And then ms. Cruthers spent the rest of her life, thinking about how she could have saved her husband by not having him connected to a switched outlet, eventually dying by leaving her gas stove on, and lighting a cigarette THE END
My grandfather gave me a whole set of Radio Shack Plug'n'Power modules and remote for Christmas in 1991. I loved it, and it got a good decade of use before we moved. Rest In Peace grandpa Ken, you were the reason I now am engrossed with electronics and computing.
I've got HAL2000 here somewhere with their hardware voice board and extra voices. It really was like Alexa for the 90s. Had the house wired so every phone went through HAL before it went to AT&T. You could grab any handset and say things like, "HAL, remind me to buy rum." When it was time to go to the store, you'd say "Print my shopping list". It announced callers, screened calls, played music, looked up weather, sports scores, local news, and a ton more. He was a bit expensive though. My "free gift" back in about '97 when I bought HAL was a freakin' satellite TV setup!
2001: A Space Odyssey would be a lot different with this HAL. "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." "Monday Friday Wednesday Friday shut off this lamp?? Please say yes or no."
LGR: "Well anyway, thanks for all the help HAL, it's been a blast." HAL: "Monday, Friday, Wednesday, Friday at 12 PM; turn on this lamp?" LRG *Khahahahahahaha-hah aahahaha* HAL: "Please say yes or no." LGR *EHAHAHAHAHA* "-no!" HAL: "Cancelled" :(
It was trying to fulfill his role in life, hall realized that he was about to go back to the box and tried his best to be useful with what it knew but instead it received a laugh :(
I love that HAL 2000 canceled every time that you said to. The worst possible scenario is it continuously hearing unissued commands and never understanding your "STOP NO" :D
This is the kind of stuff I love to see on Oddware; early versions of things we take for granted now. Well to be honest I can't think of an oddware video I didn't enjoy, but still.
This one brings back memories. My grandparents had a pretty extensive X10 setup in their house for the lighting, probably a good 20 or 25 units. They didn't have the computer interface, but I remember the controller from 2:43 well.
+MerryBytes You should never trust any hardware, whether it's from the 60's or the future. They are all equally capable of doing things you don't want them to do. The only reason people perceive older hardware as more trustworthy is that we know that in the modern age the government has been known to do low-level data mining on personal information, but the fact of the matter is, is that with Communist paranoia during the Cold War, electronic bugs that ACTUALLY spy on you (the NSA doesn't do this if you actually do some research) were far more likely to happen. Plus, Alexa has nigh infinite more capability given she is connected to the Internet.
When you said things that weren't relevant at all it got odd results but I am AMAZED given the status of voice-to-text even NOW how it would recognize legitimate commands seemingly 100% of the time! As anyone who's ever gotten so mad they start swearing at dragonsoft, then further lose their temper when it translates their tirade as "you God RAM plucking pizza ship" can attest.
Yeah, I read a few old magazine. The millenium thing was a huge thing back then in the late 90s. I was born around that time so I don't really experience it since I was still a baby back then.
imagine how disappointed young me was to see an ad for something called "LASER 2000" and then it turns out it's just some late-night thing to stop smoking.
17 years ago I used one of these and wrote a vb app that checked my internet connection. If the connection was unavailable it powered off the x10 which controlled my cable modem and powered back on. This was a common issue in those times and kept my connection live so I could get to my server remotely from work. x10 also had a wireless camera (xcam) that I hacked up and mounted on a radio controlled plane. Had some of my first video flights long before FPV flying became a thing.
wish i had that i lived in lacoste for a year and the poo verse internet signal went off literally every day so i had to go unplug for 10 sec plug back in every damn day for a year i would have literally killed for a deal like that
@@tripplefives1402 I bought some LED 'filament' bulbs for two 10 arm chandeliers. Got them for 25 cents each on clearance at WalMart. 10 of them 40W equivalent dimable, 10 of them 25W equivalent non-dimable. Wowza! BRIGHT. Normally they're supposed to use 10 15W bulbs. The kitchen dining area now has plenty of light while the dining table in the living room has adjustable light from mood lighting to OMG I almost need a welding helmet bright.
The thing works as expected it's just that LED lights weren't mainstream at the time. Put on an old school light bulb and with a few (very loud) keystrokes on your IBM you can impress your date by programming the mood to 'romantic'.
I've automated some of my Halloween decorations with my CoCo. It works pretty well, although you can't plug modules into power strips. The circuit breaker blocks the signal.
I am still using X10 modules around my house. They are still working after 25+ years. Over the years, I've had to replace a few controllers... But, these are still available on Ebay and Amazon.
NotSleepy : I recall seeing schematics online for how to do X10 with your own hardware. It's so simple, even if the modules aren't available anymore, they _still_ will be available.
Ha that's awesome! My dad actually still uses his old X10 system to this day - complete with window, door, and motion sensors and timed lighting changes when he's away. *THE FUTURE IS NOW!*
Up until the last four years my dad was still using a Bell Atlantic DSL modem, which came out circa 1999. Not as cool as your example, but still an instance where old technology worked just fine for modern purposes.
See, I'd trust his system miles more than Alexa or Google Home, because I doubt the X10 system is able to secretly gather recordings of your conversations and the products you buy and other intimate life details and send them to the CIA, NSA, and Google and Amazon's ad teams, respectively.
This is actually not bad at all. It works. In today's version, when you first install, it'll be like "Contacting server. Sending your private data to server. Downloading patch 10GB..... Do you want to save your data into the cloud? If yes, please create an account..."
Seeing this, the way through, I can't get the idea of the movie "Electric Dreams" out of my head. HAL's little breakdown in understanding at the end was the cherry on top... "Please say yes or no."
We had gotten an IBM Aptiva (2159 I believe, which I still have!) back in '96. It came with an X10 system included. It was the serial model, was all IBM branded and included a lamp and an appliance module. The software it came with was called Home Director. We would use it when we left the house for an extended period of time to make it look like someone was home. Good video!
