From time to time all of us forget things. It’s not that we don’t want to do whatever it is that we forgot to do; it’s just that we have so much on our plate that lesser things get put off until it’s too late. Like taking the garbage to the curb on Thursday nights, or meeting with the kids’ teachers on parent/teacher night. Of course you put it on your calendar, but-well, that’s the funny part-you looked at your calendar, but somehow you looked right over the appointment. Then of course here come the questions spawned by a seemingly bad memory. Am I getting old? Am I losing my mind? Do I have that "old-timer’s" disease?

Chances are, the answers to all of these questions are "No." You’ve just got too much going on to remember everything. Well, believe it or not, ActiveHome timers and macros can be just the thing to spark that scattered memory. Think of us as a three-dimensional mnemonic, or memory aid.

This particular How2 could very easily be done with a timer, as well as with an ActiveHome macro, but we’re going to use the macro just to give you some practice at working with them. So for this How2 you will need an ActiveHome Lamp Module, and the ActiveHome software which you can retrieve from the X10 website.

To start off, let’s just say that the garbage man comes on Friday morning. That means you should have the garbage out to the curb by Thursday evening. So let’s set a macro that will turn on a lamp in the kitchen to remind you that the garbage needs to go out to the curb.

1. Step one is to set up your lamp module to your ActiveHome system and plug it into your computer. Set the Lamp Module at L1.
2. Now it’s time to set the macro.
3. To set the macro, the first thing you need to do is run the ActiveHome software from your computer.
4. From there, click on the "M" (macro) button on the far right side of the interface. This will bring up a separate box with options for creating macros. The interface will give you a list of the various appliances that you’re running through your computer.
5. Click on the icon that says "My appliance" on the right hand side of your screen.
6. Drag that icon to the left side of your screen. When you do this, you will see a dialog box that will ask you "What type of macro do you want to create?"
7. Tell it that you wish to create a standard macro.
8. Now go back to the standard ActiveHome interface.
9. There you will see a list of the macros you just created.
10. Click on the empty black box below "My appliance." This will bring up your timer settings.
11. From there, make your choices. You probably get home between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm, so let’s set the lamp to go on at 6:30. That way you won’t have gotten too comfortable only to realize you’ve got to get up again, get your shoes back on, and haul the trash cans up to the curb. To do this, either drag the green arrow above the "time" bar until you see 6:30 in the black box to your right, or just type in 6:30. Be sure and make sure you’ve AM and PM set as well.
12. Underneath that, set the day. In this case, we’re using Thursday.
13. Underneath that, in the "Options" section, click on "Specific Dates."
14. From there, set the dates that you want this macro to run. You can run it January through February, or January through December, or just for a couple of weeks. It’s entirely up to you. (Just a reminder, green is the start date, and red is the end date.)
15. Now click "Okay."
16. From there, you will be asked if you want to save changes to the macro. Just say, "Yes."

And there you go. You have a macro that will turn on a lamp to remind you to take out the garbage. This is just a basic macro, and there are many more things you can do with them, getting as complicated, or keeping it as easy as you want.

We’d like to reiterate that you can just as easily use timers for this exercise, but in case you want to make your calendars more complete, and start including more and more of your schedule, you’ll find that this is a great way to start.

Who knows, this may become so much fun, you’ll give up on that bulky day-planner you’re constantly hauling around. After all, with a calendar you have to carry it with you wherever you go to actually be able to read it. With ActiveHome macros, they’ll let you know in a way that’s right there, and in a way that you can’t ignore.

Now if you want, you can set up a motion sensor near the garbage, so that when you move the garbage out of the house, the motion sensor senses the motion, and turns off the lamp for you. For that we will need to create another macro. This macro will work like this.

So to set up that macro, we will basically follow the same rules we followed before.

1. So what we need to do is set up a motion sensor and set it so it corresponds with your lamp module. Let’s set it up to H1.
2. Now go into your ActiveHome program.
3. Click on the "M" at the far left hand side of your screen.
4. Go up to "Macro" on the tool bar, and click on "Fast Macro."
5. Click in the upper black field and type H1.
6. Now click in the lower black field and type the name of your macro. In this case, we’ll call it "Garbage Out."
7. Slide "My Lamp" on the right field of your screen into the left field of your screen so that a box is created around both "My Lamp," and "Garbage Out."
8. In "My Lamp," where you see the 100% sign, click on that so it’s set at zero.

When you take out the garbage, the motion sensor will send a signal to ActiveHome telling it to turn off the lamp. You’re all set.

Featured Articles - Listing of Recent Postings
August 30 - Cameras Catch the Car Vandals
July 23 - Remote-control Units Help Country's Biggest Student Film Festival
July 2 - The X10 Mechanic
April 19 - FloodCams Catch the Vandals

Customer Stories - Index