DJMJR HOME ARCHIVES Contact Info: Email AIM: djmjr13 AvantGo Channel Convert this page to Palm DOC format

Dorm Automation Weblog 2001-02-14 Yesterday I installed a SCSI adapter card and 2.1 GB SCSI drive (Seagate ST12550N) in the HA computer. It was a bear. The SCSI card was looking for IRQ's taken by my other devices, and I eventually had to remove the soundcard, force the SCSI adapter's IRQ, and then replace the sound card after everything was working. But all seems okay now, except for the decibel level of the new drive. Through a shipping messup, I also received a duplicate drive in the mail today. Upon alerting the seller, they simply told me to keep it. Now I just need to find space to put the extra full-height 3.5" drive... posted by David Miller 2/14/2001 07:16:11 PM 2001-02-09 I finally plugged the monitor cable directly into my main tower, meaning that my HA comp is strictly TV-out/VNC controlled now. The only problem I had is remembering to type in my boot password (the TV-out doesn't kick in till Windows loads). No more ghosts! posted by David Miller 2/9/2001 08:49:41 AM 2001-02-08 Last night I played around with the "play" command, and added a .wav file to a serial event. Pretty neat. Now whenever I turn certain lights on (only via an external controller at the moment... I'm working on it...) a .wav file plays some music. posted by David Miller 2/8/2001 09:00:03 AM 2001-02-06 Yesterday in the mail I got my Hawkeye Motion Detector from X-10. So far, I'm fairly pleased with it. I set up a script so now a light turns on whenever the door is opened (if it's not sleeping time), and turns off after 2 minutes I neither Ben or I has pressed our "home" button. The only problem I have with the motion detector is that it automatically sends signals for dawn and dusk on the unit code above the one set for motion detection, and there's not way to turn it off. So each unit effectively uses up two unit codes. Grr. Unless perhaps I were to tape over the photocell... we'll see about that. I am successfully running MisterHouse via the television output (with MouseRemote) and VNC. I haven't yet disconnected the monitor, and my only fear is that I may have problems booting without it. Perhaps I can find a dummy load somewhere... posted by David Miller 2/6/2001 11:06:08 AM 2001-02-01 I decided to try a change in my overall keyboard, mouse, and video setup. The ghosting on my monitor from the shoddy VGA cables I got is starting to get to me. And, since I thought it would be cool to be able to use MisterHouse on the TV, I decided to take advantage of the TV Out on my Matrox Mystique 220. After much battling with different versions of the drivers, I finally got it working. Unfortunately, there is some of the screen that is out of view, and I can't figure out what to do about it. Although there is a "Fit to TV" option which makes everything visible, the mouse still operates on the non-fit screen, so you have to click way off a button to get it to work. Grrr. I also discovered that by running in B&W mode, I can make the TV image WAY clearer. It's much easier to read. No other major modifications at the moment. Voice recognition seems to be working okay, but so far I only have a headset hooked up. In a couple of weeks I should have some sort of VR setup rigged up... posted by David Miller 2/1/2001 06:33:58 PM View the archives of this log HERE