Smart Home Blog

British based company Energy Optimizers Limited offers an elegant and efficient way to monitor of energy consumption named Plogg. This a bit ugly looking unit can measure energy consumption in desired socket (and appliance, of couse) and transmit data to PC or controller via Bluetooth or ZigBee. Thanks to it the Plogg can be integrated with whole house automation system or with just standalone application on your PC.

The Plogg looks similar to Kill-A-Watt but the last one doesn’t have possibility to connect to PC. The price for unit is about 60 GBP (depends on using wireless technology). The application of the Plogg is reasonable if you need to see of energy consumption of specific device (or group devices). Otherwise the using of whole house energy monitors is more preferable.

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If you need to connect your fax, answer machine, PC or Sky box modem but don’t want to make additional wiring the Wireless Phone Jack helps you to do that. Using cordless DECT standard from RTX in a special configuration it allows to send data with 56 Kbit/s up to 50 meters. No bad for £50 for transmitter receiver pair. Additional receivers are available at £25 only.

The Wireless Phone Jack installation is extremely simple. Just plug transmitter and receiver into the power socket and they start to communicate each other.

[via AutomatedHome]

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Today Mvix launched the HDMI equipped HD Media Player - MV780. Unlike the similar devices the MV780 has a built-in 3.5″ HDD (up to 750Gb) and can not only receive media content from PC to display on TV but store it locally. It has a native HDMI output to deliver a full HD (1080i) signal to your TV. Also the MV780 doesn’t need special software on the PC. Just add it into your home network using WiFi (802.11n) or LAN connection and it will appear for the rest PCs as external HDD. It should be doesn’t mutter what operation system run your PC - Linux, MacOSX or Windows. The unit have to work correctly with all of them. Thanks to syncing function the MV780 can sync with any PC in your network or with filesharing PNP services such eMul or BitTorrent.

The is no any word about availability and price of the MV780. But if you take into account the price of previous model MV760HD (€260) you can approximate the cost for MV780.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

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Belkin announced its new product (perfect as usual) - HDMI Wireless Transmitter FlyWire. It allows to transmit full HD signal (1080p, 24-frame) up to 30 meters away. The transmitter has 6 inputs: 2 HDMI, 2 component, a composite/S-Video AV set, and a SCART (SCART is gonna be replaced by third HDMI for the North American version). Different sources have different opinions about transmitting non HD signal from non-HDMI sources: same of them say that FlyWire can upconvert SD signal to 1080p, the rest - it leaves it at its native resolution. In any case, it should be available detailed specification till the HDMI transmitter will start to sell in summer 2008. Expected price of the FlyWire is $500 - $600 which seems reasonable for possibility to get rid of wires.

[sources: eHomeUpgrade and CNet]

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If you have some ZigBee devices connected into one network you might be interested to extend their range by adding XBee Wall Router. It’s designed to patch areas within a ZigBee network where signal erosion or loss occurs due to distance limitations or air interference. So, your network will work more stable and its range will be extended.

Additionally, XBee includes integrated temperature and light sensors. So, just for $79 you will get not only extender but two additional devices in your network.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

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