Guest techie Paul Gardner takes a look at what could be the ultimate add-on for your spectrum. It's all in a litle Red Box from ELECTRONIC FULFILMENT SERVICES

What do you think is the ultimate add-on for your home computer? How about another computer... New from ELECTRONIC FULFILMENT SERVICES LTD is the Red Box system, a home computer specifically designed for household automation and security.

The Red Box system starts as a set of three devices that you can plug into your household mains supply. Red Leader is a small computer system with a built-in programming language. This can communicate with and control the other two boxes supplied with the starter package: Red One, effectively a mains extension lead with an enclosed remote control relay, and Red Two, a thermal movement sensor that can detect the movement of people within a room and transmit this information to Red Leader. The devices communicate with each other by transmitting radio frequency signals along the mains wiring in your house.

The system arrives neatly packed in polystyrene and each device is a self-contained unit which simply plugs into any standard three-pin mains socket. Each device is fitted with a quality moulded plug which also contains a fuse of the correct rating. Instructions are included on how to change these plugs if your house has non-standard sockets.

A slim (50 page) manual is included which gives very clear instructions on how to set up the equipment. For the Spectrum this is very simple. Power up your computer in the usual way and enter the command LOAD ""

Connect the enclosed lead, which is similar to a standard cassette lead, to your Spectrum (red plug in the EAR socket) and the other end to Red Leader, then plug in Red Leader.

The computer in Red Leader detects which type of home computer it is connected to and starts up accordingly. On the Spectrum, this means that Red Leader sends a program from itself to the Spectrum as if it were a cassette player. The program auto runs and you are presented with a menu screen like that shown in Figure 1.

I had no trouble getting this far with the system and I was quite amazed to see the signal being sent from Red Leader to the Spectrum at precisely the correct 'volume'.

There are two ways of operating Red Leader: you can use the menu driven system or you can write programs using the built-in BASIC programming language. The Spectrum is only used from here on as a keyboard and screen for Red Leader, and as a a route for program storage - programs written in Red BASIC can be saved to tape via your Spectrum.

The menu system shown is very easy to use. It lets you tell the computer about new devices on the system and allows these devices to be turned on and off via the SET option.

Each device has to be 'installed' by telling the computer the device's security code and logical address. As this is a fairly tedious process to have to repeat, you can save all the current device information to tape using the KEEP option from the menu.

From this menu you can set devices to switch on and off at specific times of the day. The system has its own built-in clock which has to be set each time Red Leader is powered up.

It is also possible to make one device dependent upon another. For example, you can arrange for whatever is plugged into Red One to be switched on whenever Red Two detects a movement.

As the starter pack only contains two controllable devices, the applications are fairly limited. It is possible, for example, to have the system switch your electric blanket on and off at preset times every day - or you could use both devices to give you an 'intelligent' porch light... anytime someone moves close to the sensor a light can be switched on.

If you want to use the system for more complicated applications you will need to purchase some of the optional extra devices available and also learn how to program the system using the built-in BASIC.

Figure 2 is a listing of a BASIC program that I wrote to have the system perform as a simple home security device. The two devices in the program are referred to as ALARM, for the mains powered alarm bell that I plugged into Red One, SENSOR, for the thermal movement sensor and finally, SENSW, for the small reset switch which is built into the movement sensor.

This set up worked as follows. I would arm the system by connecting the Spectrum to Red One and running the program. The Spectrum can then be disconnected as it is no longer required. The movement sensor had a field of view that covered my front door and hall. On the way out of the house I had to walk past the sensor, so as I passed it I would press the small switch located on the sensor, thus gaining 10 seconds to leave its field of view.

The program is written so that I can gain entry to my house without setting the alarm bell clanging.

When I return to the house the sensor detects my movement, but gives me a delay of 10 seconds during which I can press the small switch on Red Two to disable the sensor for a further 10 seconds. This gives me time to leave the sensor's field of view. Then I can leisurely stroll upstairs, reconnect the Spectrum and stop the program. Unfortunately, the sensor is so sensitive to thermal movement that one of my cats was sufficient to set the alarm off!

