This page has been accessed times since February 1, 2003

Since we had our current home custom built, I was able to design and install an extensive wiring system for current and future use. When we decided to build a new house, I started doing a lot of research and after about two years of research and playing with home automation, I finally thought that I had a handle on how and what could be doing for home automation. I then started designing a system that I wanted to install in our new house. I spent many months planning and drawing and redrawing what I wanted. It wasn’t easy because there really are not any right or wrong ways of doing what I wanted.

My greatest learning method was from reading what other people have done from information published on the Web. I was amazed at what was out there to learn from. I have gone to the Home Automation Show in Orlando and the CEDIA show in the past, which was also good learning.

In the Fall of 2006 we decided we need to add chickens to our family.  We built and chick coop and fence and were able to find two different people who gave us a total of 12 chickens.  Winters in Kansas are very cold so we wanted to add some heating to the chicken coop.  This was easy to do by adding a X10 appliance module hooked to heat lamp in the chicken coop.  We have it programmed to turn on at various times throughout the day and night.  We also set up a X10 console that my son can press to turn on the light anytime he wants.  It was a simple automation project, but is another great use of our Stargate controller.  In the spring I am going to hook up a camera in the chicken coop so we can watch the them.  My kids think that it would be great to actually see them laying an egg.

I have been using several X10 wireless motion detectors for several years and I decided that I would replace these with a hard wired motion detector.  The wires have been in place and hanging from the wall for 5 years now and I was tired of looking at them.  So I purchased two Ademco 998 motion detectors.  These are very basic motion detectors and cost $19.95 each from ADI.  I installed the first one in the Study very close to where the wireless motion detector was.  This motion, as all hardware motions, uses two pair wires.  The wires in the study go to a punch down block in the basement.  I punched down the wires five years ago when I did all the wiring, but have just never used them.  So I ran wires from the punch down block into Stargate digital I/O number 15 for the signal and two wires to the Stargate power supply.  I then changed the Stargate schedule to use the digital I/O instead of the X10 wireless motion.  The only thing this motion sensor is used for is to turn all the lights off in the study if there is no activity for 30 minutes. 

The X10 motion has worked OK in the past because we really did not use the study very often.  But about a month ago we bought new furniture and finally fixed up the room so now this room has become our favorite place to read or work on the laptop that is connected through a wireless network card.  The X10 motion detector did not pick up motion very well and we usually ended up reading in the dark after 30 minutes.  This new motion though does a great job and that doesn't happen anymore.  One of the main reasons that this motion works much better is that it has a "look down" window that detects motion right underneath it which happens to be were my new leather chair sits.  So the motion detector is sensitive enough to pick up the motion of me turning my head to look to see if it is picking up motion.  So now I can enjoy sitting in my new leather chair next to the cozy, warm fireplace and not have to worry about the lights turning off.  But when I leave and am done for the night, I also do not have to turn all the lights off if I don't want to.

I also had an X10 wireless motion detector on the stairs that really didn't work very well because of the placement of the detector.  I put in wiring for a hardwired motion detector in the upstairs hall at the head of the stairs, but never installed a motion detector.  So I finally installed one and took down the wireless motion detector.  This motion detector is programmed for two purposes.  The first one is to turn off the stair lights and hallway lights after 30 minutes of inactivity.  The second purpose is to turn on the lights in the morning.  Stargate is programmed so that if motion is detected before 7 am, the stairway and landing lights are turned on.  So now when I am ready to leave my bedroom and go downstairs in the morning, the lights will automatically come on.  The kids also like that they do not have to come out of their room into a dark hallway. 

We recently redecorated and put in new furniture in the study.  This is now one of our favorite rooms for reading, relaxing, and working on the laptop through the wireless network connection.  We have always had a motion detector in the room to automatically turn of the lights when when there was no activity for more then 30 minutes.  But I added a wireless X-10 controller to control all the lights in the room.  The controller has 3 buttons each with an On and an Off.  The first On button turns on all the lights in the study.  The first Off button turns off all the lights in the study.  The second On button turns on the reading scene lighting.  It turns on the overhead and dims them to 50%.  It turns on two lamps and dims them to 30%.  It then turns on the lamps next to the chairs and sets them to 100%.  The second Off button currently doesn't do anything.  The third On button turns on every light on the first floor of the house.  The third Off button turns off every light on the first floor, turns on the stairway landing light to 30% and turns on the stairs and upstairs hallway light to 50%.   My wife loves to read in the study and really likes the ability to set the scene lights.

