Aptiva C66
(250-0458)            Miscelaneous What Not           Faxback Doc. # 34386

Two Way Serial Interface

The Two Way Serial Interface does retain information within itself.  For
use with Fast Routines and Lifestyle mode.  It will also retain a buffer
for manual commands to a module. (I.E. if you quickly turned a lamp on and
off 20 times in a row with the Home Director software.  Not recommended.
The lamp would slowly turn off and on twenty times in succession.)

Lifestyle Mode

As stated in the troubleshooting guide the Two-way Serial interface does
retain information about the routines and manual turning off and on of
modules from the previous days events.  With Lifestyle enabled Home
Director will replay the previous days commands.  This can give a home that
"Lived In" look.

WARNING

Use the correct module for the correct appliance.  You can burn out a
module and sometimes the appliance by mixing.  For example,  don't plug an
appliance with an power transformer to a lamp module.  After about the
second or third time of turning it on or off the transformer the
transformer may build a residual charge from being turned off and on.  The
next time you activate the module, that entire charge will want to go
somewhere real fast.  And in the process fry the module and possibly
itself.

Software Structure

Home Director will work on Windows 95 and Windows 3.1.  At this point it is
only being offered on The Aptiva series which all have Windows 95.

The Home Director program by default will install to the C:\Home directory.
There are, however, two files also placed in the windows directory:
                                   c:\windows\del_ah.exe
                                   c:\windows\x10.mac

Also, when uninstalling the Home Directory the automatic option misses some
of the files and also leaves the \Home directory on the C: drive.  To fully
remove the Home Director software, the user must select the Custom option
and manual click on the Select All option and then remove through the
various levels of the software.

When installing the Home Director to a Windows 95 system it will
automatically create a shortcut on the desktop and a folder in the Start
Bar.  The folder in the Start bar is where the Uninstall option is located.

On a Windows 3.1 system there will simply be a group called Home Director.

IMPORTANT

For routines to run while the system has been put in suspend mode, the
Aptiva Scheduler MUST be running when clicking on Suspend.  Rapid Resume
must also be enabled  This is a biggy.  Also the Aptiva Scheduler can be
used to power the system up from a complete shutdown and run the Home
director at a specified time. 

NOTE:  You must give adequate time from the power on time to allow the
machine to fully boot before the routine's scheduled execution time.

(DD/BKL-08/13/96)