Installation Experiences

Reveal Time Machine Disks Hidden by Lion Server

2011-10-30T17:57:00.000-04:00

Apple Mac OS X Lion Server 10.7.2 hides Time Machine volumes when it is installed. Lion Server limits the number of volumes for client Time Machine backups to one. We prefer to have a Time Machine volume for each client that uses server attached Time Machine disks.There is a work around. Execute the following, replacing clientTM with the share name of your disk. sudo defaults write /private/

Weighted Water Leak Detector Sensor

2011-01-30T15:01:00.018-05:00

The SimpleHomeNet EZSnsLQD - Surface Mount Liquid Sensor tips over if it is not anchored to something. Attaching it to a piece of PVC 1/4 round and adding some sinkers for weights, makes an attractive water sensor that can be moved around as needed. Water Gremlin 1/2 oz sinkers were inserted into the drilled out 3" long 1/4 round. The tip of one sinker needs to be snipped off to make them

Clothes Dryer Remote Status with Pressure Switch

2011-01-30T14:28:00.008-05:00

The old clothes dyer status method went out when the new washer and dryer were delivered. Rather than open and modify a brand new clothes dryer, a pressure switch was installed on the dryer exhaust duct. The pressure switch dry contacts can be wired to an INSTEON IO Linc, TriggerLinc, EZIO or many other input devices. A FanTech FPS-10 pressure switch was used. Fantech makes the switch as

Panasonic BL-C210A Network Camera and Mac OS X

2011-01-05T20:25:00.022-05:00

The Panasonic BL-C210A is nice. However, there are several problems when using the it with an Apple computer running Mac OS XThe Panasonic firmware updates are packaged in an *.exe file. It has to be run to expand into a *.bin file. The audio does not work with Safari. It involves Java which does not work in Safari. The downloaded buffered images are in a proprietary Panasonic PNC file. The

Samsung SDE-120 Security Camera DVR System

2010-12-06T10:40:00.010-05:00

A Samsung SDE-120 Security Camera with DVR System with four cameras was installed. The unit has performed as advertised and is a good system for home installation. The system has several nice features. There is a single cable to each camera. It provides power and receives video. The Samsung system also is built with about an 18" pigtail at the camera so the actual connector can be stowed out

Google Calendar Sync Settings for iPhone

2010-10-13T07:20:00.003-04:00

This is an an important link if you want to sync Google Calendars to an iPhone. The page offers selection of calendars to sync to the iPhone. The Google support page has the details.

iPhoto JPEG Metadata Manipulation

2010-10-03T15:41:00.006-04:00

Here is some information about the Title and Description fields in Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard iPhoto '09. The information was collected to help in sharing photos with non-Mac users. When exporting from iPhoto with "Title and Keywords" checked, iPhoto exports the XMP Title and Description tags and duplicates them in the IPTC ObjectName and Caption-Abstract fields. Mac OS X Preview shows

Enable Screen Sharing from Terminal

2010-09-08T16:23:00.002-04:00

Screen sharing can be remotely enabled in Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4 with the following command sudo sh -c "/bin/echo -n enabled > /private/etc/ScreenSharing.launchd"

INSTEON Garage Door Control with Interlock

2010-08-14T15:39:00.019-04:00

A SimpleHomeNet INSTEON EZIO8T is used with Perceptive Automation's Indigo home control software to monitor and control three garage doors and three lawn irrigation zones. A hard wired interlock is incorporated to prevent the INSTEON system from opening the garage doors. This was done to eliminate the chance of a home control error exposing the house and garage to an open door when no one is

Indigo, Venstar and INSTEON

2010-07-09T13:19:00.016-04:00

A collection of information about using a Venstar thermostat with INSTEON and Perceptive Automation's Indigo home automation software. Links SmartHome Venstar WiKi Advanced Thermostat Script Usage Monitor MRTG with Venstar Battery Backup Dictionary You can tell the thermostat to run in programmed mode (the program set up in the T1900) by using the following applescript: set hvac mode

Home Depot $19 LED Light Bulb

2010-05-22T14:53:00.003-04:00

The Home Depot $19 LED Light Bulb works with INSTEON LampLinc Dimmer modules. The light consumes 8 Watts and produces 429 Lumens. Its called to be a 40 Watt incandescent equivalent. The light dims from very dark to full brightness very smoothly. It is much better than any CFL that's been tried.

Adding Text to iPhoto Images and Photos

2010-05-09T08:00:00.002-04:00

Set Preview as the external editor in iPhoto and use the Annotate tool to add text and shapes to iPhoto jpeg files. Select Preview from the Edit photo: option in iPhoto General Preferences. This change will make Preview the primary editor for iPhoto. Change the setting back to In Main Window to leave Preview as the optional External Editor available by right clicking on a photo in iPhoto. An

Viewing iPhoto IPTC metadata on Windows XP

2010-05-08T16:42:00.002-04:00

Snow Leopard iPhoto puts image descriptions in two IPTC fields embedded in the jpeg files, the "title" field and the "caption/description" field. The "title" field is not viewable with Picassa, however, there is a free viewer called Irfanview that can view both fields as well as the GPS location data. Irfanview shows the data in their "object name" and "caption" field in the Image Information

Wireless with CentOS on Sony Vaio AR250G laptop

2010-05-03T08:41:00.006-04:00

Download Intel 3945ABG firmware from Intel's Micro Code page. As of July 23, 2010 with CentOS Linux version 2.6.18-194.8.1.el5, use micro code version 15.32.2.9. Copy to /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode. Be sure the file name has the -2, the file name is important. Refer to the Intel installation instructions. Configure WPA per this page.