One of the things that I enjoy doing a Saturday mornings is listening to car talk on the radio.  Here in the Midwest the shows comes on at 9:00 AM, but as with most Saturdays, we are always very busy and sometimes forget to turn on the radio.  So I fixed this and programmed Stargate to turn on the whole house stereo at 8:59 and set the tuner to the correct radio station.  So now we never have to turn on Car Talk anymore.  I also have it set to turn it off at 10:30 if if the stereo is still on.  You can view more details on the setup below.

Sprinkler System (October, 2002) In the fall of 2002 we decided we wanted to plant more trees around the house.  My wife spent time selecting the right trees and even had a person from the local nursery out to help place the trees.  My wife decided that we should not be shy about the number of trees and we ended up planting 27 new trees.  We have 5 acres, but really only use about 2 of those acres and that is were we put the trees.  Previous to this, we had planted fruit trees and as of this fall we have 16 of the fruit trees that have survived the weather and the deer.  Once we decided that we were going to plant that many trees we realized that watering them was going to be very difficult and time consuming.  We were using a drip irrigation system that was just laying on top of the ground for the fruit trees, but that was not going to be practical for the 27 new trees because it would look ugly and be very difficult to mow the grass. So the obvious solution was to put in an underground irrigation system to all 43 trees.  I started planning this and realized that If I was going to rent a trencher and trench hundreds of feet of drip irrigation, I should just put in a complete irrigation system for the grass also.  After more planning and thinking I ended up putting in a complete sprinkler system for the grass in the back yard, drip irrigation to all 46 trees, drip irrigation to the raspberry and strawberry gardens, and a more formal irrigation system for the garden. We already had a drip irrigation for the garden so I just tied it into the existing plan.  I also put in the infrastructure for irrigating all the flower beds around the house, but did not actually put in the all the nozzles yet.  This was a project that got way out of hand and turned out to be a VERY large project.

Since we have two acres around our house that we consider our main yard, it was not feasible to put in an irrigation system for all of it so we just did the back yard which is what we use most of the time anyway.  I spent every free minute in September, October, and November working on this.  When I started, I did not have any idea it would take as long as it did, but I think it will be very worthwhile next summer.    I put in 13 sprinkler heads in 4 zones for grass, 3 zones for the flower beds and grass around the house, 3 zones for the trees, 1 zone for the raspberries, and 3   zones for the garden.  I put in about 700 feet of 1 inch schedule 40 PVC for the sprinklers, about 800 feet of 3/4 inch flexible poly for the drip irrigation, and about 500 feet of wire.  The trenching only took about 1 day to do which really surprised me and it really wasn't that hard.  I must say that the yard did not look very good after I was done, but I planted new grass and it looks better now then it did when I started.

Overall I am very happy with how the project turned out and was really proud that I was able to do the entire project myself.   I do not know of any real mistakes that I made and do not know of anything that I would have done differently.   So for my first attempt at an underground sprinkler system, it actually seems to have turned out very well.  My only real problem so far has been trying to keep our dog from eating the ends off the drip irrigation sprinkler heads. 

I completed the wiring for the sprinkler system in May of 2003.  This was the end to a very time consuming project.  Everything is connected to a 16 zone X10 controller that has worked very well for the short time that I have used it.  Stargate is now controlling the entire watering process for the garden and all the trees.  Right now the garden and trees are being watered three times a week and the lawn is being watered twice a week.  I'm not really sure what the right amount for everything is yet, but I will play around with everything this summer and get it figured out.  We have had a very wet spring so I really haven't needed to water much yet, but now that July is here, watering is very important.

Freezer Alarm (2001)  We purchased a new freezer recently that we put in the garage.  The kids are always opening it to get ice cream and do not do a good job closing it.  Once we found the wife was also not closing the door tightly, I decided to put a magnetic sensor on the door to detect when it is left open.  I ran a wire from the sensor back to Stargate and if the door is open for more then 30 seconds an alarm is sounded over the PA system.  This was very useful this summer when during the ice cream season, but continues to be useful when the wife is putting groceries away.

Doorbell to control the garage doors: The door bell wire is home run to a punch down block and then is connected from the punch down block to a digital input of the Stargate. I also have a 2 pair wire going from each garage door opener to a punch down block that is then connected to a relay output of Stargate. When Stargate receives a contact closure from the doorbell, it records the event. Stargate has a routine that waits for a specific sequence of contact closures and proper sequence is pressed, it closes the relay for 1 second that is connected to the garage door opener and opens the garage door. With this functionality, I will never be locked out of the house again.

Master bathroom lighting: I have a motion sensor in the hallway between the bedroom and the bathroom so that when there is motion it will turn on the bathroom light. The light only turns on if it is after 10 p.m. and before 6:00 am. The light is not only turned on, but is dimmed to 25% so that it is not too bright in the middle of the night. If there is no motion for two minutes the light automatically gets turned off. All of this functionality is programmed into a routine in the Stargate controller.

