         AN X10-HOME AUTOMATION CONTROLLER FOR THE ADAM COMPU TER
                                    AWAUG 7/16/1989 by MINH TA


 Would you like to have your house turn the outside light on when you 
want and go off when it should, or give you some light at dawn when you come 
back after a late party, keep air in the house at the most comfortable level 
that you like, scare the burglar away, simulate a live-in house when you are 
on a long vacation?  If you find yourself saying: "Yes!" then the X10-ADAM 
controller is the right choice for your ADAM computer

 You may have already said " Yeh ! Right ,it costs a fortune and it is too 
much work to install it " , the answer is NO!  The controller costs around 
$20 to $40, plus the receiver module at $8 to $16 each depending on what 
what kind of things you plug into it, from lamp dimmer to heavy-duty appliance 
receiver module. OK, how about installation ? . It is a piece of cake.  Just 
plug the controller and the receivers into any 115vac power outlet around 
the house, plug the lamps, appliance (etc) into the receiver's receptacle and 
you are set.  Now you can use the ADAM to talk to the controller (with ADAM 
software, obviously) and turn things on or off, dim a light, run a fan 
slower or faster at certain times of the day... You can even turn off the 
ADAM or use it for some other programs after you have properly programmed the 
timer events on the controller.  Thats right! the controller only needs the 
ADAM to understand what you want it to do (Humanoid interface). After that, 
it will run all by itself.  It even has a battery backup if power fails! 
Interruption protection is good for 100 hours and uses a 9 volt battery 
readily available at local stores.  Sounds very interesting right?
 
The X10 computer interface controller could be purchased at HeathKit 
retail store ($ 39,99) ,DAK mail order catalog or maybe a computer store 
close to where you live. The software that comes with the controller will 
not run on the ADAM (its for IBM PC).  That may be a problem for us since 
most computer product manufacturers stopped writing ADAM-supporting software 
for their newly available products.  We are on our own if we want to use newer 
computer peripherals on our beloved ADAM computer. I have been using my X10 
controller a little over a year (bought it from DAK for $ 19.99) for my PC 
clone.  Since the ADAM was my very first computer (6 years ago), It is still 
the most loved computer I have ever had (I have worked with Color computers, 
Commdore, IBM, Timex, Atari..) and I have been researching and building new 
hardware (RS-232 serial, parallel printer interfaces, intelligent speech 
synthesizer ...) or adapting other computers peripherals to work on the 
ADAM (C-64 mouse ..) .
 
Being together with all my best friends in the AWAUG club and on the AWAUG 
BBS is my greatest opportunity to continue improving and supporting the ADAM.

    The X10-ADAM home automation controller was started as a surprise project 
that I was supposed to have at the July AWAUG meeting.  It was a surprise for 
me too when I received my meeting announcement in the mail. After I called Bob 
(AWAUG's President) to confirm whats going on, I had only 3 more days to go 
(What a surprise ?!?). OK, I opened up the file cabinet and crossed my fingers 
that all the manuals that came with the X10 were still there.  They were 
there!! (lucky ?) .

    The software for X10-ADAM was written under SmartBASIC but all the I/O 
routines was done in assembly (Cross assembly on IBM-PC).  After SmartBASIC 
loaded, it will load and run the HELLO program, set LOMEM to 30000 (just in 
case that some other driver will be implemented later on) and load the X10 
machine language routine at memory location 29000.  It then sets up the 
screen and waits for your further command by pressing the SmartKEY on the 
ADAM keyboard.

    SmartKEY number V labeled PROG is not functioning yet so you can only use 
the immediate mode on X10-ADAM.  Future developments on the program will allow 
you to download timer events, set time, save file, load file etc...on Timer mode 
and the Security mode which will run a live-in simulation in your house when 
you are away from home. The program will be available for users further 
development on the AWAUG BBS in the WAUG files section.  All X10-ADAM related 
files will have the X10 prefix in their file name as follows:

           X10ADAM.BAS The main program in SmartBASIC,
                               rename to HELLO if you wish
           X10.BIN machine language routine
                               rename to X10 in SmartBASIC
           X10ADAM.LST Source code listing for X10.BIN

     The program was not done perfectly as I had only 3 days to get it working, 
so it really needs more work.  Please feel free to download it and modify it 
to improve it as you like.  Any contributions will be appreciated.  It was 
just started as an ADAM users support hardware and software development 
project that will be another way to keep our ADAM alive for some more years .

 
Minh TA 
AWAUG Hardware Specialist 
July 16, 1989
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