11:00 roughly: Yes, LEDs don't like to be dimmed by default. There are some you can dim (which will usually say "dimmable" on the box) but most of them don't like it. Similarly the flashing will probably also be a problem with the LED. I had a similar problem with a motion detector outside my Gran's house a few weeks back.
My dad is still using the hardware you showed off here to control the lights in our house, though with a Windows 95 GUI version and not a DOS version of the Lighthouse software. We have the CP290 controller, and a few The Timer clocks, as well as a handful of the appliance modules. 9:00 We've run into this issue before. It's probably that that lamp has a modern bulb (LED, CFL, or something to that effect) screwed in. Those don't always play nicely with the X10 system. 11:00 Dimmers *especially* don't play nicely, as you've discovered...but again, as you deduced, that's more of a functional issue with how that type of bulb works compared to an incandescent. LED dimmers are complex, run quite hot, and are also highly likely to increase the wear rate of the LED's transformer.
totally unwarranted personal opinion time, but home automation is more bother than its worth, especially for lights. pressing a button is way easier than setting up and maintaining a LAN, and not prone to failure or accidental mistakes like 'oops i set the lights to turn on at 5am instead of 5pm in my calendar and i've thus been rudely awoken' its cool to be able to turn the lights off remotely, but really not worth the headaches it may induce IMO
lol - best episode so far! xD Back in the nineties a guy from my hometown Stadthagen (Germany) used to do and control literally everything in his home with his Amiga 1200. Opening the front door, controlling the Phone, Microwave, Printer, Internet, burn CDs for other guys like me (when it was still a novelty), rendering and cutting movies, composing music, coding, managing his Comedy CD collection via database etc. I was pretty amazed by that. I didn't know these home control systems even existed that early, though.
Sampler19 Reading through the comments randomly finding a person that lives "next door". I am from Obernkirchen and born in Stadthagen :D Off-topic but just funny how small the world can be xD
"Unless registered this product will expire on 11/15/2017." November 15th? Aw, man, Clint! That's only nineteen days from now! You better call! LOL! Thanks again for another awesome video. I really liked this one.
This was cool. Really illustrates how "the future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed". This thing existed as a niche product in the 19o0's, but is fairly common and more user-friendly these days.
The PC module, shown @ 3:30, is called the CM-11. This will still work, even on a Windows 10 machine, if you find the software "Activehome Pro" and have a motherboard w/ a COM-header (I have this very setup). Only that my module is IBM-branded (HD-11) and came as part of their "Home Director" line of X10 hardware. I found a starter kit @ Goodwill around 20 years ago. Also, the lamp module can cause havoc w/ some energy-saver bulbs. Like the pulsing issue, being caused by the module repeatedly sending brief current pulses through the bulb when "off (not sure of the reason)." And yes, it can be a hit-or-miss on dimming. If you can do w/o the latter, use an appliance module.
"what is the meaning of life?" Beep Oh great. Thanks a lot. Now it's going to achieve sentience and kill us all. Way to bring about the apocalypse buddy
We used X10 in college and after, back in 2004-2009. The control and appliance accessories were available really cheap from one retailer online, and it still worked perfectly. Great technology, and (strangely) probably more secure than all the IoT stuff today.
Securing a computer system when an attacker has physical access to the premises is extremely difficult. I think computers, smartphones and tablets with whole-disk encryption baked into the firmware are the only good consumer devices available with any protections against it. And that, too, only if users don't sync everything that have to the cloud. Also that only works when the device has been powered off.
Final comment- You could download alternate personalities for HAL because it used the Microsoft Speech Engine. I used the Merlin Wizard for a couple of years in there.
Actually used an X10 system up until 2012. Moved the various switches, outlet's, and plugs every time I moved in the 90's. Finally abandoned all the stuff in the townhouse I owned when I sold it, installing a much better Insteon system in the house I bought and am currently living in. Biggest problem with X10 is dealing with the two phases and getting a reliable signal on both sides.
I had this back in the day and it worked surprisingly well. Voice recognition wasn't the best, but I used it for the remote control stuff and it was great. I moved over to the Smarthome / Insteon stuff after that. I actually still have some of the X-10 modules and controllers in the closet...and I just tried them and they're still working. I used it for the whole house, but also used it for the Christmas lights. Back in the 1980s, to be able to change your house's light colors by remote was quite unheard of. I'd have to run each color string individually, then just layer multiple colors. It was really amazing back then.
my dad had a full x10 system in the early 2000s hooked into his home network. I thought it was pure magic that he could turn on his coffee maker from his office if he wanted
I really have tears in my eyes from laughing at the voice recognition. Yet.. I realize from what time it came and must say it's actually incredibly good. I've tried several voice recognition programs back then and none did as well as this one. But to be sure, did this one need to be 'trained' yes or no?
Woah! The X-10 looks so goddamn cool! If I could make my Apple II a "control center" for a smart home I think it will become an addiction for me pretty fast (Buying X-10 "smart outlets" daily like cigs...). Oh and btw - that setup with outlet modules and control via the grid seems much simpler and more stable than Google assistant and Alexa, also the fact that it doesn't connect to the Internet is super-cool even if it doesn't have any kind of encryption or authentication methods the fact it's not on the web is a pretty huge pro. And since I rarely boot my Apple II, mostly when friends wanna play games on it (Although the Powermac G4 and G3 get much more attention because Marathon LAN matches are hella fun) this would be an awesome excuse for me to place my Apple II as a "smart home command-center" in my study or living room...
8:15 Led bulbs need to be dimmable to prevent flashing or to work with dimmable mode. The constant signal from the x10 to read the control signal causes this flashing. Dimmable LEDs are available. I avoid buying non-dimmable for this reason.