Kids TV button: When our son was 3 he got into the habit of waking up early and then waking us up. All he wanted us to do was to turn on the TV so that he could watch his favorite cartoons. I quickly tired of waking up so early so I created the "Kid’s TV Button" routine which works as follows: I programmed an X10 controller to send the X10 command’s of B4 ON or Off, B5 ON or OFF, B6 ON or OFF. I did all the buttons so that he did not have to worry about which button on the three-button controller to push. When Stargate receives any of these commands, it runs a routine that turns on the lights in the living room, turns on the TV, sets the TV channel to 3, turns on the satellite, and sets the satellite channel to 250. All the IR commands are done through the JDS IR expander and a 1 pair shielded wire to a Xantech connecting block that has an IR emitter connected to the living room TV.

Announce motion in driveway: I have an X10 Pro motion sensor/flood light mounted on the house overlooking the driveway. When there is motion in the driveway, the lights come on and an X10 (O3 ON) is sent to Stargate. Stargate sets a timer for three minutes and after three minutes it sends an X10 (O3 OFF) command to the floodlight which turns off. I set the timer on the floodlight itself to stay on for the maximum amount of time so that I can control the amount of time from Stargate. In this same routine that sets the timer when the X10 command is received, I also play a built in sound from Stargate over the announcing speakers throughout the house. The sound I play is the built-in Stargate "ghost" sound. If we forget to tell a new baby sitter about the sound, it is always interesting to hear her questions when we get home.

Music speaker switching: I have one stereo receiver that sits in the rack that drives all of the music speakers. I find that I really didn't need to listen to different music in different parts of the house so one receiver works great for me.  The two pair of speaker wires come out of the stereo and goes into the rack mounted Audioplex speaker distribution panel.   I am using four of the available eight speaker hook ups and each of the 8 speaker wires go from the Audioplex into the I/O Expander relays.  The wires then go to each of the speakers throughout the house.  I can then turn of each individual speaker as required using the touch screen controller or through events in Stargate.

We are now able to listen to all speakers together in the house.  From the touchscreen controller we can selected an exact pair of speakers or turn on all speakers at once.  I used 14/4 wire for all the music speakers.  The only real downside to this setup is that it uses two relays for each speaker.  I have a JDS I/O expander that is used for the speaker switching. 

Announcement speakers:  I have a separate set of speakers throughout the house that are used specifically for Stargate announcements.  The lineout from Stargate goes into a stereo receiver that is in the computer rack.  Both sets of speaker wires coming out of the receiver go into a push button impedance matching speaker switcher that is always set for 5 speakers.  The output from the speaker switcher goes to each of the announcement speakers throughout the house.  I currently have speakers in use in the master bedroom, family room, front hallway and the basement.  I have found that these four speakers really provide good coverage everywhere in the house.  I am using 16/2 wire for these speakers and am using inexpensive ELK-73 speakers.  I do not do any switching of these speakers so all the rooms get the announcements. I announce phone callers, motion outside, cars in the driveway, and other similar things.  I was able to get a demo receiver at Best Buy for about $50 and each speaker cost about $10.00 so this was a very inexpensive setup and the sound quality is very good.

IR remote to announce time: When Stargate receives the X10 (A1 ON) command, usually from the 8 in 1 remote, it runs a routine that announces the time over the announcing speakers. This is my way of finding out what time it is when I am too lazy to get up off the couch to look. If there are any Stargate voice mail messages, it will also announce how many messages have not been listened to yet in this routine.

Motion to turn off lights: I have a motion sensor in the family room that is connected to a punch down block and then to Stargate. When there is motion in the family room, Stargate sets a family room lights timer to 30 minutes. When this timer expires, it sends the appropriate X10 commands to each of the three lights and turns them off. This ensures that these lights will always be turned off if there is no motion for 30 minutes. I have a motion sensor in the family room, the breakfast area, the study, the stairway, the upstairs bathroom, the garage and three in the basement for a total of 9 sensors that all control various lights.  Some of them do different things based on the time out day or other events.

Turn off lights at certain times: I have routines in Stargate to turn off lights at certain time during the day to conserve electricity. My wife does not always like this, because the lights get turned off based on time of day regardless if anyone is still in the room. The important ones are to my son’s bedroom, the basement and the garage. These three lights seem to always get left on.

