Infrared Appliance Control
Need to control your lamp, fan, heater, and other appliances using an infrared remote control or ECU? Up until now, this has been possible using house wiring e.g. X-10, with additional modules.
A new product, Watts Clever Easy Off Sockets with Smart Box, provides a simpler, cheaper (and hopefully more reliable) alternative. It comes with two sockets and a ‘Smart Box’.
The socket goes between the power cord of your appliance and the mains power point on your wall. Note: for this system to work, your appliance needs to have a physical button that can remain in the ‘on’ position even when the mains power is switched off. You can test this by switching it off and on again at the power point.
The Smart Box learns a signal from any button on your remote control or ECU. When you next press this button, the Smart Box relays this signal to the socket, which turns the appliance on or off.
Because the Smart Box is battery powered, it does not need to be plugged in to mains power so can be easily placed within range of the remote control or ECU signal. Multiple sockets can be linked to the one Smart Box.
The Watts Clever Easy Off Sockets with Smart Box is available at Jaycar.
