and now I know why!
Tried to network my XBMC yesterday with the powerline mains ethernet network adapters I have, but no joy, even though it was all on the same ringmain. And now I know why! Reading Homeplugs FAQ1 they say:
What stops HomePlug from working?
Avoid surge protected / Filtered mains extension blocks as these block the HomePlug signal. Long extension leads will degrade the signal so it is best practice to plug the HomePlug directly into a wall socket
AND I have plugged everything in to a surge protecting six way power bar, hidden away in the cupboard along with all my other death trap rats nest wiring to keep it out of site. Time to try a different power source for that one then...
Looking for the modern equivalent of X10 home automation2, everyone says X10 is well old and all the example devices I've seen on sites like keene.co.uk3 do seem clunky and outdated. So what's the new standard? Some people say Homeplug (which is what led me to mistakenly to homeplugs.co.uk4 when I was really after homeplug.org5) but I'm not finding exactly what I want... What I'm after is some plug and play devices to start automating the home, which I can add to with more complicated things as I progress... X10 may be way out of date, but I could at least buy a starter pack of controllable sockets and something to connect to the computer, so I could then control all of those sockets from the computer. Homeplug seems to just be a standard for ethernet over the mains electrics, so then everything that you plug in has to be as expensive and complex as a computer in order to do anything. I'm probably wrong here though...
When I find the new solution it's going to replace my remote light switch that I am still very pleased with indeed. Actually dimming the lights using the remote control doesn't seem to work so well, but the simple fact of pressing a button an old remote control I found in the drawer and the lights going on / off feels like magic.
I can't help feeling this is not going to help my carbon footprint though. Unless I can get really smart and have some low energy device turning off all the unneccessary energy wasters.
xbmc: XBox Media Centre, some code that would run on an old xbox or other computer hardware to play movies + music etc. I used to talk about this a lot...
Paul Clarke's blog - I live in A small town. Wed to Clare and dad to two, I'm a full stack web developr, + I do javascript / Node, some ruby, other languages etc. I like pubs, parkrun, restaurants, home automation + other diy stuff, history, tree stuff, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.