Caller ID announced on whole house announcement speakers: We have the caller ID feature on our phone service and Stargate is able to received the caller ID information and perform a routine based on the phone number that is calling. I have routines in Stargate that announce who is calling over the announcement speakers. I have recorded messages to play for each specific phone number. If I don’t have a routine for the phone number or it is an unknown phone number I play a message that states it is an unknown caller. It is nice to have the caller announced before I decide to get up and get the phone or to know who it is before I answer the phone. A typical message that is announced is "It is Grandpa and Grandma Von Feldt calling"  The best thing about this is that based on who is calling, we know who should answer the phone.  If it one of my son's friends, he will answer the phone otherwise he will ignore it.

Misc. automated lighting: I have other various lights hooked up that can be turned off and on through X10 remotes or the touch screen controller.  At this time (April 2001) there are about 25 lights that can be controlled.  There are still several lights that are not controlled because we do not use them very often.  We put electrical outlets underneath all the eaves of the roof for Christmas lights.  During the Christmas season, the Christmas lights will get turned off and on with the other night lights. Each of the electrical outlets has an X10 controlled outlet that is used.

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Door Check: I have a routine that is triggered by receiving an X10 (B4 ON or OFF) command that checks all the door deadbolt sensors and the three garage door sensors to see if the deadbolts are engaged and the garage doors are closed. This routine is also executed automatically every night at 10:15.   If everything is secure, a message is displayed on the touch screen controller that says, "All is secure". If the doors are all secure but a garage door is open, an announcement is played over the whole house speaker system that says "Center garage door is open, attempting to close garage doors".  There is a different message that is announced based on what door is open.  It is nice to have the announcement state which dead bolt needs to be engaged so I don't have to check each one. A routine is then run on Stargate that checks which garage door is open (by checking the status of the sensor) and closing the relay for 1 second on the open garage door. This routine will happen for all open garage doors. A flag is also set for 1 minute and when the minute is up, a routine is run to check the status of the garage doors again. A message is displayed to say that all is secure or to say that the attempt to close the garage door failed and they are still open.  After the initial check at 10:15, Stargate checks again at 10:30 and 10:45 and makes the same announcements.  If we still haven't engaged the dead bolts or Stargate can't close the garage doors (usually because the kids left their bikes in the way), then the announcements stop.  If we haven't manually closed all the doors by this point, then we have decided we are too lazy and are going to leave them open.  When the house is in vacation mode, I have another routine that sends me a message on my pager if the doors are not secure.  I have tested this routine, but it has never actually happened yet.

Security system integrated into Home Automation Controller: I have a Napco Gemini security panel that has an X10 interface that can trigger X10 commands when events happen on the security panel. I have not spent a lot of time yet setting up the Gemini X10 commands and will be doing more of this in the future. The first integration routine I want to do is to run the "Close Garage Door" routine if the security system is armed. This will ensure that if the garage door accidentally opens when we are away, it will automatically be closed.

Speakers:  I have a 1 pair of speakers mounted in the ceiling in the kitchen, one pair of speakers mounted on the rear wall of the family room, and a pair of Transducer speakers mounted above the ceiling in the dinning room and master bedroom.  Each of these speakers can be controlled by the many X10 controllers throughout the house.

Voice Mail:  I am currently use Stargate for voicemail functionality,  I am not using all the great features that could be used, but it does seem to work most of the time.  I have a two line speaker phone in the butlers pantry that we always use to check messages.  Line 1 is connected to the Stargate Intercom port and line two is connected to the outside phone line.  When we want to check voice mail, we just select line one and then press the appropriate code.  Currently, I have many of the main voice mail functions setup to be triggered from the action of selecting one of the numbers on the phone key pad.  Selecting 1 will announce the number of new messages.  Selecting 2 will play all new messages.  Selecting 3 will stop play back.  Selecting 4 will delete the current message.  There are several more selections, but there are the main ones that are used. 

There is a routine that is run every two hours that will announce over the whole house speaker system the number of new messages.  It is easier to have the system announce how many messages rather then have to check for messages if you missed a call while at home or if you just return from being gone.  These announcements are currently turned off between 1 and 3 p.m. which is typically when the kids are taking their naps.

One of the nice features of using Stargate for voice mail is that you can change the message based on caller ID.  For example, if my parents call and we are not at home, the message, "Hi mom and dad, we are not home so leave a message and we will call when we return" is played instead of the standard message.   We have several of these personal messages play for certain people.

Cable Modem: In the summer of 2001, after living here for three years, the local cable company decided to run the cable lines to our small development.  The cable company also just announced that they now support cable modems for high speed internet access.  We decided that we wanted the cable modem, so we disconnected the satellite system and got cable for the TV and for the internet.   We have been very happy with the cable modem and the speed has continued to be very good.  We also purchased a LinkSys router so we can share the cable connection with all the computers in the house. 

