Watch Remote

 

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Do you want X-10 Control from your wrist?

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Here are two products that can give you unprecedented control of your home automation system.

The Casio CMD-40B wrist watch is not only capable of operating most standard TV's out of the box, but also has a learning capability.  Using this learning capability you can "teach" this watch I.R. commands to send X-10 signals from a IR-543 Infra Red Command Center.  

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When used in conjunction with HAL 2000 this opens up a whole host of capabilities.  In HAL 2000 you can define any X-10 command as a "Sensor".  Then you can use this sensor in any rule or macro in HAL.  For example, you can press two buttons on the watch and have HAL fire off several different actions like:

bulletAnnounce, "I will get the house ready for a movie."
bulletDim the lights.
bulletTurn on the TV.
bulletTurn on the surround Receiver.
bulletTurn on the DVD player.
bulletAnnounce, "Place the DVD in the tray. I will start the movie in 30 seconds."
bulletOpen the DVD tray.
bulletDelayed action(30 seconds): Close DVD Tray.
bulletDelayed action (31 seconds): Play on the DVD player.
bulletDelayed action (32 seconds): Announce, "Enjoy the movie."

This can come in handy if you do not have a open air microphone network or are in an environment where you cannot easily talk to HAL.

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Watch prices range from $149.00 to $49.00 so be sure to shop around.  I found it on sale at Yahoo! for a great price.  

The IR-543 command center can be purchased from Radio Shack Online for about $39.95 from Smarthome for about $29.95 or Worthington Distribution for $19.95.

This watch can also provide hours of entertainment.  I preset it to control all Sony televisions.  When I was at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas recently, I walked the floor and powered OFF more Sony TV's than you can shake a stick at.  (Hee Hee)  You can go to Circuit City and secretly power off the televisions while the sales person give their presentation.

Important Note: In order to teach the watch the commands that will be recognized by the IR-543 command center you will need to have a remote control that already knows these commands.  This 6 in 1 R.F. and I.R. remote comes pre-programmed with these commands.