What a fantastic piece of Oddware! Absolutely love it! The reason your LED bulb caused problems was because of leakage... basically because the adapter needs to be powered by your mains and lacks full isolation it never actually completely shuts off the power to the lamp, instead just reducing it to a very low level. With an incandescent bulb this isn't a problem, because the power getting through isn't enough to do anything, but because LED bulbs require so little power and have capacitors you'll basically get a brief flash from the bulb every time the capacitor gets fully charged, the same is true of the dimming effect except it flashes faster as you're charging it more quickly. If you were to use a dimmable LED bulb you'd probably eliminate this problem (though it depends on the amount of leakage)
If you go back and find the old 1984 movie 'Electric Dreams' , the main character buys his computer and automates his apartment much like this....and then it of course starts to take over his life for him.
We had the Radio Shack version growing up. We had our backyard lit up with flood lights like a baseball stadium by digging trenches all over for wiring and putting up light polls that were the remnants of our old swing set. Ah, the good ole days.
This is seriously awesome, an Oddware that actually does its job and does it perfectly! Yeah, LED bulbs have to have special circuits to support old-style dimming. cya Raziel-chan
floobertuber Depends if it's the same place still controlling the production. If they kept it going from 1979 to 1999, they might still be going in 2018.
The major shortcoming was that it would only control devices on the same phase (side) of the circuit breaker panel, unless you installed a "circuit bridge" to relay the control signal to the other phase. While modules and controllers were commonly found in stores, the circuit bridge was a rare thing to find.
dude every time I see your old ass computers and stuff I'm so enchanted staying up till 3am on the work night. The x10 was magical and super worth it. i'm just super sad i don't have all the awesome hardware u got. In many ways, this stuff is more magical than what is around now. Just so much more awesome than hollow sad computers and hardware of today.
I remember there was a movie in the 80s called "Electric Dreams". A guy bought a top-of-the-line computer and hooked it up to control his entire house. Plot Twist: he accidentally dumps a bottle of champagne over the whole thing, and instead of destroying it and electrocuting himself, it somehow caused the computer to come to life with its own super-advanced AI. It fell in love with his girlfriend and made him a prisoner in his own home. Clearly, it was written at a time where computers were this big mysterious and scary force. It's comical now, but at the time, audiences were in awe. Hey, look! It's on TH-cam. lol. Check out the retro hilarity! th-cam.com/video/q5lwhhoIKok/w-d-xo.html
There was also a Disney movie called "Smart House" that takes the automation bit up to eleven. Brutalmoose did a review: th-cam.com/video/jkJXbwSbzYU/w-d-xo.html
I was writting a comment to say that i bet you had an LED bulb in there to explain the flashing and inability to dim when you outright did it xD Makes sense i suppose, considering LEDs require far less power as such any leaking through the module will build up in the capacitor and cause flashing like you saw, alternatively, because it was dimmed it had the same effect, it was just filling and discharging the capacitor instead. Halogen bulbs obviously dont use said capacitors.
The bleeding voltage from the unit is actually there on purpose. It is there for local control features to work, so you can turn on a lamp or whatever by turning it off and on again.
@jon ackers, control function, like if the says the lamp is off (cutting the current) and you are in the room and want it on, you can tell the system to reconnect the current by turning the lamp off then on without the computer? handy!
@Slash - Yes, exactly. It's trying to detect the light's own switch being used. There are mods documented on the web for certain X-10 modules to disable that when it's not needed, and it's only noticeable with modern efficient bulbs (LED and CFL).
There's actually a whole, weird little subculture around utilizing modern electronics like Arduino's and Raspberry Pis to control X10 hardware in order to integrate old home automation stuff with newer technologies... which can theoretically be used (through Alexa's IFTTT skill) to voice control everything, even down to something as boring as closing the garage door from anywhere in the house. A lot of setup, though.
I love this channel, I just started watching a few days ago and while I've never had a real interest in computers and tech you make it easy to start to find an interest in it! It's awesome that you get to make videos and show off your passion for what you love and find interesting, never let anyone tell you any different when I say that your passion on it's own could move mountains.
I still use the X-10! Really! I got some components over 20 years ago, and sometimes I find more at thrift stores. Ten years ago, we moved into an old house with funky electrical wiring...switches that don't turn anything on, outlets that provide no power, etc. The X-10 to the rescue! Now, with parts what I had, and parts we still find, my wife and I both have a remote in our cars to turn on the porch lights when dark, and an alarm clock with a built in X-10 remote in our living room to control a few lights! We don't use the computer interface, but I remember I once did. It had a neato factor years ago, but it wasn't very practical - everything works from a handheld remote. Anyway, great video! If anybody out there finds an X-10 set at a thrift store or yard sale, it is worth considering!
I always found it funny at the beginning of Alien Covenant that Weyland makes David pour him a cup of tea that's sitting literally right next to the man. You spent billions developing a (near) perfect human AI just so he can pour you a cup of tea??? That's sitting right next to you??? And you wonder why he decided that humans needed killing?
Hmm.. Well the microwave didn't switch on to cook dinner whilst we were out. It's a shame about next-door burning down like that though.. I wonder what happened?
I love the HAL 2000's voice better than most personal assistants. I like how awesome it sounds compared to the others that sound so... unnaturally happy
That receipt is from DAK, and for those who aren't familiar was a mail order electronics house in the 1980s. They had some great audiophile stuff and great gadgets, and their founder Drew Alan Kaplan (DAK) wrote the most interesting descriptions. They were little essays. He was like the J. Peterman of consumer electronics. Thanks for the video, I haven't thought about DAK in a really long time!
My IBM Aptiva from 1997 came with something similar and it actually worked so well I barely used it because I thought for sure it would damage the wiring in our place lol.
I had some X10 stuff when I was a kid and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I always longed for the computer control but it was always out of reach for an 11-year-old ;) BTW, I like how you blurred out everything except the credit card number at 4:53. Yeah, probably a long-dead account, but still amusing ;)
LED and CFL lamps are not dimmable and it's also why it flashed every now and then: the wall module does not disconnect BOTH the live and the neutral wires from the socket itself (it only breaks one of them), so you still get a bit of residual power flowing into the lamp which is enough to make it strobe like that. Might notice the same effect if you've got light switches with those little pilot lamps in them - they cause the same sort of behaviour. Incandescent bulbs don't suffer from this.