CD Control: One of the features of the HA systems that took a while to get working reliably was the control of the CD player.  Since all the stereo equipment is in the basement and controlled throughout the house by use of X10 commands or IR, it is difficult to know if the command you sent actually worked.  To help automate this, I create a routine in Stargate that does the following when C15 or C16 is send to Stargate.  The first thing is that the receiver and the CD player is turned on.  Next the volume of the stereo is decremented by about 30 IR commands to lower the volume.  This is done to set the volume to off.  Then if C15 is received by Stargate, this means that the command came from the family room and that the speaker volume is incremented by 20 IR volume up commands.  By now the CD player is on and ready to receive a CD to play.  Stargate (IR Expander) sends the commands to the CD player to go to CD # 6 and then the play IR command is sent.  The last thing that happens is that the family room speakers are turned on and the rest of the house speakers are turned off.  If C16 is pressed instead of C15, Stargate knows that the command is from the bedroom and the volume is adjusted a little higher and the bedroom speaker is turned on.  When all this is complete, an announcement is made over the announcement speakers to state the stereo is now on.

There are still a few things to work out with this system yet, but overall if you press C15 or C16, you will always get music playing.  Once it is on and playing, then the touch screen, or various X10 controllers can change the CD's by moving to the next disk or back one disk.  If the touch screen is used to change disks, I also announce the CD number, the title and artist.  This only works though under certain circumstances and is not always reliable.  I put in code in Stargate to allow for pressing 0 through 9 on the TouchLink and it will send the two digit code to Stargate to execute the correct IR commands to the CD player.  This was a bit tricky to program into Stargate, but for the most part it works.  If you would like to see the code, send me an email.

I finally put thee last finishing touches on the reliability of the CD player and Stereo.  The problem that I had was never knowing if the stereo was on and if the cd player was on.  Since both of these devices only have power toggle switches and do not have a power on and power off IR command, it was difficult to tell if the power was on or off.  I solved the stereo problem by purchasing a TouchLink (www.smartlinc.com) power probe device (model #1111).   This is a device has a standard 110 power plug-in that plugs into the switched power outlet in the back of the stereo.  When the stereo is on it will provide relay output to Stargate's digital input.  This allows me to know when the stereo power is on or off.  The ability to determine if the CD player is off or on was a bit more difficult.  TouchLinc makes a light prove (model # 1115) that is supposed to be able to detect the LED lights of a stereo or other electronic equipment.  I purchased one of these, but it did not work for my cd player because it didn't emit enough light.   The next thing that I tried was a video detector probe (model #1114).  This detects the presence of a video/audio signal.  When a CD is playing it sends the signal to the stereo that can be detected.  I put a splitter on the left line out of the cd player so that one side of the splitter goes to the stereo and the other goes to the relay probe.  This works very well.  I had to do some interesting programming in Stargate to make sure that it always did the right thing based on all the combinations of options, but in the end, I am very happy with it.  Now when I press one button on the touch screen, I will always be assured that I will get the cd to play.

Equipment List:

Infrastructure Details

Central wiring closet

I made sure that we had a central location in the basement that had enough room to be used as a wiring closet. As it turned out, this space is where all the other utilities are in the basement. I have a space that is about 8 feet high by 10 feet wide that I have all my equipment attached to. I put in a professional relay rack that has all Cat 5 and RJ6 termination points on it. It also has three shelves. The top shelf holds my modem that is used for paging, my network hub, my JDS IR expander, the satellite receiver and other misc. things. The middle shelf holds my amplifier that has an audio input from Stargate and is connected to the announcement speakers. This amplifier is on all the time. This shelf also has my music stereo system. The bottom shelf holds my computer monitor.

I have 24 Cat 5 connectors and 24 RJ 6 connectors that are currently terminated at the rack.

Mounted on the wall is the rest of the equipment which includes the JDS Stargate, JDS I/O Expander, the Napco Gemini security panel, Gemini X10 expander and the Gemini I/O expander. I have 1 punch down block for the phone and 6 punch down blocks for all the other sensors and other low voltage applications. I have 1 punch down block for the IR wire also. I also have an enclosure where all the video hardware is mounted.

All the wires in the house are home run to this central point and everything is terminated on the relay rack or in punch down blocks.

Electrical panels

We installed two 200-amp panels in our house. We wanted to make sure that there was plenty of room for current finished area of the house and future expansion in the basement. We installed a Leviton surge protector on each of the two panels. We also installed a signal bridge on one of the electrical panels.  Our house only has 2350 sq. feet of space not including a 1300 sq. ft basement that is currently unfinished. As I mentioned above, we did not put in any fluorescent lighting to help eliminate interference that would affect X10 signals. Since I did all the low voltage wiring myself, I was very careful not to run any of the wire next to high voltage wire. Because of all the precautions, I have not had any problems with lost X10 signals, interference or weak X10 signals which is great since I use a lot of X10.

