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Whoops... can't forget the pic that explains everything. I guess longnecks didn't exist yet in 1982 :)

To be honest, I'm not exactly a fan of Romex. Let's just say I've nailed and drilled through Romex twice since high school. There won't be a third time if I can help it :) The conduit in question is already there... it's a 3/4" metal conduit cast into the second floor's suspended slab. Right...

I'm trying to create something resembling a formal wiring diagram for my bathroom so I'll be able to come up with a coherent shopping list for things like wire, boxes, etc... and have some future idea how it's all physically routed once the walls are covered up again and all I have to go by are...

I have an Elk M1. If the M1's own rules prove to be unable to handle the task, I have a Plan B: use an Atmel AVR microcontroller (probably a Mega48 or Mega16) with two UARTs to sit between the expensive UPB-Serial link and the M1G. If it sees incoming traffic from UART #1 (connected to the...

OK, the master bathroom has three switched loads: 1. The main light 2. The exhaust fan 3. The light over the shower Complicating things (and more or less forcing me to go with UPB, Insteon, or something similar) is the fact that the room has two doors, and I want the behavior of the fan to...

Well, actually, I guess double-taps and subsequent "on" taps will do the job I have in mind (toggling the state of the bathroom exhaust fan using the same switch as the light itself), so that specific problem is largely solved... but if you're in a mood to experiment, I certainly wouldn't mind...

Suppose I buy one of Simply Automated's switches, and configure it with a single half-height paddle occupying the top half, and two quarter-sized paddles occupying the lower half. Are their paddles lame and unergonomic like X10's paddle switches, where it's really just a spring-loaded...

OK, here's my wiring topology: M1G in kitchen, RS-485 bus connected to what was originally the house's 6-wire phone cable. Elk input expander connected to what used to be the living room's phone jack, with all downstairs sensors connected to it. There's a M1KP2 connected to the RS-485 bus...

> Can't you just use some Insteon dimmers, and create different scenes with them? Two problems, both dimmer-related: 1. The lights are all compact fluorescents. Dimmers are taboo with 99% of CF lights, and expensive & dysfunctional with the remaining 1%. 2. A/C fans don't like dimmers...

Does anybody make a bathroom fan + light controller that 1) Supports two switch locations (ie, 3-way) 2) Lets you use one switch/button to toggle the on/off state of the bathroom light, and intelligently changes the state of the exhaust fan to follow. For example: light and fan off: turns on...

Well, it looks like the matter is settled... Leviton "almond" double-Decora switches look bad surrounded by Pass & Seymour "Light Almond" wallplates. This morning, I bought a few switches of each brand, carefully (so I can return them) surrounded them with various permutations of wallplates, and...

Is there any cheap ("cheap" = < $50 or so) and easy ("easy" = "takes less than 4 hours to check 8 cables") to test the cables in a bundle of pulled cat5 for damage? I'm rapidly nearing the point where repairing or replacing a damaged cat5 cable I've buried in the wall or ceiling is going to be...

Just to clarify -- all the wallplates (switches AND wall outlets) are Pass & Seymour light almond "decorator" style unbreakable jumbo plates. The wall outlets are P&S light almond decorator-style, because there was no reason to do otherwise (same price as Leviton, perfect color match for...

I'm going to be using Pass & Seymour jumbo unbreakable Decora-style light-almond outlets and faceplates in my newly-remodeled living room. HOWEVER, I'm stuck with one of the switches, which needs to be a "double decora" style switch (two switches with the formfactor of a single decora paddle). I...

Up until about 4 days ago, I had my DLP TV on the "clean" side of a floor-to-ceiling plastic sheet, but noticed more drywall dust than I felt comfortable with collecting on the case, so I completely covered it with a plastic sheet taped down to the floor (not airtight, though). Last night, I...

Some progress pics, slightly before midnight on Friday night... Pic from stairs. Wiring 97% done. I'm finally starting to feel like I have the project under control again. Closeup of cable bundle. Yes, I really DID pull this fistful of cables through 2" holes in the ceiling :(

Well, I ended up compromising. I decided to return the AWG16 clear-insulation speaker wire I bought from Lowe's, and instead buy in-wall 16/4 to run to the potential future rear-channel speaker, and in-wall 14/2 to run to the left and right surrounds. On the overwhelming likelihood I go with a...

The title says it all... is AWG16 wire good enough to feed surround speakers approximately 40-60 wire-feet away from the amp? Or am I likely to really, REALLY regret not having spent roughly twice as much on AWG14 wire? Power-wise, let's just say the most the speaker at the other end will EVER...

Hmmm. Here's an idea I thought of for the left speaker... thoughts? 1. Cut a narrow vertical channel in the drywall from ~36" up to ceiling, stuff a speaker cable and cat5 cable into the channel, then drywall patch, texture, and paint over it. 2. leave about 2 feet of slack in the cable(s) up...

For anyone who's been following my living room redecoration/remodeling project, here's a pic of my living room at its worst low point... Wednesday morning, before I ripped off the upper drywall, biohazard barrier still in place: Here's my living room as of around 10pm Thursday... new power...