Its about time I documented some of the stuff we've done to setup our home theater and automation. Better late than never :-).....

Home Theatre Personal Computer (HTPC)

The heart of our Home Automation/Home Theater is our HTPC. It lives in the basement behind the wall of the theater room. This means we have to go into the utility room to insert a DVD but the bonus is that the wall is soundproofed so we don't hear any noise at all from the HTPC. It was built the summer of 2004 and is spec'ed out as follows:

• Pentium 4 2.8C
• Asus P4C800-E Motherboard
• 512MB Corsair RAM
• ATI Radeon 9700XT Videocard with VGA, DVI, composite and S-Video out, S-Video and Composite In
• 2 Big hard drives
• LavaPort PCI Serial card for 2 extra serial ports
• Hawking Soft56K Data/Fax/Voice modem for caller ID
• LiteOn DVD R/W SOHW-812S, FW updated for dual layer etc.

The DVI and VGA outputs of the video card connect up to our Sony HS-51 LCD Projector. This allows us to use the huge PJ screen as a computer monitor to surf the web, do work, watch TV and DVD's and play games. The desktop is set as 1280x720 to give a 1 to 1 pixel mapping with the PJ's LCD panel.

The serial ports are used as follows:

• COM1 - connects to the CM11A X10 power line interface.
• COM2 - connects to the MR26A X10 RF interface.
• COM3 - internal port used for the PCI modem.
• COM4 - connects to the HACS AB8SS to control the speaker zones throughout the house.
• COM5 - connects to the Nirvis Slink-e for controlling the Stereo components via IR or Sony S-Link.

Years ago I purchased a great piece of software called Homeseer and its plugin Homeseer Phone. With this package I am able to control various X10 devices around the house as well as obtain caller-id information for incoming calls. Some of the other uses of Homeseer include:

• Receiving RF X10 signals from the MR26 and sending them off for processing by my RF Remote VB Script.
• Sending/Receiving X10 signals over the home's power lines to control various lights and power outlets.
• Turning on the stereo and activating the speakers in the master bedroom for our alarm clock.
• Forwarding Caller ID information to all PC's throughout the house using a VB script that calls YAC, as well as emailing us both the call information.
• Automatically turning the Christmas lights on and off based on sunset/sunrise time and light/dark detectors.
• Controlling Helen's grow lights for her seeds in the spring.
• Turning on our block heaters 2 hours before we get up based on garage temperature.
• Turn on the coffee pot in the morning.
• Send me an email on game days whenever Liverpool or the Toronto Maple Leafs are playing by parsing the team schedules from their websites.
• Turning speakers on or off throughout the house using RF remotes, AutoIt scripts and the serial interface to the AB8SS speaker controller.
• Getting the weather from Environment Canada's website every 15 minutes and parsing out to be spoken and displayed on the HTPC's web page using a Canada Weather VB script I wrote years ago.
• Gather temperature information from a set of 1-Wire temperature sensors throughout the house using the mcsXap, mcs1wire and mcsXapHub plug-ins.

Audio Distribution

HACS AB8SS

TBD

1-Wire Network

Temperatur sensors

TBD

Remote Control I/R and X10

How to build an RF antenna for your MR26A

Here's some info on how I use xbox360 wireless controllers to remote control our HTPC throughout the house.

Projector Installation

Dealing With Light Control in a Walkout Basement

Since I've been running a projector in the basement one of my To Do's has been to come up with a cheap solution to light control. Since its a walkout, the basement is very bright. This means when watching stuff during the day, the picture can be washed out by the ambient light coming through the windows.

I immediately installed roller blackout blinds from home depot on the windows and a blackout drape from Ikea on the patio doors.. These made a huge improvement and we were then able to watch the projector during the daytime with the blinds down. However, it still wasn't ideal as there was still quite a bit of ambient light coming around the top, bottom and sides of the blinds. I started looking for some U-channel aluminum to make a track that the the blinds would slide down/up along the sides and into along the bottom. Needless to say this appeared to be an expensive solution and I was having trouble locating some that would work well. Then one day while I was shopping at Home Depot for something else I came accross some perfect plastic U-channel. It was easier to work with than the aluminum and way cheaper. I cut it to length for each window's sides and bottom and attached the lengths using white silicone to make sure no light leakage occurred. Also, using the silicone means that it could all be removed with no lasting damage. This made another huge difference to daytime viewing.

All that remained was to take care of the light coming in from above the blinds. Enter my mum. She's always been a wizard with the sewing machine. I explained what I wanted to do and she whipped up some cloth valences that had some old plastic vertical blind strips (about 4" wide) sewn into a pocket to give them form along the top edge. This made them easy to attach to the inside top edge of the window frame just by using staples. Thanks mum!!

With the blinds down, resting inside the plastic channel and with the new valences on the top, there is zero light leakage happening. Once the last blind goes down, the basement becomes a cave and you start adjusting kneecaps and stubbing toes as you try to find your bearings. Needless to say this is exactly what I was shooting for. When the blinds are all up, the basement is as bright as our main floor and the windows look great.

So if you have a projector and have a problem with light pollution during daytime viewing you may want to look into this cheap solution.