Optical isolation between Stargate and the home automation PC

Lighting

I did not put in any hardwired lighting control. I did not feel it was required and it was hard to justify the cost. I am using several X-10 light switches that work very well and I am pleased with their functionality.

I am mostly using X10 Pro brand X-10 push button controls where I do not need soft start or manual dimming.

I have 5 or 6 switch Leviton dimmable devices that also work well, but I really do not like the feel of the rocker controls. I really want the true rocker action switches, but they are cost prohibitive for me to put them everywhere.

I have an X10 flood light with a motion detector above the garage that turns the lights on and announces when motion is detected. When motion is detected at night, an X10 signal is sent to Stargate, which then plays a sound over the announcement speakers to let everyone know that motion has been detected. Most of the time this motion is from a car in the driveway. I put 3 other future 110 boxes on the other three sides of the house for future X10 floodlights.

I have several of the lights turned on and turned off by motion detectors and also through the automation controller. The lights are also controlled by using an X10 8 in 1 TV remote. These remotes are wonderful and I have 3 or 4 of them around that I use for the TV’s, audio equipment and X10 signals to Stargate.

To help eliminate possible interface from fluorescent lights, I decided not to use any fluorescent lights at all in the house.

Security

I installed a Napco Gemini 96 security system. I choose this system because it has some basic interface capabilities that HAL 2000 uses. It also has an X-10 module that can be used but I am currently not using it. This system has 9 built in inputs and I purchased an additional 8 input module. I also have an additional 8-relay module that I am currently not using. I have a GEM-X10 module that will produce an X10 signal in response to several events in the security system. I am not doing much with this yet, but plan to in the future.

I have 5 outside doors that are connected to 5 separate digital inputs using roller switches mounted in the door jams. This allows me to track when a door opens. I put in plunger sensors in each of the 4 doors that have dead bolt plungers but do not currently have them connected to the security system, only to Stargate.

I currently have 1 glass break sensor connected to one digital input. I have 2 motion detectors connected to 2 inputs. The rest of the inputs are unused at this time.

I have 5 smoke detectors and 3 heat detectors connected to the system. One smoke in each of the 3 bedrooms, one in the upstairs hallway and one at the base of the stairs on the main floor. I have 2 heat detectors in the attic and one in the garage. All of these are connected so that if one goes off, they all will go off which is required by code in our area. If I had to do this over I would have let the electrician put in the standard detectors and only put in a couple of detectors connected to the security system. This would have saved some money and made the entire system less complex. Even though installing these were not difficult, it took time and the county inspector had to test and OK each one of them.

HVAC

I currently am not doing anything with HVAC. The main reason is that our geo-thermal heat pump does not really need to be adjusted to realize energy savings. It is a very efficient system that works best when it is left alone to maintain a constant temperature. Our thermostat does have the ability to be set between day and night using a relay output from the automation controller. I do plan to do this in the future, but it is not a priority. If you are not familiar with a geo-thermal heat pump, I would highly recommend looking into them if you are building a new house. They have a lot of great benefits and we are very glad we decided to put on in.

Summary of all cables:

1. RG6 quad shield for Video

2. Cat 5 for phone and network

3. 1 pair shielded for microphone

4. 1 pair shielded for IR

5. 14 gage speaker wire for stereo speakers

6. 16 gage speaker wire for announcement speakers

7. 2 pair unshielded for windows sensors, motion sensors and door sensors.

8. 1 pair unshielded for some of the misc. sensors.

9. 8 wire HVAC wire for thermostat

10. Fire wire for all heat and fire detectors.

11. Multimedia outlets consist of two Cat 5 connections and two RG6 connections.

Room by room

Master Bedroom: 3 MM outlets, one Cat 5 phone line, 1 IR wire, one microphone wire, 2 pair of speaker wire, 1 Cat 5 cable for future security console, 1 pair of speaker wire for announcement speaker, 1 two pair wire for motion sensor, all three windows that open have a two pair for security.

Master Bathroom: 1 MM outlet, one pair of speaker wire for announcement speaker, two pair of speaker wire for future speakers, both windows that open have a two pair wire for security, one pair of wires for microphone and one pair of wires for IR sensor.

Other two upstairs bedrooms: Both windows that open have a two pair wire for security, a MM outlet, IR wire, Microphone wire, 1 pair announcement speaker wire, two pair wire in door jam of closet for sensor.