THE HARDWARE

Red Leader is a fully functional computer with a 6502 processor, a 6220 VIA, 16K Bytes of ROM (an EPROM in the review model) and 8K Bytes of RAM used for program and data storage. You need to connect another home computer to it to provide you with a keyboard and screen.

In all three devices there is one chip which is the heart of the communications system, an LM1893N. This is a mains transceiver which transmits serial data on a radio frequency carrier wave along the household Earth and Neutral wires. The range of communication mainly depends on the amount of outside interference, but I tested the review model along the length of a long suite of offices - certainly, you should have no problem in a standard size house.

Red One contains a mains socket which is connected to its mains input via a 16 amp relay. This relay is controlled by Red Leader but the setting can be switched locally by using a small reset switch on the side of the box. This small switch is set flush to the surface and is unlikely to be pressed accidentally.

Red Two contains a thermal detector, the fluctuating output of which is used to detect thermal movement. This detector is housed at the centre of a crude plastic lens system to give it an extended field of view. If Red Two is mounted in the corner of a room it can detect movement almost anywhere in the room except directly below the unit when it is mounted above head height. The detector is particularly sensitive to movement from side to side across its field of view, but I could approach Red Two without it detecting my presence providing I approached head-on. It ignored me until I was less than two feet away.

The devices communicate very reliably with each other and seem to be fairly insensitive to the household appliances that usually generate interference (drills, washing machines and so on.)

THE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

Red Leader supports a powerful programming language which has the feature of being 'event driven' by the external devices. That means that you can have a program running, and whenever one of the devices sends a signal to Red Leader it stops what it is doing and executes a subroutine relevant to that device.

You program the subroutines for each device and can activate or deactivate interrupts from these devices at any time.

The language is very similar to BBC BASIC but it is an integer only version of BASIC. Various commands utilise the screen handling capabilities of the computer you are using as the keyboard and screen for Red Leader.

The BASIC supports long variable names and is fairly fast - it also has some element of structured programming support by having REPEAT-UNTIL loops and event-driven interrupts, but for reasons I shall explain, I don't think many Spectrum users would attempt any 'serious' programming on it.

PROBLEMS

The review model I received was supposed to be a full production version and not a pre-release model, but inside Red Leader there were some fairly messy hand-wired 'patches' on the circuit board. The first Red Leader I was sent stopped working after one day of intermittent use, and investigation showed that the main capacitor on the low voltage power supply was not actually soldered in place, but simply rested in the lead holes in the board! However, a replacement was sent within a day (well done GPO) and the new one worked fine.

The circuit boards in Red One and Red Two are very neatly done and don't appear to have any last- minute fixes on them.

In practical use, the most frustrating aspect of the whole system is the Spectrum. (Don't complain yet!) The problems lie not with Spectrum but with the machine code program that has the Spectrum act as the Red One terminal. Apparently, an ex-Sinclair programmer wrote most of this code and then left it unfinished for some other unfortunate programmer to complete.

It is quite an appalling piece of code. Judging by its operation. The keyboard appears to have been so thoroughly 'de-bounced' that you cannot type faster than four character per second on it. If you want to repeat a key, the auto repeat occurs almost a full second after the first key press and repeats at about half-second intervals. So it takes about four seconds to back-space over an eight character spelling mistake!

I talked to one of the technical bods on the Red Box team who explained some of the reasons behind these problems. He assured me that they would be sorted out in a later model.

The Spectrum implementation also does not let you send anything to the printer (a programming language that doesn't let you list the program on paper!) and when you try and save a program written in Red BASIC to your cassette (Microdrives not supported) the Red Box downloads the program into the Spectrum memory and then prompts you to swap the Red Box leads over with your cassette leads before supplying the prompt 'press any key to continue'. However, it doesn't wait for you to 'press any key'. It just starts the tone immediately. So you have about half a second to swap the leads over and release the pause button on your cassette recorder.

I was so amazed at how bad the practical aspects of using the Spectrum were that I had a go using the Red Boxes on another computer, the BBC (His!). Not surprisingly, it worked beautifully - keyboard type-ahead, printer, disks - everything you would expect.

Suspicious characters might be tempted to think that the Red Box system was developed for the BBC and had been hurriedly amended to support other machines in order to capture a wider market.

