Mobile mHome RV

[Freddya]

Hello All, I'd like to share my experiences with an mHome project. I have an RV to be used as a showroom for my Home Automation small business serving San Bernardino County in California.

Currently I have mHome on Windows Vista Ultimate pc.
This pc has the following:

X10 thermostat via power line, only 1 of 2 independent heaters is connected. there are also 2 independent 110v above head air conditioners I would like to connect.

X10 sw12a dimmer, works 100% on/of but I cant figure why it doesn't dim correctly. it only brightens like 20% but does not dim or brighten after to any other levels.

DSC alarm system via serial, main entry and pir. I'd like to set this up correctly to display areas.

three flat screens one being a ELO usb touch screen. On the ELO touch screen in the wall I use the IE mControl.

A x10 serial cm11a.

That's it for the vista pc. I have an Xbox 360 and two dlink Ethernet cameras connected to the router.

I recently received a HP media server WHS and want to install mControl on it however by doing this I will lose control of the alarm, thermostat, and cm11a. this means I have to rewire the hardware to the server and add two serial to usb adapters.

Questions;

What might be the best way to wire the 110v air conditioners to the thermostat?

How can I name the "area 1" in the alarm details to "main door' and add an "area 2" for the PIR? I can see it all works but don't see the zones listed in mControl.

What Will I benefit from moving the mControl to the server and rewiring everything?

What licensing problems will I have now that I bought the mControl Lic 11 days ago and have not registered it waiting to maybe install it on the HP mediasmart WHS?

Any thoughts on what might be a better optimal setup for this project using what I have?

I have a X10 usb cm15a, might this help fix the dimming problem?

I'd like to control the drapes/shades affordably. What brand should I look at or can I make something?

I'd like to express my thanks in advance to anyone that can give me some direction and feedback.

Freddy A

[dagoomax]

Try open proper ports on your WHS machine

Best regards

[njenslin]

I can help with the thermostat wiring. Look here: http://www.ritetemp-thermostats.com/RVs.html to get started, then you will have to work a little. My heater wired up with no problem, but you already have that done. My AC would not work until I figured out that it was looking for a ground rather than 12v+ on the RC connection. I don't know if this is specific to my model or not. Also, you will lose the ability to high/low switch the fan unless you wire in an additional switch somewhere. I just wired H and G together to get High fan all the time. Hope this helps.

[Freddya]

Originally Posted by dagoomax

Try open proper ports on your WHS machine

Best regards

I'm not quite sure what ports you meant. Could you explain please. BTW the mControl is not on WHS it is on WVU.

[Freddya]

Originally Posted by njenslin

I can help with the thermostat wiring. Look here: http://www.ritetemp-thermostats.com/RVs.html to get started, then you will have to work a little. My heater wired up with no problem, but you already have that done. My AC would not work until I figured out that it was looking for a ground rather than 12v+ on the RC connection. I don't know if this is specific to my model or not. Also, you will lose the ability to high/low switch the fan unless you wire in an additional switch somewhere. I just wired H and G together to get High fan all the time. Hope this helps.

Hello, my a/c's are nob operated and not part of an hvac system so would I put a x10 appliance module and somehow configure the thermostat to activate it leaving the nob on high cool? And how do I send a power line signal from the thermostat control box? If I add a new device to mcontrol for the appliance module it would defeat the setpoints on the thermostat... im a bit lost.

I have the RCS txb16 and the control unit has y1 comp stage 1 and y2 comp stage 2, these are for A/C control. Now, when I set cool on the thermostat, how would I go about to rig it so that an appliance module (or 2) would recieve the powerline signal and activate/deactivate?

[njenslin]

I did not understand that thermostat was not physically connected to the AC. Mine was. I do have an idea though. You would wire a powerflash interface to the thermostat. You will need to cut jumper JP1 on the txb16 and wire RC to 1 pin on the powerflash and y comp 1 to the other. Set the powerflash to input mode B. When the thermostat signals cooling it will close the contacts RC to Y1 completing the circuit. When the powerflash detects the closure it will activate. Set the powerflash to output mode 3, set an available house/unit code. Install an appropriate voltage/amperage x10 controller on 1 or both AC units and set them to the house/unit code you set the powerflash to, then leave the AC's set to high cool. Now the thermostat will signal the powerflash which will signal the controller turning on the AC. 1 other thing that I honestly have no knowledge of it the 2 stage cooling this thermostat provides. Assuming it works the same as 2 stage heat, you could wire a 2nd powerflash from RC to Y2, set it to a different address and control both AC's that way. In this scenario both AC's would come on too cool the RV down then only Y1 would come on to maintain unless the temp difference becomes too great then the thermostat would signal both to come on.

Hope this helps.

[Freddya]

This is AWESOME! Thanks so much, I'll look into getting the parts. I really appreciate that you took the time on helping me out. I've only began to work out the kinks and going at it alone is a struggle. I hope to have everything worked out soon to get this show on the road! There are a couple of other issues I'm having with this setup, Life/ware peeps keep assuring me that they are the way to go. I just favor this Canadian co for some reason even though the support for dealers is null as far as I can tell. Looking forward to having the a/c's running, thanks again.

[Freddya]

For the A/C I did just as was suggested and it all worked out good. Now the thermostat is controlled via mHome for full heating and A/C on 4 independent units. I appreciate the help with that.

As far as the light dimming problem, I switched the type of x10 dimmer and it all works great now so I've been able to enjoy the benefits of home automation in a mobile environment on trips in all kinds of weather

Now to tackle the remaining bugs. One of the next issues I plan on dealing with is that the IP Cameras are slow and freeze.. I expect to be updating this more often as I get more things working.