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BetaBrite Kitchen Mount Example

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    BetaBrite Kitchen Mount Example

    I mounted one of my BetaBrites in the kitchen, and thought I would post a few pictures. I chose to use 2 wall boxes behind the unit instead of just a single one, or even just a small hole for the wires for a few reasons.
    1. This is the top of a wall on the first floor in the middle of the house, with a second floor above. Pulling wires to this location was extremely difficult (think 2 days labor) without tearing the house completely apart. By having the larger wall box holes, it facilitated the pull, and made it possible to pull wires down this wall behind a refrigerator, as well as into one utility room where I have never been able to pull data cables before. This opens up other retrofit home automation abilities in the future (controls in the utility room and a water leak sensor under the refrigerator for example).
    2. The "silver satin" flat data cable is not in wall rated, so a wall box is called for, where it can be changed over to in wall rated CAT cable. The same is true of the power cable. Note that it is converted in the box to an in wall rated power cable.


    We look up at this sign all the time now. It updates once per minute with the time, and the current temperature from our own Davis weather station.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Automated; August 11, 2014, 06:10 AM.

    #2
    BetaBrite Kitchen Mount Example

    I also modified this BetaBrite, by removing the round piezo element from the circuit board. This was to entirely stop the beeping it makes by default when it powers on, and allows it to be powered up silently. I then made a few events to turn it off late at night, or when the home alarm is set as away, and then to turn it back on when the alarm is disarmed from away mode, or early in the morning upon the first detected movement in the kitchen.
    Last edited by Automated; August 10, 2014, 09:25 PM.

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      #3
      Very nice setup, my wife would kill me if I mounted a LED sign (but have secretly always wanted to), lots of useful information can be pushed through without needing TTS for everything.
      HS3 PRO, Win10, WeatherXML, HSTouch, Pushover, UltraGCIR, Heaps of Jon00 Plugins, Just sold and about to move so very slim system.

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        #4
        BetaBrite Kitchen Mount Example

        Thanks. I probably should have mentioned that the ceilings are very high in our house, so having it in a corner above the cabinets, with the dim brown text selected keeps it quite out of sight unless you purposely look up at it. The camera flash is also lighting up the scene more than is natural. We both wanted it out of sight, and I almost decided not to do it. The access the holes gave me to pulling some other wires also helped the decision along. This will be the only BetaBrite inside the house. I am thinking to do one in the garage and perhaps another in our backyard porch area.

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          #5
          If i was going to put one up, I had always thought the Garage as well, since this would be a good one to show how everything was going as you left, e.g. when the garage door opens between x am and y zm show on the screen if any doors or windows have been left open (other than the garage door), or what is on for that day, or what the weather and driving conditions are like, all useful information for the trip .
          HS3 PRO, Win10, WeatherXML, HSTouch, Pushover, UltraGCIR, Heaps of Jon00 Plugins, Just sold and about to move so very slim system.

          Facebook | Twitter | Flickr | Google+ | Website | YouTube

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            #6
            Here is how to remove the piezo. Unscrew the back of the Betabrite, by removing the 10 small screws. The case will come apart in two halves. The display board sits on plastic retaining shoulders within this clam shell case. Be careful with it, as it is long and a bit floppy. In the picture, on the bottom left, you can see the round silkscreen outline for where the piezo sits. In this picture, I have already removed it. Note that I did this one in a bit of a hurry, and accidentally tore off one of the solder pads. As you will not be able to get a soldering iron to the more inner solder pad (the circuitry is a sandwich of multiple boards), the way to remove it is to remove the solder from the outer pad, near the edge of the board, as a soldering iron can fit between the two boards near the edge, but not usually all the way to the inner pad. Then, gently pry up the piezo from the edge (while heating the lead, as there will generally still be some solder in the through-hole, or else you will tear off the pad, as I did. Once the piezo is lifted on one side, you will have exposed the other lead enough, that you can heat it from the top side of the board, and pull the piezo the rest of the way out.
            Attached Files

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              #7
              Originally posted by travisdh View Post
              If i was going to put one up, I had always thought the Garage as well, since this would be a good one to show how everything was going as you left, e.g. when the garage door opens between x am and y zm show on the screen if any doors or windows have been left open (other than the garage door), or what is on for that day, or what the weather and driving conditions are like, all useful information for the trip .
              Thanks for the idea for the garage one!

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                #8
                Thanks for posting this. Gives me some good ideas for mounting mine.

                Cheers
                Al
                HS 4.2.8.0: 2134 Devices 1252 Events
                Z-Wave 3.0.10.0: 133 Nodes on one Z-Net

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