When speaking to some of the designers of the system, I learned that they intend to release another two versions of Red Leader to overcome some of these problems. The next version will have a 32K Byte ROM and should be able to contain some better terminal routines for the machines supported.

Yet another version is intended to have a straightforward RS232 interface and so be able to communicate with any computer that supports a simple ASCII terminal program.

FORTHCOMING EXTRAS

As the original system is clearly limited in scope the designers have several new Red Boxes planned which can be add to the basic 'starter' system.

Red Alert is intended to be a fully-functional burglar alarm control system, which will be battery backed and capable of communication with Red Leader, providing inputs from simple window and door switches.

An RS232 unit is envisaged to allow you to let different home computers communicate with each other or devices like printers along the house wiring at a speed of 2400 baud.

Finally a 2 channel A/D converter unit under development will take inputs from simple analogue devices like temperature sensors and communicate the information to Red Leader.

CONCLUSION

Clearly the Red Box system is under development. At £130 for the 3 unit starter pack I don't think it has much to recommend it to Spectrum users until the problems with the terminal emulation program are sorted out. When the manufacturers take the Spectrum seriously enough, and when there are a few more devices available, we'll take another look.

PRICES

Red Box starter system: £129 including Red Leader, Red One and Red Two
Extra Units: Red One and Red Two £35 each
New Units: prices to be announced.

REDS UNDER THE BED - AND IN THE HALL

Finding truly useful purposes for computers in the home is a quest with rich rewards for those that succeed.

Chris Curry, one of the founding fathers of Acorn, has dusted off the concept of controlling the home environment and de- voted considerable skill to marketing the idea - the result is a system called Red Boxes.

The idea is you use your Spectrum to control the system which switches on and off lights, other electric things and detect's burglars etc, etc.

For £130 you can purchase a neatly packaged Red Boxes Starter Kit containing three of the aforementioned Red Boxes, a concise instruction manual and a connecting lead.

Red Leader plugs straight into the mains supply and is attached to your Spectrum via the Ear and Mic sockets, while. Red One and Two are simply plugged into any power socket in the house. Read Leader sends pulses round your house wiring to talk to Red One and Two.

Red Leader contains what can be described as a minimalist microcomputer - a 6502 CPU and 6520 support chip, backed up by a 16K Eprom and 8K of static C-MOS Ram. The rest of the board holds circuitry for communicating with the Spectrum and with the other Red Boxes by transmitting signals around the power ring main of your abode.

Red One is a power relay capable of switching on and off any mains-operated device plugged into its 13 amp three-pin socket. It plugs into any mains socket, and then the appliance you want to control plugs into Red One. Red Two contains an infra-red sensor of the type used by modern burglar alarms. Heat producing objects - like humans or an inferno - trigger it whenever they move into its field of view. Both devices contain somewhat simpler circuitry to Red Leader, but include an encoding system that gives every Red Box its own encryption number.

As Red Leader is a computer in its own right, it only needs the Spectrum as a terminal, fetching key-presses and sending characters to be displayed on the screen. For this to happen, a terminal emulation program must be loaded, which is achieved rather neatly: you enter Load "" and then switch on Red Leader, which pretends that it is a cassette recorder, sending the program to your computer.

With the Spectrum acting as a 'dumb' terminal, the system is rather reminiscent of an old teletype - very slow and accompanied by an irritating noise as the Spectrum's speak- er loudly echoes the conversation between the computers. Once programmed Red Leader can be left to its own devices, freeing your Spectrum for other use.

With the terminal software loaded, you get a menu-driven controlling program. An on-screen clock is provided along with the control options.

First you have to install each box by informing Red Leader of its type and code number. Boxes can be set On or Off or times entered when they are to be switched. Another option allows you to associate one box with another so that if the infra-red sensor is triggered, a lamp lights (so that burglars can see where they are going?)

At this point I discovered that my Red Two box was not transmitting back to Red Leader although the LED mounted on it seemed to indicate that it was sensing movement: quality control rather than the transmission system seems to be to blame for this, as Red One worked perfectly.

A few extra commands allows you to Save and Load data and so forth. In this mode you can do little more than you could with a £15 time switch and a burglar alarm, but extra programming power is avail- able if you quit the menu and use the Red Leader's own language called, predictably. Red Basic.

