Recent content by tanstaaf1

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?page=7589&head=0 Read/Write speed varies widely between cards, per this review, and it can have a major impact on your camera performance. Lexar Professional 133X and Kingston Ultimate 100X appear best. Value, however, is another criteria, which may...

pdf of Mears "Solar Heated Home Using an Attached Greenhouse & Woodburning Stove" This is an 11 page paper of an actual system designed and implemented by Prof. David Mears, Agricultural Engineer, Rutgers University. It was retrofit to a Civil War era house in New Jersey at minimal cost in...

Thanks. That is as good as I could have hoped for; as long as I don't attempt to run the bulbs dimmed, and I won't, I should be okay.... And I will look around for the dimmable CFls.

I accidently installed an insteon dimmer switch on a chandelier w/ compact flourescents. I notice it still works, although the bulbs flutter a bit when getting going. What are the consequences? Should I expect the CFs to have dramatically shortened lives, or is this hard on the switch, or...

Thanks for the heads up. I think I just found a lower price, after free shipping and no tax, from a better rated vendor, B&H photo. Here's a pricegrabber comparison factoring in my zip code I ALSO noticed the $50 "Tivo users" harmony rebate and printed it out from here. I don't know if the...

A lot has happened to advance Insteon even since last Fall. Icon came out somewhere in the Fall, I believe, lowering the price threshold for a really high quality switch to $19.95 (or less on sale). In January, Insteon was being criticized for possible quality issues and lack of adequate...

Are there any other important differences between WIRED motion detectors for an alarm system that I should be aware of? I would imagine that some sensors have higher resolution, more more distance, wider angel, etc., yes? Since I will apparently be free to pick from any manufacturer of wired...

One other question: if I buy HARDWIRED motion detectors from now on am I going to have a similar problem of sensors only working with proprietary alarm panels? I would think not - I would think the signal would be simple like a door switch with the address resolved by the home-run signal line...

jeffx, Do you know if my existing wireless motion sensors (ademco 5890) will work with the panel? Did you convert from a lower model and were you able to keep most of your peripherals? The whole point of going to this trouble is to keep my existing investment in peripherals; if I was going...

Thanks Jeffx! I couldn't find out about this from either the ADT rep or the ADEMCO wholesaler ADI; I have a Vista 30, so at least it is in the same line! Now I can go back to ADT and see if they can get this and if it will support my ADEMCO sensors (let's hope so, but things haven't been going...

If I had some antlers right now, I'd probably want to gore ademco aka Honeywell. I called Honeywell up to ask if they had either a different security panel or a bridge of some sort that would open up their sensor information to me. After travelling their phone tree and selecting "homeowner" I...

Thanks. I had recently gotten the same sad news from a conversation with Brad at Elk. I guess ADEMCO is acting "proprietary" even though, in this case, they apparently don't even have a competing usable panel. Does anyone know if ADEMCO has a panel which will at least share information out...

I've previously invested a lot of money in an ADT panel and, mostly, the wireless sensors: especially the wireless motion sensors. The wireless motion are ADEMCO model 5890. Does anyone know if they can be used with an Elk M1 Gold or even a Caddx NX8e? I expect to be buying AT LEAST one new...

Thanks for clarifying that! Now I KNOW your company is not one I would want to touch with a ten foot pole. Declining to extend a discount is one thing, and your perogative, threatening to sue someone for speaking their dissatisfaction means, imo, that you aren't very high quality human being...

Engadget: How to Turn Your Mac Mini into a Media Center Anyone using a Mac Mini as their media hub? I have been planning on buying a Window's Media Center computer, mainly because that was the only thing most people were seriously entertaining ;-), and I thought I'd rather go with accumulated...