Shola's Home Gadgets

I've recently had to spend some time changing the configuration of my Misterhouse based home automation system since it had started behaving erratically.

The problem was with some of the hardware used in the system rather than the Misterhouse software itself which I have been running for about 3 years and have found to be very reliable.

The first hardware to fail was the wireless router that connected the Misterhouse Windows NT4 computer to the internet and the main home computer. This meant I could not remote connect to the Misterhouse computer and administer the system, though the system was still running albeit erratically, as I could not reset the state of some of the X10 hardware used in my home automation system.

The other item that failed was a TM13 X10 receiver which was switching off the unit connected to it at times when it was not supposed to. I haven't gotten to the root of that problem, so I've removed the electrical appliance connected to it for the time being.

Everything is back to normal now after decommissioning the NT4 computer and running the Misterhouse software on my XP computer.

I now have to budget for a new wireless router, and I would like to replace the NT4 computer with a new PC which would double as a media storage device for my DVDs and music CDs, but it looks like my home automation needs will have to take a back burner, as I'm going to be concentrating my efforts on my hang glidingfor the first half of this year.