| ★ HARDWARE ★ PERIPHERIQUES CPC - AUTRES ★ GIS - RED BOXES ★ |
RED BOXES: GIS is a box (Amstrad Computer User) | RED BOXES (Amstrad Action) |
A new hardware add-on can put your computer to work on a whole new range of useful applications: home automation. Called simply Red Boxes, the gadgets can turn lights on and off, limit the kids'TV viewing, detect intruders or carry out many other tasks you could invent. 'Control'applications of this sort have been dreamt about for years by home-micro enthusiasts. Do-it-yourself projects involved festooning the house with wires - not to mention tying up the computer. While controlling the washing machine, it couldn't be doing anything else. The double genius of the Red Boxes, however, is that they need no special wiring: they send signals along the mains wire. And once you've typed instructions on your Amstrad you can leave Red Leader, which contains its own microprocessor, to keep the other Red Boxes under control while Arnold goes back to playing Starglider. The starter pack contains three of the boxes, sure enough in bright red livery each with a red flex, a red mains plug and a red indicator light. And a 50-page user guide in red covers. The one designer labelled Red Leader is the brains box. The others are simply called Red One (same size., but with a 13-amp socket) and Red Two (half as long, with an infra-red motion detector). All have a tiny, almost-invisible override switch. The only things not red are a cassette, and a peculiar lead: at one end a DIN plug and at the other a rather naked edge connector, only three of its 17 pins needed. To wall-mount any of the units, brackets are provided not red. The printer port, surprisingly, is used on the Amstrad CPCs. That's where the edge connector goes, and the DIN plug into Red Leader. In effect it's a clever serial link without a £50 serial interface. (On the other hand, if you have a printer, you'll have the annoyance of unplugging it to talk to Red Leader.) The cassette contains a program to turn Arnold into a terminal for Red Leader. It has its own CPU chip (a 6502) and 8k of ram; it takes over Arnold to gain keyboard, screen and filing system. Load this cassette first, for powering up Red Leader at the mains triggers communication. Then in about five seconds a menu screen for Red Control Program appears. This is the simpler of the two ways to program the system. At home the system worked fine, but in the office messages took forever to travel between Arnold and Leader. Thus apparently is due to 'noise on the mains, perhaps from fluorescent lights and our nifty new phototypesetter. Too bad there isn't a 'headmaster' command or switch to tell Red Leader to ignore the mains and listen to Arnold's lesson. The first thing is to 'install'or register serial numbers of other red devices. Since signals are sent along mains wires, every Red Box must have a unique secret identity and understand only the messages meant for it. Mrs Smith next door, if she has Red Boxes too, won't set off your burglar alarm when she intends to warm her bed electrically. From the menu you should also set the clock to the correct time (a battery back-up for the clock is available as an extra). Selecting any remote device, you can set it on or off. or specify a time for it. Or you can make one red device control another. All this be stored on disk or tape. For more elaborate applications - such as making the central heating come on oftener during weekends than weekdays if Red Two detects people moving, otherwise turning on lights and radio now and then to fool burglars - you can quit the menu and use the built-in Red Basic. It's a full version of the language - including even graphics plotting - plus extras like TELL ("lamp",ON). The command EVERY x gives a handy way to interrupt the mam program every so-many seconds. The user guide is generally clear, but for heavy programming you'd want the 220-page Project Manual costing another £10. Neither, however, demonstrates the system's potential well enough. I'd have expected more sample programs in Red Basic. General Information Systems has more Red Boxes on the way: an analogue-to-digital converter and an RS box (two computers could communicate down the mains at 2400 baud). Red Five is already available: a 160dB warbling alarm. Ones. Twos and Fives cost £35 each. As a starter I'd ask for two Ones with Leader rather than the standard pack. Red Boxes are a system that could provide a lot of fun as well as practical purpose. But I would soon think of uses for more than the budget would bear. AA |
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