syonker
Senior Member
Joined: March 06 2009
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 212
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| Posted: November 02 2010 at 10:22 | IP Logged
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Ok, as some of you old-timers know (I'm talking to you Pete and Lee), I've been working on my PH/Insteon world lately (Hey, I have some extra time on my hands).
I have an idea, but don't really know *why* I might do this other than it might be fun. Let me know what you think and whether this is a complete waste of time or not.
1) We have a "Roomba Discovery" vacuum. This "robot" can be scheduled to go out via its own scheduler (which is subject to batteries, power outages, etc.). It can also be hit with an IR remote and told to go out "now". When the batteries are low, it "seeks out" and homes to its charging station automatically and plops itself down with pretty good accuracy.
2) We have a child who naps between roughly 12:00 and 4:00.
3) I was considering using an Insteon I/R device, mounted over the vacuum's charging station, and programming it for the "go out and vacuum" command.
4) I was considering putting a "strike" on the vacuum, and the other side on the docking station so that PH could know when it went out, and got back and whether it came back or not (it might not make it back if it gets stuck or throws an error).
5) It might be fun to use the motion sensors to determine if anyone is around before letting the vacuum out (obviously disabling this function while the vacuum itself was out).
6) It might be fun to send myself an e-mail with an error message if it doesn't return within an hour or so.
While this sounds nice hypothetically, I'm not sure that:
1) If it is useful.
2) That the strikes would work well - it docks reasonably well, but not always *exactly* in the same place (off by potentially 1/8 inch or so).
I think for now this will remain a "hypothetical project", but it might make for an interesting discussion of some of the projects that people have conceived of, and/or executed on.
So that said, what do you think and/or what have you done that is a little "out there" using PH and Insteon...?
-S
Edited by syonker - November 02 2010 at 10:24
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"I will consider myself having succeeded when my house becomes sentient and attempts to kill me."
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Topic: Insteon Vacuum or Other Weird Projects?