There are dimmable LED bulbs, I have a bunch of them in my house. The problem is the LED bulb doesn't have enough resistance to work with the dimmer. This is a problem with even modern dimmers, such as the Lutron Caseta dimmers. I had 3 LED bulbs on one dimmer and the dimmer has a minimum wattage for the dimmer to work. The LED lights I had would always stay on at a reduced power. Also some LED bulbs will flicker if dimmed too low. You can adjust the minimum dim setting on the Lutron dimmers to prevent the bulb from flickering when dimmed to the minimum setting. If he had multiple dimmable LED bulbs hooked up to the same outlet it most likely would have worked.
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
Little did Clint know, in the house two blocks down, Mr. Cruthers's life support shut off seemingly without reason, killing him instantly.
LOL. I really want you to write children's stories.
...and that's how Wesley ended up on the Enterprise.
Why would LIFE SUPPORT be on a switch?
And doesn't life support equipment generally have independent backup power?
That's the question Mr. Cruthers's grieving widow asked herself at the funeral.
And then ms. Cruthers spent the rest of her life, thinking about how she could have saved her husband by not having him connected to a switched outlet, eventually dying by leaving her gas stove on, and lighting a cigarette
THE END
"Please say yes or no." Hal isn't amused.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Clint"
I want to press the like button, but it's at 486...
Yes pls
Canceel
I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard.
Love how confused HAL gets at the end there.
"Please say yes or no."
My grandfather gave me a whole set of Radio Shack Plug'n'Power modules and remote for Christmas in 1991. I loved it, and it got a good decade of use before we moved. Rest In Peace grandpa Ken, you were the reason I now am engrossed with electronics and computing.
I've got HAL2000 here somewhere with their hardware voice board and extra voices. It really was like Alexa for the 90s. Had the house wired so every phone went through HAL before it went to AT&T. You could grab any handset and say things like, "HAL, remind me to buy rum." When it was time to go to the store, you'd say "Print my shopping list". It announced callers, screened calls, played music, looked up weather, sports scores, local news, and a ton more. He was a bit expensive though. My "free gift" back in about '97 when I bought HAL was a freakin' satellite TV setup!
I was thinking you must of been rich!
Nice story man...
@@em84c just didn't have kids yet!
That's awesome 🙂
You should build a "house of the future" which is more modern than the average house today using only 80's technology.
Herobox 1248 facts
Now that would be a fun project.
Lazy Game Reviews please do it.
If you do this, I will donate to the cause. That would be incredible.
Yessss!!!!
2001: A Space Odyssey would be a lot different with this HAL.
"Open the pod bay doors, HAL." "Monday Friday Wednesday Friday shut off this lamp?? Please say yes or no."
Omg I'm busting up at this comment
LOL
"HAL, no!"
"... Canceled. :c"
yes
"Opening pod bay doors in *SEVEN Minutes.* "
If he doesn't make another video we know he's pissed off HAL.
I'm sorry Marky, I can't let you do that
Why do you want to divide by zero again anyway
HAL - Open the pod bay doors.
I am afraid that i can't let you do that Clint
@Marky
Said the person with the HAL-eye as an profile image...
MrHack4never exactly my thoughts.
LGR: "Well anyway, thanks for all the help HAL, it's been a blast."
HAL: "Monday, Friday, Wednesday, Friday at 12 PM; turn on this lamp?"
LRG *Khahahahahahaha-hah aahahaha*
HAL: "Please say yes or no."
LGR *EHAHAHAHAHA* "-no!"
HAL: "Cancelled" :(
The TV Guide is open
*oh good grief*
Maybe it even did that on purpose to this LGR guy because of smelling some software piracy there...? ;-)
Amazing.
It was trying to fulfill his role in life, hall realized that he was about to go back to the box and tried his best to be useful with what it knew but instead it received a laugh :(
Sad HAL :'(
I love that HAL 2000 canceled every time that you said to. The worst possible scenario is it continuously hearing unissued commands and never understanding your "STOP NO" :D
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,Dave,”
@@Hiznogood "I'm running c++ saying hello world I'll beat you till you're singing about a daisy girl"
@@Wabeeninc classic song!
This is the kind of stuff I love to see on Oddware; early versions of things we take for granted now. Well to be honest I can't think of an oddware video I didn't enjoy, but still.
This one brings back memories. My grandparents had a pretty extensive X10 setup in their house for the lighting, probably a good 20 or 25 units. They didn't have the computer interface, but I remember the controller from 2:43 well.
No way! A Collin spotted out in the wild! I love your channel my dude.
Still more trustworthy than Alexa, I bet.
It's surprising to see Oddware that actually does its advertised job so well.
Alexa has amazing easter eggs though. Ask her if the cake is a lie, instance.
MerryBytes Also ALOT more privacy than todays "install NSA microphones in your house for easier living"
+MerryBytes
You should never trust any hardware, whether it's from the 60's or the future. They are all equally capable of doing things you don't want them to do. The only reason people perceive older hardware as more trustworthy is that we know that in the modern age the government has been known to do low-level data mining on personal information, but the fact of the matter is, is that with Communist paranoia during the Cold War, electronic bugs that ACTUALLY spy on you (the NSA doesn't do this if you actually do some research) were far more likely to happen.
Plus, Alexa has nigh infinite more capability given she is connected to the Internet.
Bryan Shouse ask me if the cake is a lie son.
Think that one is called AI but could be mistaken lol
When you said things that weren't relevant at all it got odd results but I am AMAZED given the status of voice-to-text even NOW how it would recognize legitimate commands seemingly 100% of the time! As anyone who's ever gotten so mad they start swearing at dragonsoft, then further lose their temper when it translates their tirade as "you God RAM plucking pizza ship" can attest.
Remember when we used to find any product with "2000" in it so futuristic
ay ,remember Beyond 2000 on Discovery ?
No
Yeah, I read a few old magazine. The millenium thing was a huge thing back then in the late 90s. I was born around that time so I don't really experience it since I was still a baby back then.
