Turning your lights off

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The X10 command ALL LIGHTS OFF is a very simple way to turn off all devices set to listen for that command within a single house code (e.g. your house). While fast, I wanted more flexibility. In particular, I wanted the ability to turn off all the lights in my office, or in my bedroom, or to turn all of the outside lights on or off simultaneously. Since I do not have each of these locations on a separate housecode, I chose instead to use macros on my CM11a ActiveHome conroller from X10.com. I defined the locations, and created macros for each in my controller, and then set KeyPadLinc controllers from Smarthome to execute the macros, allowing me to turn off all the lights in any of these locations at a touch of a button, and to turn off all the lights easily as I leave the house.

I am considering adding several motion sensors, and writing a program to turn off all lights if no movement has been detected from any of the sensors in more than an hour. This would catch those cases when someone leaves the house and forgets to turn off the lights. These macros would be more advanced than what is supported in the CM11A, but I am considering upgrading my controller to one that can set flags when motion sensor input is received. That would allow me to determine if and when the ALLOFF macro should be executed.