Having been a long time devote of the MythTV DVR, I was lulled into a state of complacency. I came to believe that my home-built DVR was an appliance that would perform its duties ad infinitum. About a year ago, the cable company insisted that I take several of its digital converter boxes. They said […]

Download this Linux IR learning utility that supports the Global Caché® iTach IP2IR networked IR blaster. A company called Global Caché markets a line of IR Blasters that are controllable across a network. With these devices you can send commands from any networked computer or smartphone to the IR emitters attached to your TV and […]

The reverse engineering of the Home Heartbeat was accomplished through use of a little monitor program I put together. It runs in your web browser and displays all of the state information of the sensors in real-time. You can see a running demo of the monitor >>>HERE<<<. You can grab a copy of the monitor […]

The first document I am publishing describes how to install and test the USB serial drivers for Windows, Linux and the Macintosh. You can get started by reading this document entitled USB Drivers for the Home Heartbeat. Once you have the drivers installed and working you are going to want to try out the command […]

Since the demise of the Eaton Home Heartbeat monitoring services back in June of 2011, their customers have been left without any remote notification of their home’s status. Some enterprising hackers have taken up the cause to bring this abandoned system back to life. A few are frustrated home owners with idled Home Heartbeat systems, […]

The Home Heartbeat was a monitoring system for your home’s vital signs. Introduced by Eaton Electrical, Inc. at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas during January of 2005. It was officially retired on June 1, 2011. Not to be confused with a home control system, the Home Heartbeat ostensibly provided status information about your […]