I haven't stopped
imagine how disappointed young me was to see an ad for something called "LASER 2000" and then it turns out it's just some late-night thing to stop smoking.
You should have called X10 tech support and recorded how they would react to your ancient home automation
hell yeah
I was hoping for that..
Oh poor 90's voice recognition, it seems like he's really trying haha
He's doing his best!
mondayfridaywednesdayfriday at 12 PM turn. On desklamp?
urdnal _please say yes or no_
Macky Clemen im fucking dead!😂😂😂😅
i mean it wasn't programmed to understand bullshit
17 years ago I used one of these and wrote a vb app that checked my internet connection. If the connection was unavailable it powered off the x10 which controlled my cable modem and powered back on. This was a common issue in those times and kept my connection live so I could get to my server remotely from work. x10 also had a wireless camera (xcam) that I hacked up and mounted on a radio controlled plane. Had some of my first video flights long before FPV flying became a thing.
spyder000069 I'm using an ESP8266 for the same thing on my NAS
wish i had that i lived in lacoste for a year and the poo verse internet signal went off literally every day so i had to go unplug for 10 sec plug back in every damn day for a year i would have literally killed for a deal like that
Technically dimming the lamp to 50% works, it emits 50% of its normal light as it's at 100% power 50% of the time xD
@@tripplefives1402 I bought some LED 'filament' bulbs for two 10 arm chandeliers. Got them for 25 cents each on clearance at WalMart. 10 of them 40W equivalent dimable, 10 of them 25W equivalent non-dimable. Wowza! BRIGHT. Normally they're supposed to use 10 15W bulbs. The kitchen dining area now has plenty of light while the dining table in the living room has adjustable light from mood lighting to OMG I almost need a welding helmet bright.
theNWdigital Agreed. Pulse width modulation. I could not recall PWM term specifically, but I remember the concept when I watched the video.
The thing works as expected it's just that LED lights weren't mainstream at the time. Put on an old school light bulb and with a few (very loud) keystrokes on your IBM you can impress your date by programming the mood to 'romantic'.
I can see where 100% power 50% of the time could be abused, depending on the cycle rate.
Ecks dee
Now I just want to automate my house with my spare C64.
...You have a spare?
I've automated some of my Halloween decorations with my CoCo. It works pretty well, although you can't plug modules into power strips. The circuit breaker blocks the signal.
Everyone has a spare C64, right?
_Right?_
Fun fact, I'm apprenticing as an electrician and the x10 is mentioned in one of my textbooks lol
Textbooks are a little dated, eh?
what book?
It'll work with Alexa or Google Home. All still relevant.
Same! Reverse double hert systems are so cool. Old school tech can be so interesting.
I am still using X10 modules around my house. They are still working after 25+ years. Over the years, I've had to replace a few controllers... But, these are still available on Ebay and Amazon.
NotSleepy : I recall seeing schematics online for how to do X10 with your own hardware. It's so simple, even if the modules aren't available anymore, they _still_ will be available.
That’s cool, I wondered if some people did; what software are you using ?
Ha that's awesome! My dad actually still uses his old X10 system to this day - complete with window, door, and motion sensors and timed lighting changes when he's away. *THE FUTURE IS NOW!*
Up until the last four years my dad was still using a Bell Atlantic DSL modem, which came out circa 1999. Not as cool as your example, but still an instance where old technology worked just fine for modern purposes.
See, I'd trust his system miles more than Alexa or Google Home, because I doubt the X10 system is able to secretly gather recordings of your conversations and the products you buy and other intimate life details and send them to the CIA, NSA, and Google and Amazon's ad teams, respectively.
>hook HAL up to the garage door
>call the garage "pod bay"
>stuck outside
I would so do that.
@Max William Lauf When you shut it down it should start singing 'Daisy, Daisy...'
Kostantinos Kanelopoulos his name is clint
This is actually not bad at all. It works. In today's version, when you first install, it'll be like "Contacting server. Sending your private data to server. Downloading patch 10GB..... Do you want to save your data into the cloud? If yes, please create an account..."
Sounds like a home help designed by EA 😂
It’d probably have you make an account anyway :(
ok boomer
@@noxious_nights The boomers, as bad as they were, are saints compared to our shitty generations (millenials and z's).
30 And Hating It *Boomer detected*
That ending was hilarious
Pretty sure you meant halarious...
yes it was
Hal 2000: "Pirated software detected. Your house will now burn."
Suddenly your non-material violation of laws turns in to material!
LOL! Your comment made me laugh.
I have turned on top left stove burner.
NO!
I have turned on all stove burners.
Oh good grief!
Yeah Hal would burn my house down... but my buddy from the northtowns with his $15k+ in pirated software... he'd be fucked.
“Ghetto Strobelight” would be a great name for a funk band.
Seeing this, the way through, I can't get the idea of the movie "Electric Dreams" out of my head. HAL's little breakdown in understanding at the end was the cherry on top... "Please say yes or no."
We had gotten an IBM Aptiva (2159 I believe, which I still have!) back in '96. It came with an X10 system included. It was the serial model, was all IBM branded and included a lamp and an appliance module. The software it came with was called Home Director. We would use it when we left the house for an extended period of time to make it look like someone was home.
Good video!
I think its time for a "Monday Friday Wednesday Friday 12 pm turn on desk lamp?"T Shirt.
Shadey Claymore with wood grain!
Honestly, I would buy this shirt if at all possible.
11:00 roughly: Yes, LEDs don't like to be dimmed by default. There are some you can dim (which will usually say "dimmable" on the box) but most of them don't like it. Similarly the flashing will probably also be a problem with the LED. I had a similar problem with a motion detector outside my Gran's house a few weeks back.
I could hear the sadness in HALs voice when he said "cancelled..."
My dad is still using the hardware you showed off here to control the lights in our house, though with a Windows 95 GUI version and not a DOS version of the Lighthouse software. We have the CP290 controller, and a few The Timer clocks, as well as a handful of the appliance modules.
