Its
night time, and what was that noise in the kitchen? You have to get up and find
the switch in the dark. You have an Apple II sitting around collecting dust, or
maybe you are going for the Super II. You should check out X-10 home automation.


X-10 CP 290 Home Control Interface--

This is a small white box that you plug into a 120v outlet.

It has 8 buttons on the top. Each button has on and off switches, so you can
control 8 on and off appliances from the CP290.(manually, without use of a
computer.)

There is a 9v battery compartment on the unit, to keep your Automation program
information (Time, date, when to turn on and off) 

There is a 5 pin serial plug on the back that you connect to your Apple II.

First, you put a 9v in the interface, plug it into a 120 volt outlet, and then
plug a cable into your apple II (Serial card,IIgs IIc Laser 128 serial port)

Connect the other end of the cable into the CP290.

You now have the ability to control X-10 Home Automation switches, outlets,
thermostat controllers, lamps, etc.

Go to Radio Shack, or another source of X-10 controllable parts. Get an Appliance
module. This is a small white box that you plug into any 120v outlet in your
house. It has a receptacle that will take a 2 prong plug, without a ground pin.
You then plug your appliance into the module.

On every X-10 controllable module, there are two switches to set its ID number.
The ID number is used by the CP290 tell the module apart from the others.

You have the left hand RED switch, which gives the module a Letter ID of A-P. The
switch on the right, which is black, gives the module a Number ID of 1-16.

Set the switches using a small slotted screwdriver. Set the Letter to A, and the
Number to 1.

Now, boot your Apple II with the X-10 disk in the drive. You can use a joystick,
Mouse, or the keyboard to use the X-10 program, which uses a simple graphic
interface. When the program is up and running, you click on INSTALL. You then get
to choose which room you want to install a new appliance in, what kind of
appliance it is, and set the ID number. Press the "Q" key, and choose OPERATE.
You now choose the room that your appliance is in, and then turn that appliance
on an off. You can also program appliances to turn on and off at certain times
and certain days. Wake up in the morning to your favorite radio station, the pot
of coffee is already hot. When you get out of the shower, your breakfast is
already cooked. On the way to and from work, all you do is press a remote control
button, and the gate is open. Now you are at work, but all of your files are at
home. You call home, and enter your code into your X-10 system, using 0-9 touch
tone buttons on the phone. 

Now, your IIgs is up and running, and you can access its files from your computer
at work. You knew that you would be going to be away from the house for a while,
so you programmed X-10 to turn your lights on in the evening, and your stereo in
the day, to make it look and sound like someone is home. Get back from work, you
have a ton of papers and some groceries in your hands. Use your remote control to
open the front door. Ok, everything is put away. Some of your friends are
arriving for the party you planned. Go to the X-10 program on your Apple II and
open the gate for them! You can control anything! Your garage door, sprinklers,
mini blinds, computers, radios, toasters, etc..

Approximate prices:
CP290- $30
Appliance Module- $9
Serial Card- $30


The following was copied from an X-10 advertisement: 

X-10 Power House---Number One In Home Control

USE YOUR COMPUTER FOR SECURITY, COMFORT, ENERGY SAVINGS, AND MORE FOR YOUR 
HOME OR BUSINESS.

What it does:

The X-10 powerhouse system helps deter intruders by making you home look and
sound lived in, whether or not you are there. You never have to come home to a
dark house again, or leave the outside lights on all day to get the key in the
door at night. The Home Control Interface or Timer can turn the outside lights on
for you at dusk. 

You Can wake up to stereo or tv news, light up your bedroom, hallway, bathroom,
start the coffee, start your central heating or air-conditioning, warm up the
curlers...all before you're even out of bed. 

At night the system can lower the heat, play music or your favorite late night
TV show for as long as you want, and can first dim and later turn off the lights
automatically.

How It Works

X-10 Powerhouse Controllers send digitally encoded signals over your existing
house wiring to control lights and appliances throughout your home. You plug
lamps into Lam Modules, appliances into Appliance Modules and replace wall
switches with Wall Switch Modules. These modules then respond to control signals
transmitted from the controller. You can add any number of different controllers
to your system 

X-10 Powerhouse Home Control Interface

This works with any computer that has an RS-232 port and allows automatic or
manual control of up to 256 X-10 modules. You can program these modules to go on
and off at various times on different days of the week, and can group modules and
program them to go on or off together. For example, turning on a light Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday at 7:00 PM dimmed to 40% is just one event. You can program
up to 128 events. You use the computer to program up to 128 events. You use the
computer to program the interface and then can disconnect the interface from the
computer. THE INTERFACE DOES NOT TIE UP THE COMPUTER. The interface has battery
back-up to protect the memory during power outages of up to 100 hours. It is
packaged in four different versions with software and cable for Apple IIe/IIc,
commodore 64/128,IBM PC and compatibles or Macintosh. 

Other Types of Controllers Too!

There are also other types of controllers available including the Programmable
Timer, which doesn't require the use of a computer. Manual controllers let you
control your lights and appliances remotely from anywhere in the house. The
Telephone Responder controls over any telephone. The burglar Alarm Interface
Flashes your Lights when your burglar alarm trips. Other controllers can be used
by people with physical disabilities.

Modules for anything you want to control 

Many types of modules are available including Appliance Modules for TV's,
Hi-Fi's, coffee pots, etc. Lamp modules contain a dimmer and can be used for
incandescent lamps up to 300 watts. Wall Switch Modules also contain a dimmer and
can be used for incandescent outside lights and ceiling lights of up to 500
watts. 220V Heavy Duty Appliance Modules are for 220 v air conditioners, water
heaters, well pumps, swimming pool pumps. The Thermostat Controller is for
central heating and air conditioning. The 3-way Wall Switch Module is for
controlling incandescent lights operated by two switches. The Heavy Duty Wall
Receptacle Module replaces your existing wall receptacle.

X-10 Powerhouse Home Control Interface CP290 (suggested retail price $69.99 with
software and cable, $79.99 for Mac version). An RS-232 interface which has
battery back up, a real time clock and does not tie up the computer. The
interface can store 128 "events" (an event can be a combination of lights and
appliances programmed to go on at a particular time on different days). The
interface can address all 256 different codes available and can also be programmed
to dim lights to a particular brightness level at a particular time. It has 8
rocker keys for manual control when the interface is not connected to the
computer. The Interface is NOT sold separately. It is only available bundled with
software and cable for either IBM, Macintosh, Apple IIe/IIc or Commodore 64/128.
(Super Serial Card and Extended 80 Column Card required for IIe, additional cable
adaptor required for Mac Plus and Mac XL). A programming guide is included for
anyone who wishes to write their own software. 

Apple Software:
This software shows a graphical representation of the rooms of your house (in
color) and allows you to install ICONS (graphical pictures of lights and
appliances) in the rooms and then select them with the Joystick, Mouse, or
Keyboard and program them to go on or off Now, or at specific times later Today,
Tomorrow, Everyday or on Specific Days. You can save the programmed events onto
the disk which lets you have different schedules for different times of the year.
The disk also contains a Utility Program to help the user to write his own
software in Basic or to modify our software (which is not copy protected) A "Din
to Din" cable for the IIc and a "Din to DB-25" cable for the IIe are included. 

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If you need more information concerning this article, the author can be reached
by email at: quantum@telis.org