LGR Oddware - X10 Home Automation

Here I have trouble figuring out networking for my old computers, and you're going around rigging up household lights to one. Now I'm curious if anything like this existed for Macs. Hmm...

Tanara Kuranov

This is one of the biggest reasons why I love LGR. I remember my dad telling me that these products existed, but I've never actually seen it. Never seemed worth it when I thought about how little I'd actually use it, but it's still really cool!

Purple Tentacle

This was awesome

QUiKSR20

This was so much fun! I laughed so hard at the responses from HAL. Reminds me of some good times with early voice recognition and the weird things it does or says haha

Sarah

Hi Clint! Love your show. I was wondering - I love the XBox controller for PC games, but my hands are big for it, and are aching as a result. Have you run across any good (or strange) ergonomic PC game controllers? Thanks!

Sean

It's ace to see that the core tech is still around after all this time. I wasn't too sure about HAL, but when it started getting things hilariously wrong (and to which you cracked up utterly), well, I guess I can see just why you would go down the path with it. Another great vid as always! :D

Rob Caporetto

Also, the origins of the microprocessor would make for an interesting topic for a video; for you as well as for us as it involves old calculators! I've certainly heard before of the designing of chips here in the UK which were then produced in the US so there's always been collaboration between the two countries in that field.

MagikGimp

Turns out HAL2000 was never killed off and the company (and website) are still going strong (?) 23 years later. You could totally rig up your entire place via your Windows 10 rig for a follow up vid! ;D

MagikGimp

Cool, gotta show my friends this one! As far as the light blinking while off: that's common for using modern LEDs with older outlet and receptacles. Older outlets aren't as efficient with turning the power off, so there may be some power bleed in them. This was always too low for older incandescent bulbs and costs a few pennies a year extra on average, so nobody cared about it; but LEDs now have a low enough power threshold to be triggered by the effect. I have an older house, myself, so several older lights do the blinking thing with LEDs. In fact, one of my bathrooms has a middle bulb that glows dimly while "off" because of this, providing a nice soft night light for midnight trips!

That was the first thing i remembered when watching the video!

Michael Vokabre

Wow, it looks like one bad mother! Better watch your back. Next thing she's taking over your house !

Jos van Doesburg

What is this beast?!! So massive ahaha :D

floverSaeu09

I was waiting for Hal to say, "Would you like to play a game?" That was amazing and I was laughing so hard.

Justin Dotson

This is really cool. One suggestion before you publish. Put a flashing light warning on the video. My wife suffers from sesures, and has had them triggered by flashing lights before. Just a thought.

Vaggumon

"Ancient DRM can suck it!" XD

TrueFool

This is the first piece of Oddware that I've genuinely wanted to buy. There'd be something incredibly bizarre yet completely awesome about rigging up my entire house to run off a DOS.

Hey, I'm from Glenrothes in Scotland! Thats mental!

Cool vid, the LED likely was a non-dimmable model. The new ones are an 80/20 split between those that can and cannot, the flashing is a byproduct of trying to dim one that doesn't.

Leif

Wow. This really takes me back. Your glee at the light coming on from issuing commands on your computer reminds me of me in 1988 (I immediately recognized the user-port connector on your unit; I started out with this stuff on my Commodore 64). I still have some X10 things controlling a few of the lights in my house using a serial interface (CM11A) connected to a RaspberryPi running heyu (<a href="http://www.heyu.org/)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.heyu.org/)</a> and an Apache/PHP server using iUI (<a href="http://www.iui-js.org/)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.iui-js.org/)</a> to drive the scripts into heyu. That way, I can drive the X10-connected lights with my iPhone: <a href="https://i.imgur.com/bJaYhUn.png" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/bJaYhUn.png</a> As shown, I have several scene modes, I have a page for the individual lamps, and can easily turn the lights on/off on a schedule - when I get up in the morning, the lights are already on, and I never come home to a dark house. Granted, the X10 gear is old and compared to things like Nest or Hue, really really crude. I had a similar experience with LED bulbs (even when they're marked as "dimmable"), so took to using the halogen incandescent replacements in my X10-controlled fixtures. The X10 power-line protocol doesn't always play nice with modern (split-phase) wiring, but within limits, it actually works really well. X10's one of my favourite bits of Oddware, and this is great video. I had a really good laugh with you at the behaviour of the voice-recognition package. Good times. Thanks, man!