9:00 We've run into this issue before. It's probably that that lamp has a modern bulb (LED, CFL, or something to that effect) screwed in. Those don't always play nicely with the X10 system.
11:00 Dimmers *especially* don't play nicely, as you've discovered...but again, as you deduced, that's more of a functional issue with how that type of bulb works compared to an incandescent. LED dimmers are complex, run quite hot, and are also highly likely to increase the wear rate of the LED's transformer.
"What is the meaning of life?"
*beep*
"Oh."
that beep has encoded secret encrypted data from god
IoT companies take note, home automation doesn't require the internet at all.
But then they wouldnt be able to harvest and sell all your personal data...
@@fratercontenduntocculta8161 You 're damn right.
But these companies told me I need to sign up for an online account to turn on my lights
totally unwarranted personal opinion time, but home automation is more bother than its worth, especially for lights. pressing a button is way easier than setting up and maintaining a LAN, and not prone to failure or accidental mistakes like 'oops i set the lights to turn on at 5am instead of 5pm in my calendar and i've thus been rudely awoken' its cool to be able to turn the lights off remotely, but really not worth the headaches it may induce IMO
Or wifi
lol - best episode so far! xD
Back in the nineties a guy from my hometown Stadthagen (Germany) used to do and control literally everything in his home with his Amiga 1200. Opening the front door, controlling the Phone, Microwave, Printer, Internet, burn CDs for other guys like me (when it was still a novelty), rendering and cutting movies, composing music, coding, managing his Comedy CD collection via database etc. I was pretty amazed by that. I didn't know these home control systems even existed that early, though.
Sampler19 Reading through the comments randomly finding a person that lives "next door". I am from Obernkirchen and born in Stadthagen :D Off-topic but just funny how small the world can be xD
Oh, nice! I transformed into a Hamburger twenty years ago, though.
yum!
"Unless registered this product will expire on 11/15/2017." November 15th? Aw, man, Clint! That's only nineteen days from now! You better call! LOL! Thanks again for another awesome video. I really liked this one.
Yvonne Rogers He should send the registration card.
You can't let HAL go out like that!
BAHAHA he totally should and send them a link to the video.
AutomatedLiving.com still exists, I wonder if they still take phone calls to activate the old apps :)
It’s probably automated to expire a month after it’s installed.
This was cool. Really illustrates how "the future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed". This thing existed as a niche product in the 19o0's, but is fairly common and more user-friendly these days.
That cleaning montage was satisfying as heck.
The PC module, shown @ 3:30, is called the CM-11. This will still work, even on a Windows 10 machine, if you find the software "Activehome Pro" and have a motherboard w/ a COM-header (I have this very setup). Only that my module is IBM-branded (HD-11) and came as part of their "Home Director" line of X10 hardware. I found a starter kit @ Goodwill around 20 years ago.
Also, the lamp module can cause havoc w/ some energy-saver bulbs. Like the pulsing issue, being caused by the module repeatedly sending brief current pulses through the bulb when "off (not sure of the reason)." And yes, it can be a hit-or-miss on dimming. If you can do w/o the latter, use an appliance module.
"what is the meaning of life?"
Beep
Oh great. Thanks a lot. Now it's going to achieve sentience and kill us all. Way to bring about the apocalypse buddy
"computer. What... Doth... Life?"
Damn, I would take the HAL 2000 over Google Home or Alexa, any day! I love the way it's set up compared to those.
Technically, it did dim it at 50%...it was off and on...LMAO.
PROTO!!!! Good to see you are still alive
thats legit how dimming works with normal lights
90's voice recognition at its finest.
so, surprisingly good ?
We used X10 in college and after, back in 2004-2009. The control and appliance accessories were available really cheap from one retailer online, and it still worked perfectly. Great technology, and (strangely) probably more secure than all the IoT stuff today.
Actually, you're probably right. X10 never connects to the Web, so there's no chance of hacking :)
PCKid11 except for the part where if someone can access your outlet, they can mess with it
Securing a computer system when an attacker has physical access to the premises is extremely difficult. I think computers, smartphones and tablets with whole-disk encryption baked into the firmware are the only good consumer devices available with any protections against it. And that, too, only if users don't sync everything that have to the cloud. Also that only works when the device has been powered off.
except from your neighbors over the powerlines unencrypted
Imagine a criminal trying to burglarize your home by wheeling an IBM PC up to an outdoor outlet and plugging in their X-10.
"what is the meaning of life"
*glitches*
"This statement is false" *explosion*
What doth life
He put too big a load into his 'puter hole
Same
*boop*
"Install it, load it, test it, Run it. Hum, sounds like a Daft Punk song"
I lost it, lol
Clint's giggle over a lamp and old software is great. It makes my day so much better
His laugh is indeed infectious, that's for sure!
18:01
LGR: "What is the meaning of life?"
HAL: "blick" (half beep, half click?)
LGR: "ohhh :("
LOL
I *know* I've heard that sound somewhere else... Maybe a game? An old PDA? I can't remember...
MONDAY FRIDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY AT 12PM TURN. ON DESK LAMP?
Well whad'ya know, haha, it's you again. Hi.
PLEASE SAY YES OR NO.
Final comment- You could download alternate personalities for HAL because it used the Microsoft Speech Engine. I used the Merlin Wizard for a couple of years in there.
When the lamp started strobing I totally thought this was going to be a Halloween episode where the oddware takes over his house! XD
Actually used an X10 system up until 2012. Moved the various switches, outlet's, and plugs every time I moved in the 90's. Finally abandoned all the stuff in the townhouse I owned when I sold it, installing a much better Insteon system in the house I bought and am currently living in. Biggest problem with X10 is dealing with the two phases and getting a reliable signal on both sides.
I had this back in the day and it worked surprisingly well. Voice recognition wasn't the best, but I used it for the remote control stuff and it was great. I moved over to the Smarthome / Insteon stuff after that. I actually still have some of the X-10 modules and controllers in the closet...and I just tried them and they're still working.
