Recent content by euphline

I installed one of Outdoor Speaker Depot's outdoor stereo in-ceiling speakers in both bathrooms of my last house. They worked great; we had no issues with them in two plus years.

You could also consider a deadbolt rising -up- through the floor in the track where the door opens, or mounted in a similar location aimed down. Similar to a foot operated lock. There are also some electric strikes that are designed to work with a "hook bolt", which might work with the standard...

Perhaps I'm just feeling like a contrarian tonight. :ph34r: But ... really? _The_ code? I live in Chicago. _The_ code for us requires 110V to be in conduit (no Romex) and water to be in copper (no PVC on the pressure side). My point? There's not just one code. Would you like to clarify of...

To quantify "lots" and "ton": The linked lock utilizes 6-9 watts DC. Assuming a wall-wart with 50% efficiency, we're at 18 watts. I believe that's 157 kWh annually. At $0.16 / kWh, we have an annual cost of $25. Would the door frame itself actually hold long enough for the lock to fail...

In my (reasonably regular) calling around to find someone to monitor my Elk over IP, I spoke with one fellow who indicated that many central stations are getting rid of their OH-2000E's due to the GE acquisition and changes in GE's support of the devices. I currently have a lead on someone who...

I see the lack of a "wireless backhaul" in the databus to be a technology gap that should (at some point) be filled. In the meantime, I will probably run new conduit out to the garage. The inability to have a keypad in an outbuilding is meaningful, when one fills it with sensors. If I were to...

I have an M1G in the house. Currently entirely hardwired. Of course, wireless would be handy, but I'm generally not a huge fan of wireless. That said, it would be nice to extend the reach of my system out to my detached garage. (About 100 feet from the house). Is there any way to deploy a...

Hadn't ever thought of "automating" the process. That does sound like a cool idea! Thanks for the help. -jbn PS: One reason not to do this by dialing a code is that at the moment there are no phones (nor jacks, for that matter) connected to that line!

I've got a phone line I want to take out of service. The line has busy/no answer forwarding on it from Verizon. I'd like to activate the forwarding for a few days... I figure if I short it at the NID or something that this will happen... Would just shorting it do this? Would it hurt...

Doing this by HTTP would be consistent with how many IVR applications work. -jbn

By code, you shouldn't be able to close the door without having line of sight to it. (A camera is of course acceptable). That said, if you're going to do so, then you should consider an announcement when closing the door(s) to warn anyone in the way... just in case. -jbn

For my runs of 40-60 feet, I'm quite happy with AWG 16. -jbn

My gray tabby, Eli, and orange tabby, Simon, seem to think they are entitled to fresh water in the bathtub on demand. While I may not agree, they are pretty good at turning over any water dish, or at least making a pretty big mess. The bathtub turns out to be a pretty good place to deliver...

I've been wanting to learn more about owfs, so I figured this was as good an excuse as any. I found this PDF that repeatedly makes the assertion that it works. That said, it doesn't really say how. What it does do, as does the overview on the OWFS sourceforge site, is indicate that owfs is no...

Video is entirely IP, served up by MythTV. I am considering some CCTV - I'll expect to do IP cameras w/ POE. -jbn