Guest bathroom: IR wire, microphone wire, speaker wire for announcement.

Upstairs hallway: 2 pair wire for motion sensor.

Family Room: IR wire, 14 gauge 2 pair speaker wire, Cat 5 cable, microphone wire, 4 two pair of security wires for windows sensors.

Dinning Room: IR wire, speaker wire run through a junction box for volume control, microphone wire.

Study: IR wire, 2 Cat 5 wires, 2 Coax Wires, Microphone wire.

Front hallway: 1 pair of 16 gauge speaker wire for announcement speakers, 2 two pair of security wires for front door sensors, 1 two pair security wire for door bell, 1 cat 5 wire for future use, 2 RG6 cables for future use.

Kitchen: 1 pair of 16 gauge speaker wire for announcement speakers, 2 pair of 14 gauge wire run through a junction box for music speakers, 2 Cat 5 wires, two RG6 wires, IR wire, microphone wire, 1 two pair of security wires for sliding door sensor.

Mud Room: 1 pair of 16 gauge speaker wire for announcement speakers, 3 two pair of security wires for door sensors.

Down stairs: 2 two pair of security wires for outside door at top of stairs for door sensors, 4 two pair of security wires for each of the 4 basement windows.

Garage: IR wire, microphone wire, 2 Cat 5 wires.

Outside/perimeter areas: Various runs of Cat 5 and RG6 for future cameras and other expansion.

Attic: I installed two flexible metal conduits from the attic to the basement for future expansion. I have two RG6 wires from the Satellite to the wiring closet and 1 RG6 wire from the attic to wiring closet for an off air antenna.

Video

I used RG6 cable exclusively. I ran two cables from each multimedia location to the wiring closet. I put one multimedia outlet in each of the two kid bedrooms upstairs, 3 MM outlets in the master bedroom upstairs and one in the master bathroom. All of the MM outlets upstairs have been terminated except the one in the bathroom.

On the main floor, I put one MM outlet in the kitchen, one in the library and one in the family room. Only the MM outlet in the family room has been terminated.

I ran four cables from the attic to the wiring closet. Two of them for future and two of them for dual feed satellite. I ended up using one of the spares for an attic antenna that I decided to use.

I also ran RJ6 cable from the front door to the wiring closet for a future camera. I also ran this cable from two locations in the attic above the garage for future video surveillance cameras.

I used a total of 1500 feet of RJ6 cable with 24 total home run cables throughout the house.

Network/Phone

I used Cat 5 cable through the entire house for phone and network connections. I do not differentiate a phone from network drop except for planning purposes. I put two cat 5 outlets in each of the MM outlets that I mentioned above. Each of them is terminated and some of them are being used for network and phone connections. I just have to use a patch cable in the wiring closet to connect the line to either the phone punch down block or to the network hub.

I do have several places throughout the house that I just put in a cat 5 run and jack to be used for a phone or network drop without putting in a full MM outlet. There are approximately 5 of these.

I used 3000 feet of Cat 5 in the house. I used a lot of it for the network/phone wiring, but I also used it everywhere for security panels, extra wiring, and other things that I will mention later.

IR

I used 2 wire shielded cable for all IR locations. I probably should have used standard 2 pair wire, but I decided to use shielded wiring to help eliminate any interference. With two wire, I can not provide an IR status line back to the IR device which may not really matter. I ran IR wire to many different places although I am not currently using any of it. There are 8 runs of this wire throughout the hose.

Microphone

I used 2 wire shielded cable for all microphones. I currently do not have any microphones connected, but would like to in the future. I currently have 8 runs of this wire throughout the house.

Sensors:

I used 1 and 2 pair unshielded wire for all windows, door, motion, glass break and other sensors. Most of the runs are 2 pair even though I only use 1 pair.

I have 21 windows in the house that can open and each of them has a recessed magnetic sensor fitted into the casement. All of these are 2 pair wires home run to the wiring closet.

Each of the 4 outside doors has a roller sensor in the door jam that is connected to the security panel to detect when a door opens. Each of the dead bolts holes has a plunger sensor in it to detect if the dead bolt is engaged. These sensors are connected to Stargate for monitoring the status of the house. I currently have a Stargate routine that checks the status of the outside doors and the garage doors to see if they are open or closed. This routine can be triggered by the touchscreen controller and is also triggered by the time of day trigger in the Stargate program. At 10:15 pm and 11:00 pm the Stargate program checks the status of the doors and displays a message on the touchscreen controller if there are any doors not locked.

There is a fifth outside door that is a sliding door that only has a plunger sensor in the door jam that is connected to the security system. I currently have no way of telling if this door is locked which I would like to be able to do.

