M/Motion = Light

September 21, 2001 - The old saying goes, as many parents have told their worried children, "There’s nothing in the darkness that isn’t there in the light." The problem with that saying is, while it may be true, it doesn’t address the real issue. It’s true, there’s nothing in the darkness that isn’t there in the light. The problem is, whatever is there, you can’t see it in the darkness.

David McCauley has figured out a way around this with ActiveHome. David’s goal is to prevent any accidents that might be caused by stumbling around in the dark. Using ActiveHome and the HawkEye motion sensor, David has turned his house into a veritable fortress of light.

It starts out with a Universal Module that sets off set of floodlights when someone enters the driveway after dusk. Once out of the car, there’s a side entrance lamp triggered by an EagleEye motion sensor that turns on a light in the entryway, providing just enough light so that he can find his keys, and put his things down without losing his place.

"I also have a motion sensor mounted on the rear of my house which turns on and off a set of rear mounted flood lights," David says, "and sets off the Universal Module when anybody enters my yard."

But that doesn’t mean the house is dark if David’s not there. That’s where ActiveHome comes in. "ActiveHome turns on a light mount over my kitchen sink, 2 night lights mounted down the cellar so that the cats can see their way to the food and the litter box." (David has two cats, for those who love cats.) ActiveHome also turns on a light in the upstairs hallway, which he keeps at 45%, so the kids can see their way to the bedrooms. After 10:00 PM, when the kids should be in bed, ActiveHome shuts off the lights in the hallway. Of course the basement light will stay on all night to look after the cats. And once the day breaks, and the sun comes back to dispel the darkness, ActiveHome shuts everything down.

Of course David can control these locally if he needs to. For him there’s a Maxi Controller, for his wife there’s the Mini Controller, for the overall system, Dave has an X10 wireless remote.

In the bedroom David has a motion sensor that fires a macro in the ActiveHome software that turns on the ceiling mounted light when anybody enters the room after dusk. "I could go on and on about the macros that I have programmed in my ActiveHome controller," David says, but that would take too much time.

What David considers his most unique accomplishment though is a macro that has nothing to do with the lights in his house. David has 5 PCs networked to a printer server that has 3 printers attached. It was quite a pain in the neck for David until he came up with this idea. "I have an X10 Powerflash module connected to the 5 volt supply of each of the PCs. When a PC is turned on it fires a macro in the ActiveHome controller that turns on the print server and printers. When the PC is turned off it fires a macro in the ActiveHome controller that waits a half hour (so any print jobs can finish printing) and turns off the print server and printers."

David has taken the ActiveHome Macro to great heights. And the exciting thing is, he’s barely scratched the surface.

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