My first ever home automation project: “Remote Control” Lights

As a software developer, it has always been my mantra to try to automate “all the things” and write myself out of a job.  So far, I’ve been unsuccessful.  This path, however, started very early in my software writing days.

The following is a historic tale which started me down my journey to giant robot bliss/frustration.  This is the tale of my first “home automation” project.

The year is sometime around 1992.  I’m 10 years old (for the purposes of this story, I may have been younger or older depending on what year this actually happened).

10 Year old me has a problem.  The light switch for my room is by the door and I’m in bed about 10 feet away.  I want to go to sleep and I’m very comfy in bed, but my lights are on.  Shoot.  What to do?

Well, for that night, I had to just get up and be cold, but I decided that I needed a better solution.

Here’s what I came up with:

Supplies Needed:

• As many McDonald’s Straws you can take (say 20)
• String – as much as you need to get around the walls of your room plus about 6 feet
• Tape – I used masking, that proved to be a bad choice long term.  Try to find something that won’t permanently goo up your walls.

Procedure:

1. Remove wrappers from about 10 straws
2. Thread string through the straws.
3. Tape straws to your wall.  Align last straw so that it can pull the switch down to turn it off.
4. Tie one end of the string to your light switch
5. Tie other end of the string to your bed.
6. Done.

So,  this worked ok, but it took a lot of force to turn off the lights resulting in string falling off the switch and/or straws falling off the wall.  Also, this mechanism only turned the lights OFF and it’d be nice to be able to turn them ON as well (for when I get up in the morning and am all comfy and cosy in bed but need the lights on).  The system needed to be modified.

Modifications

Additional Supplies Needed:

• Another long piece of string, the same size as the first
• 2 more straws

Procedure:

1. Unwrap the 2 new straws
2. Take one of the straws and tape it to the light switch.  (Standard American light switches fit almost perfectly inside a 1990’s McDonald’s drinking straw.)
3. Tie original “OFF” string to the furthest out end of the switch straw (away from the wall).
4. Run a new string through the wall mounted straws, tying the end to the bed.
5. Mount the second new straw such that it is above the switch.
6. Thread the other end of the new string through the second straw and tie to the end of the switch straw (again, away from the wall).

Awesome!  Now I could turn my lights both on and off from the comfort of my bed.  Also, the longer lever provided by the switch straw meant that it required less force to turn the lights on or off.  Success!