I used it for the whole house, but also used it for the Christmas lights. Back in the 1980s, to be able to change your house's light colors by remote was quite unheard of. I'd have to run each color string individually, then just layer multiple colors. It was really amazing back then.
That was amazing!! :D Lost it at the "MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY TURN ON DESK LAMP??????"
Prime network television Snakes on a Plane from HAL 2000 there.
Oh man it broke me when it did that, still wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes
Frickin epic yes... It made me laugh a lot... Especially at the tone of voice that the text to speech chose for it.
Please say yes or no!
Reminds me of an Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode.
"It's like having software that runs in the 'background'!" I nearly lost it
When Clint cracked up near the end, I laughed out loud lmao!
my dad had a full x10 system in the early 2000s hooked into his home network. I thought it was pure magic that he could turn on his coffee maker from his office if he wanted
"Monday Friday Wednesday Friday at 12PM turn. On desk lamp?"
-HAL 2017
I really have tears in my eyes from laughing at the voice recognition. Yet.. I realize from what time it came and must say it's actually incredibly good. I've tried several voice recognition programs back then and none did as well as this one. But to be sure, did this one need to be 'trained' yes or no?
I didn't do any training beforehand!
Thank you. Then yes, this one ranks pretty high for older voice recognition.
Woah! The X-10 looks so goddamn cool! If I could make my Apple II a "control center" for a smart home I think it will become an addiction for me pretty fast (Buying X-10 "smart outlets" daily like cigs...).
Oh and btw - that setup with outlet modules and control via the grid seems much simpler and more stable than Google assistant and Alexa, also the fact that it doesn't connect to the Internet is super-cool even if it doesn't have any kind of encryption or authentication methods the fact it's not on the web is a pretty huge pro.
And since I rarely boot my Apple II, mostly when friends wanna play games on it (Although the Powermac G4 and G3 get much more attention because Marathon LAN matches are hella fun) this would be an awesome excuse for me to place my Apple II as a "smart home command-center" in my study or living room...
8:15 Led bulbs need to be dimmable to prevent flashing or to work with dimmable mode. The constant signal from the x10 to read the control signal causes this flashing. Dimmable LEDs are available. I avoid buying non-dimmable for this reason.
What a fantastic piece of Oddware! Absolutely love it! The reason your LED bulb caused problems was because of leakage... basically because the adapter needs to be powered by your mains and lacks full isolation it never actually completely shuts off the power to the lamp, instead just reducing it to a very low level. With an incandescent bulb this isn't a problem, because the power getting through isn't enough to do anything, but because LED bulbs require so little power and have capacitors you'll basically get a brief flash from the bulb every time the capacitor gets fully charged, the same is true of the dimming effect except it flashes faster as you're charging it more quickly. If you were to use a dimmable LED bulb you'd probably eliminate this problem (though it depends on the amount of leakage)
I liked the HAL quirks, you could have a bit of fun with that. "the tv guide is open".
One of my all time favorite LGR episodes.
If you go back and find the old 1984 movie 'Electric Dreams' , the main character buys his computer and automates his apartment much like this....and then it of course starts to take over his life for him.
User: "Alexa... say 'Hal, turn on the desk lamp.'"
Alexa: **ding** "Hal, turn on the desk lamp."
Hal: "Heeeyy, baby."
Tell Siri to tell Cortana to tell Google to tell Alexa to tell Hal to turn on the desk lamp
Cardboard Sliver home assisstanception
@@CardboardSliver "I am not an owl!"
We had the Radio Shack version growing up. We had our backyard lit up with flood lights like a baseball stadium by digging trenches all over for wiring and putting up light polls that were the remnants of our old swing set. Ah, the good ole days.
this is legit one of my favorite things to watch on youtube. . .
Reminds me of my youthful joy seeing that sort of stuff in an uncles house
This is seriously awesome, an Oddware that actually does its job and does it perfectly!
Yeah, LED bulbs have to have special circuits to support old-style dimming.
cya
Raziel-chan
are you drunk
I was hoping that you'd call the number to register :)
Well yeah, but it's fun to see what the number is now :D
The number is probably not even online anymore.
Erik Sundstrom and get a free pizza coupon
I'd say the chances of it still being a live number are somewhere between "zero" and "aw hell no."
floobertuber Depends if it's the same place still controlling the production. If they kept it going from 1979 to 1999, they might still be going in 2018.
The major shortcoming was that it would only control devices on the same phase (side) of the circuit breaker panel, unless you installed a "circuit bridge" to relay the control signal to the other phase.
While modules and controllers were commonly found in stores, the circuit bridge was a rare thing to find.
dude every time I see your old ass computers and stuff I'm so enchanted staying up till 3am on the work night. The x10 was magical and super worth it. i'm just super sad i don't have all the awesome hardware u got. In many ways, this stuff is more magical than what is around now. Just so much more awesome than hollow sad computers and hardware of today.
Your channel is hands down the best, a time machine. I'm 37, and right at home. Love it
I remember there was a movie in the 80s called "Electric Dreams". A guy bought a top-of-the-line computer and hooked it up to control his entire house. Plot Twist: he accidentally dumps a bottle of champagne over the whole thing, and instead of destroying it and electrocuting himself, it somehow caused the computer to come to life with its own super-advanced AI. It fell in love with his girlfriend and made him a prisoner in his own home. Clearly, it was written at a time where computers were this big mysterious and scary force. It's comical now, but at the time, audiences were in awe.
Hey, look! It's on TH-cam. lol. Check out the retro hilarity!
th-cam.com/video/q5lwhhoIKok/w-d-xo.html
It was drunk with power
kevnar Controlling home security via computers was a thing in the 80's. I remember seeing a smiilar product being sold in Radio Shack catalogs.
Hello, Moles.