Ken Klavonic

Would love to set up that DOS version some day, question is, did it came to Germany? And i think that turntable wants a rendezvous with Techmoan. ;)

BastetFurry

Why four art thou manuals lol

Gary Leigh

Unity Home automation post on imgur: <a href="https://imgur.com/gallery/Jb6jW" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/gallery/Jb6jW</a>

Drengus

-Computer, kill Flanders -I have opened the Rolodex

LJFox

I had the exact same thought about the Daft Punk thing right before you said it! ;D

Kris Asick

Coolest thing I've seen this year.

Nostalgia Nerd

This is probably my favorite episode you’ve done. I live for home automation, and I was under the perception that home automation in the 80’s and 90’s was a prohibitively costly affair. I guess we’re not living as far in the future as we thought.

Ian Larrea

That's so cool, and 70's? damn..

Where did you buy that second lamp?

Desmo

The DVD drive is opened

Ruben Koet’s kid

This is amazing!

Ruben Koet’s kid

DOS makes all things better.

LGR

Yeah I looked that up a few places to make sure :)

LGR

Yeah I could definitely take this further, and I'd like to if I get the modules that support higher wattage devices! Like, it'd be awesome to hook up my sound system with that retro timer clock I have, and combine it with The Clapper.

LGR

Kompressor - We Must Destroy X10 <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/19Hd9SlxON26bZ77XDw8rb" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://open.spotify.com/track/19Hd9SlxON26bZ77XDw8rb</a>

Kenny Ketner

Oh man, this came from the derelict factory in an industrial estate in my home town?! Wow!! Kudos Clint on the pronunciation of Glenrothes - it may look simple to say but many people say Glenroths - missing the e completely.

Kevin Clarkson

Coolest thing ever :D

Alyxx the Rat

The X-10 for the IBM PC has to be my favorite. I love the idea of home automation with retro computers like that, especially. You should totally try going a step further, such as automating your audio equipment with this. Haha

ReeseRiverson

Hahahahaha. PMSL

Ant Field

Tempting ;)

LGR

We are buddies now. Me, Hal, and DESKLAMP

LGR

Yeah, I actually don't own it or any of the other modern alternatives, but if it had a silly retro robot voice option I'd totally use it

LGR

Haha, thanks for the info!

LGR

Yo LGR! Dimming LEDs is my forever nightmare, so I had a pretty good laugh when your lamp started flashing. The company I work for makes theatrical dimmers and I get a lot of calls of "Hey we switched out our house lights to LEDs and now they just flash all the time, what do we do?" Turns out that there are a million different ways to manufacture dimmable LED bulbs, and often the capacitive effect the LEDs have on the circuit causes the dimmer to "misfire" randomly even when the dimmer is off, causing the flicker you saw in your first test. Sometimes even having a second lamp on the circuit with an incandescent bulb can fix the issues with the LEDs. This video is particularly fascinating because we do a lot of lighting automation control and it's wild seeing something so early.

Ezra Knickelbine

Speech recognition from the 90s? You know it's gonna be great!

I wonder if there's a means to change Google assist's voice to make it sound like HAL.

Ian Guebert

Use PWD (Pulse-width modulation) to conrolled intensity of light and have several differente intensity. Very cool !! Great video !! I love 80's and 90's oddware !

DOS-based home control is super, super rad.

J.R. Williams

You could do a whole video arguing with Hal2000 that was priceless!

JF Caron

Thats cool, I live in the next town 5 minutes from Glenrothes, Scotland!

Jamie Cruickshank

We had those buttons all over our house. By the way, thank HAL for the laugh. You guys should form a Duo

And the more insidious pop-UNDER ads. Ugh.

LGR

just seeing the title of this video gave me flashbacks of X10 pop-up ads :o

Peter Metzger