Calculating Dew Point with RRDgraph RPN

2010-04-07T08:36:00.008-04:00

RRDgraph uses Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) for calculations. Obtaining dew point data from stored temperature and relative humidity is simple once the RPN is worked out. Below is the code for using stored Celcius data in the Closer Approximation formula found on the dew point Wiki page. where v0 equals Temperature in C v1 equals Relative Humidity in percent CDEF:aTRH0=17.271,v0,*,

WeatherSnoop with Indigo and Oregon Scientific RMS300

2010-04-07T08:22:00.010-04:00

WeatherSnoop integrates Oregon Scientific RMS300 Temperature and Humidity sensors into Perceptive Automation's Indigo home control system on a Mac running OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard. Previously VMware was required to run the Oregon Scientific native app to collect the data. WeatherSnoop eliminates the need for VMware. WeatherSnoop is a simple program that makes the sensor data available to

fontconfig fc-cache to Speed Up RRDgraph

2010-03-29T15:52:00.005-04:00

Use fc-cache -f -v to rebuild the font information cache files after a Mac OS X upgrade. This rebuilds the font cache files so RRDgraph can build its PNG files faster. It seems this is required after some Mac OS X upgrades such as to 10.6.3. The symptom is very very slow, at least 30 seconds to build one RRDgraph PNG file before the rebuild. If you are using rrdtool from macports, be sure to

UNIX time with AppleScript in Seconds

2010-02-04T14:23:00.005-05:00

The current time in seconds since the UNIX epoch is easy to obtain in AppleScript. Calculate the difference since the UNIX epoch of January 1, 1970 and adjust for the local GMT offset. The 1970 date format will have to be adjusted for the local machines format. (current date) - (date ("1/1/1970")) - (time to GMT) Here is a kludge to convert the real result to an integer string set nowSeconds to

INSTEON PowerLinc 2413U FTDI Driver Details

2010-01-14T07:47:00.003-05:00

Currently using version 2.2.14 of the FTDI driver for the INSTEON PowerLinc 2413U with Perceptive Automation's Indigo on Mac OS X. It was released 21-Oct-2009. It is located in /System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext/. It is available from FTDI Chip. Also available is an Installation Guide.

Positioning Network Camera via Indigo Home Control

2010-01-04T07:44:00.005-05:00

Panasonic Network cameras like the BL-C10A can be positioned to presets via http URLs. Currently cron is used to move them out of the sun on fixed times. Using Indigo would make the moves more flexible based on conditions such as sunrise and outside temperature. The old cameras tend to get stuck when its cold. Below is a test script that is embedded in the action pane of an Indigo Trigger.

Oregon Scientific WMR100, WMR200 and RMS300 USB Protocol

2009-11-25T19:15:00.005-05:00

Finally someone has published a detailed explanation of the Oregon Scientific USB weather station protocol used by the WMR-100, WMR-200, RMS-300 and others. Oregon Scientific does not share the information and is has been reverse engineered by a couple of people. Here are the definitions in German. Much easier to follow in English is the work of this guy. He also describes the WMR100N and

Clothes Dryer Status Indicator via INSTEON

2009-11-23T20:55:00.007-05:00

Remote clothes dryer status was implemented by interfacing the clothes dryer to an INSTEON SwitchLinc Relay with sense. Perceptive Automation's Indigo home control software is used to control a lamp indicating the dryer status and is used to send an email to the family when the dryer stops. Additional indication is a voice statement from an iMac computer near the home theater system.Several

Generac Generator Installation

2009-11-22T12:34:00.011-05:00

A 16kW Generac standby generator was installed on a new construction house. Relays were added to the Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) to monitor the status of the generator. The natural gas generator has provided reliable backup for utility power outages. Click the photo for pictures of the installation.A system diagram is here. A sample gas calculation was completed.

La CROSSE WS-2317 Rain Gauge Repair

2009-11-10T07:44:00.004-05:00

The rain gauge sensor on the La CROSSE WS-2317 stopped working reliably. The magnetic reed switch did not always respond when the sensor teeter tottered. The device is about eleven months old and still under warranty but its the customer's responsibility to ship the unit in for repair. La CROSSE also threatens to charge if there is no detected problem and with an intermittent sensor, its hard

INSTEON and Indigo Monitor Garage Door Status

2009-10-22T15:05:00.016-04:00

Seco-Larm SM-226LQ magnetic switches from SmartHome (Amazon part number B0013CQXO6) were added to three garage doors to monitor the door status. The switches were interfaced to an INSTEON IO Linc. Perceptive Automation's Indigo home automation software was used to monitor the doors and alert the home owner if any door is left open after 9PM. The alert is an voice reminder on an iMac and an