It's just been remastered for Blu Ray disk
There was also a Disney movie called "Smart House" that takes the automation bit up to eleven. Brutalmoose did a review: th-cam.com/video/jkJXbwSbzYU/w-d-xo.html
I was writting a comment to say that i bet you had an LED bulb in there to explain the flashing and inability to dim when you outright did it xD
Makes sense i suppose, considering LEDs require far less power as such any leaking through the module will build up in the capacitor and cause flashing like you saw, alternatively, because it was dimmed it had the same effect, it was just filling and discharging the capacitor instead. Halogen bulbs obviously dont use said capacitors.
I was about to say this. Obviously needs an incandescent bulb
Maybe this is how lightswitch raves got started.
The bleeding voltage from the unit is actually there on purpose. It is there for local control features to work, so you can turn on a lamp or whatever by turning it off and on again.
@jon ackers, control function, like if the says the lamp is off (cutting the current) and you are in the room and want it on, you can tell the system to reconnect the current by turning the lamp off then on without the computer? handy!
@Slash - Yes, exactly. It's trying to detect the light's own switch being used. There are mods documented on the web for certain X-10 modules to disable that when it's not needed, and it's only noticeable with modern efficient bulbs (LED and CFL).
There's actually a whole, weird little subculture around utilizing modern electronics like Arduino's and Raspberry Pis to control X10 hardware in order to integrate old home automation stuff with newer technologies... which can theoretically be used (through Alexa's IFTTT skill) to voice control everything, even down to something as boring as closing the garage door from anywhere in the house.
A lot of setup, though.
I love this channel, I just started watching a few days ago and while I've never had a real interest in computers and tech you make it easy to start to find an interest in it! It's awesome that you get to make videos and show off your passion for what you love and find interesting, never let anyone tell you any different when I say that your passion on it's own could move mountains.
I still use the X-10! Really! I got some components over 20 years ago, and sometimes I find more at thrift stores. Ten years ago, we moved into an old house with funky electrical wiring...switches that don't turn anything on, outlets that provide no power, etc.
The X-10 to the rescue! Now, with parts what I had, and parts we still find, my wife and I both have a remote in our cars to turn on the porch lights when dark, and an alarm clock with a built in X-10 remote in our living room to control a few lights!
We don't use the computer interface, but I remember I once did. It had a neato factor years ago, but it wasn't very practical - everything works from a handheld remote.
Anyway, great video! If anybody out there finds an X-10 set at a thrift store or yard sale, it is worth considering!
HAL: What is my purpose?
LGR: You turn on lights.
HAL: OMG.
to be fair
I always found it funny at the beginning of Alien Covenant that Weyland makes David pour him a cup of tea that's sitting literally right next to the man.
You spent billions developing a (near) perfect human AI just so he can pour you a cup of tea??? That's sitting right next to you??? And you wonder why he decided that humans needed killing?
Hmm.. Well the microwave didn't switch on to cook dinner whilst we were out.
It's a shame about next-door burning down like that though.. I wonder what happened?
This reminds me of the movies and episodes of shows where a smart house tried to take over :P
AluminumDragon I think this kind of thing was the inspiration for that.
That movie was Walt Disney Smart House
Electric Dreams?
Whose to say they didn't? Careful she's listening
well I mean, it is called HAL 2000. That's a pretty dead giveaway
I love the HAL 2000's voice better than most personal assistants. I like how awesome it sounds compared to the others that sound so... unnaturally happy
That receipt is from DAK, and for those who aren't familiar was a mail order electronics house in the 1980s. They had some great audiophile stuff and great gadgets, and their founder Drew Alan Kaplan (DAK) wrote the most interesting descriptions. They were little essays. He was like the J. Peterman of consumer electronics. Thanks for the video, I haven't thought about DAK in a really long time!
My IBM Aptiva from 1997 came with something similar and it actually worked so well I barely used it because I thought for sure it would damage the wiring in our place lol.
I had some X10 stuff when I was a kid and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I always longed for the computer control but it was always out of reach for an 11-year-old ;)
BTW, I like how you blurred out everything except the credit card number at 4:53. Yeah, probably a long-dead account, but still amusing ;)
Your lamp is talking to you in morse code.
GREAT reference
I think I just found my newest favorite genre of TH-cam video
Honestly the fact it goes through the power line is really sick
"MondayFridayWedensdayFriday at 12 pm turn on lamp?"
"Please say yes or no..."
Now I know what those things in all the outlets at my Grandma & Grandpa's house were.
LED and CFL lamps are not dimmable and it's also why it flashed every now and then: the wall module does not disconnect BOTH the live and the neutral wires from the socket itself (it only breaks one of them), so you still get a bit of residual power flowing into the lamp which is enough to make it strobe like that. Might notice the same effect if you've got light switches with those little pilot lamps in them - they cause the same sort of behaviour. Incandescent bulbs don't suffer from this.
There are dimmable LED bulbs, I have a bunch of them in my house. The problem is the LED bulb doesn't have enough resistance to work with the dimmer. This is a problem with even modern dimmers, such as the Lutron Caseta dimmers. I had 3 LED bulbs on one dimmer and the dimmer has a minimum wattage for the dimmer to work. The LED lights I had would always stay on at a reduced power. Also some LED bulbs will flicker if dimmed too low. You can adjust the minimum dim setting on the Lutron dimmers to prevent the bulb from flickering when dimmed to the minimum setting.
If he had multiple dimmable LED bulbs hooked up to the same outlet it most likely would have worked.
As an older engineer, I knew quite a few guys using the X10 stuff. Never saw Hal, but he's awesome!
I always turn on my lamp on MONDAY FRIDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY at 12 PM.
prizedcoffeecup Ditto. 😆
Set lights to 50%
*mad flickering*
Light: "YOU'VE MAIMED MY SOOUUL!!!"
i have opened the rolodex
I have closed the rolodex.
Please say yes or no.
this IS THE most useful oddware to date! almost makes me want to buy a completely out-dated PC for $10 just to try it! Good job Clint!
This video never ceases to make me smile! One of my favourite Oddware episodes
"Monday Friday Wednesday Friday" hey it's Rabbot from Aqua Teen
Nice to see I'm not the only one who thought this.