I have one glass break sensor in the breakfast area that covers the back of the house that is connected to the security system.

I currently have one motion sensor connected to the security system to monitor motion when the security system is set. I have 1 motion sensor in the family room to detect inactivity to turn lights off and on. I have a motion sensor in the upstairs bathroom that is used to turn on and off the bathroom light at night. I have a motion sensor in the basement to detect inactivity to turn off all the lights. I have several more motion sensors that I have not installed yet that will be used for detecting activity to turn on and off lights.

Misc.

Door Bell: the doorbell is home run to the wiring closet and into Stargate. When the doorbell is pressed, a sound is made over the announcement speakers. I do not have a traditional doorbell alarm, but I did put in a wire to where a traditional door bell alarm would go in case I needed one in the future.

Garage Doors: I home ran a 2 pair wire from the base of each of the three garage doors to the wiring closet for future sensors to detect the status of the garage doors. I also home ran a 2 pair wire from each of the garage door openers to the wiring closet so that I can open the garage doors remotely. I currently have one of the garage doors configured in  Stargate so that I can open the garage door by pressing the doorbell in a predefined sequence.

Speaker/intercom on front door: I ran an RG6 and a Cat 5 cable to the location of the doorbell for future use if wanted to hook up a speakerphone or a videophone. I also ran an RG6 and Cat 5 above the front door for a future camera and motion sensor.

Speakers

The first step in the project was to determine what type of functionality that I wanted to have. This is very difficult because you need to think about what is usable today and what will be needed in the future. Since I was going to do all the wiring myself I decided that I wanted to error on the side of too much wiring rather than not enough. I spent about 1 year working on a wiring plan that would meet all my criteria. The result of the plan was to put in a lot of wire even though I really had no intention of using most of it now.

I had several speaker needs that I needed to plan for. The first type was the music speakers that would be located in most of the rooms. I also wanted announcement speakers in many places throughout the house. The third type of speakers were for the home entertainment system in the family room.

For the music system I used 14/4 gauge speaker wire. I put this wire in the Master Bathroom, Master Bedroom, Dinning Room, and the Kitchen. All of these wires were home run to the central wiring closet in the basement. I ran the speaker wire through a single gang electrical box in each room so that I could add independent volume control in the future.

Music speakers:

I have yet to put in speakers in the master bathroom, but have put in the others. In the dinning room and master bedroom, I put in transducer speakers that are installed in the ceiling joists and are completely hidden. These speakers come in pairs just like regular speakers, but work very differently. To install them you mount each transducer to a piece of plywood that is about 8 inches square. This plywood then gets mounted to the top of the drywall by putting screws in the all four corners. When you are done, the speakers a completely hidden up in the joists. The sound comes from the vibration of the plywood and the drywall. When you first enter the room you can here the sound, but have no idea where it is coming from. I like to tell people to find the speakers and it is interesting when they can’t.

The sound quality is good for background music and it is nice to not have the speakers showing. I’m not sure I would be happy with the quality if I really wanted to have great sound in all the ranges.

I put a pair of 8 inch round ceiling speakers in the kitchen and they work and sound very well.

I put in a pair of rear speakers in the family room for future surround sound but for now they are just connected to the stereo for music.

Announcement speakers:

I ran 16/2 wire for announcement type speakers to the mud room entrance, the front hallway entrance, the family room, each of the 2 upstairs bedrooms, the upstairs guest bathroom, the upstairs hallway, the master bedroom, the master bathroom, the front porch and the garage. These 11 speaker wire runs are home run to the wiring closet. I currently have speakers in use in the master bedroom, family room, front hallway and the basement.  I have found that these four speakers really provide good coverage everywhere in the house.

Home Theatre:

I plan to have the real Home Theatre in the basement in the future so for now I just wired the family room for rear surround sound speakers. I put in some basic in-wall speakers that are currently just used for music. I have not wired the family room for the 3 front speakers but will not have any problem doing this in the future because of the layout of the room. The area where the front speakers will eventually be is in a built in wall cabinet that can easily be fitted with wire and speakers.

All of the speaker wires are home run to the wiring closet. There are a total of 21 pairs of speaker wires that go to the wiring closet. I am currently only using a few of the wires. I have the master bedroom, the dinning room, the kitchen, and the family room speakers each connected to a terminal strip that is in turn connected to four relays on Stargate. I have the incoming speaker wire from my amplifier also connected to the terminal strip. I am able to change which set of speakers is playing by sending an X10 A-8 A-ON to Stargate. Each time it receives an A-8 A-ON, it loops through each relay and turns the two relays on for each pair of speaker that is next in the Stargate code. This method helps to ensure that I have only one pair playing at a time.