What is Home Automation?
Home Automation is anything that gives you remote or automatic control of
things around the home. For some it may be something as simple as remote
or automatic control of a few lights, for others a sense of security and
peace of mind knowing their home is available to them from anywhere an
internet connection can be made.
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How can CHAD™ help my family and home?
Reducing utility costs by automating lighting, temperature, sprinklers, and swimming pool system.
Keep family connected with integrated scheduling assistant.
Provides peace of mind with instant access to your home no matter where you are.
By implementing automated night-lighting for increased safety.
Never miss your favorite show or movie.
Instant traffic, stock,
Turn off all your lights with one touch of a button.
And much, much more!
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Can I use my web-browser PDA or cell phone to connect with CHAD™?
Yes! Anywhere an internet connection can be made you will be in touch with CHAD™.
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How technical do I have to be to install CHAD™?
CHAD™ is a software product that installs on your personal PC just like any other software package.
Much of the control hardware is as easy to install as plugging in a lamp.
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How is CHAD™ so affordable?
CHAD™ uses your existing PC so there are no expensive control hardware boxes to purchase.
The X-10 technology has been around for over 20 years and has become very affordable within the last 5.
CHAD™ is completely expandable allowing you to grow your home automation system as fast or as slow as you want.
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Can I control my heating/air conditioning with CHAD™?
Absolutely! By replacing your existing thermostat with a compatible X-10
communicating thermostat you can control your heating/air conditioning
system with manually, with automation programming, and from anywhere in
the world with the Internet.
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Does CHAD™ support wireless cameras?
Yes, by connecting a wireless video receiver to a video capture card in
your PC, CHAD™ will be able to monitor all of your wireless cameras either
locally or remotely from the web.
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How many lights/appliances can I control?
CHAD™ supports up to 256 unique X-10 addresses which includes House Codes
A-P and Unit Codes 1-16.
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Does CHAD™ log events such as motion detected?
CHAD™ will log any automation that is setup in the system. If you want to
check for motion detection in a certain area, simply setup an automation
for that motion sensor and enable logging. You can do this with any type
of event that you create and review each logged entry by date.
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How does CHAD™ know when it is dark outside?
CHAD™ uses 1) your zip-code to determine your latitude/longitude 2) your
computer's time zone, then calculates sunrise and sunset based on this
information. The times can be seen on the main display.
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How does my computer know whose calling?
The CHAD™ software uses your existing modem with caller ID features to
determine who is calling. Caller ID Service is required from your phone
company.
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How can my CHAD™ system have a more natural sounding voice?
You can purchase very natural sounding voices (male and female) from the
ReadPlease.com website that can be installed on your system. Check out
their site for an interactive demo of these voices.
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Which kind of LAN (local area network) will be needed for CHAD™?
CHAD™ does not require a local area network to function, but in order to
view your system from the Internet, the software will need access through
your Internet connection such as Cable or DSL.
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Can I use the CHAD™ software with my existing X-10 devices?
Yes, with the X10 computer interface module CHAD™ can send X10 commands to
all of your current X10 devices.
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