With 16K of Rom space avail- able you might expect Red Basic to be more sophisticated than it is, but many of the statements and functions on offer are ideally suited to control applications: Every is an interrupt-driven structure that instigates actions at fixed time intervals; When constantly monitors the remote devices and responds accordingly. Repeat Until and error trapping are available, along with custom commands such as Tell for controlling devices. Graphics commands are also provided, but these seem rather superfluous.

I would rather have been given some editing features in order to avoid the retyping of whole lines to correct the many syntax errors which I generated - error reporting is cryptic and the need for brackets and quotes rather inconsistent.

I soon had lights flashing on and off at all hours, but there is little that can be done with one relay and one non-functioning sensor.

Given more devices including such things as dimmers and temperature sensors you could set up your home to run with- out ever leaving your armchair, if that idea appeals to you, but taken note that each extra box will cost you £40. Equipping each room with controlled lighting, heating and electric curtains could cost a fortune.

It's all neatly engineered, though, and removes many of the problems normally associated with home control.

But I doubt if even the sharp marketing image will persuade many people that it is truly useful.

RED BOXES

Carol Brooksbank courts domestic chaos to try out the Red Boxes home animation kit.

Red Boxes
£129

What is your Spectrum doing while you are asleep, or out of the house? Not a lot, I suspect, unless you are an electronics wizard. But it could be the key to a system which protects your home against intruders, opens the garage door, turns a light on when you walk into a room, or anything you can think of, so long as you can plug the appliance you wish to control into the ring mains.

The Red Boxes starter pack contains three modules, Red Leader, Red One and Red Two. Despite the awful names, it is a very ingenious system. Red leader is the microcomputer which controls the system, and it uses the Spectrum as its monitor as a programming terminal. After programming, it is disconnected from the Spectrum, leaving the computer free for normal use, and runs the system independently. The program is retained until power to the controller is switched off. Red One is a slave switching device, incorporating a 13 amp socket, plugged into the ring mains with the appliance to be controlled connected to it. Red Two is a slave infra-red sensor, also plugged into the mains, which detects movement in its vicinity by responding to the change in heat levels. The link between the controller and the slaves is the mains ring, whose cables carry the messages between them. This makes the system very flexible and easy to install. The only electrical expertise needed is the ability to put a plug in a socket and switch on.

RED LEADER

To program Red Leader, you connect it to the Spectrum via the cassette sockets. LOAD "" is entered, and switching on Red Leader causes it to download its control program to the Spectrum. The handbook could be more helpful here. It matters which way the jackplugs are connected to the Ear/Mic sockets, but the handbook does not say so, or tell you which is which. Get it wrong and the program crashes.

Each slave device has a unique code number, known only to the owner, which must be entered into the control program. Only a burglar or an expert hacker could tell you whether this, coupled with the random coding of messages between devices, makes the system tamper proof. I am neither, so I will take the manufacturer's word for it, especially as the rest of the system performs as they say it should.

The built-in clock is easily set, and devices can be programmed to go on and off at specific times, or can be linked together, so that a light or an alarm connected to Red One could go on when Red Two detects movement. They can stay on for a specified period, until a particular time, or until switched off manually. Operations can be performed once or repeated daily.

The Spectrum screen shows the current "ON" or "OFF" status of all devices, and the times and links programmed. The program can be saved to tape but, again, the handbook is less than helpful. When you enter the KEEP (save) command, the screen goes blank except for a cursor at the top, there is no response to the keyboard and the Spectrum emits strange buzzings. Since the handbook neglects to say that this is normal - the program is being downloaded to the Spectrum - you assume a crash and unplug everything. After a third try you decide to let it go on and see what happens, and eventually the buzzing stops, and the screen prompts for the SAVE operation appear.

RED BASIC

For more complex control, incorporating random switching, changing links between devices etc., Red Leader has its on built-in BASIC. There are no Spectrum keywords used; commands must be spelt out in full, in addition to the common BASIC commands, there are special ones like TELL, used to change the ON/OFF status of a device, or iNSTALL, to link a new device to the system. The date can be programmed, and incorporated into instructions. The status of devices can be read and returned as a string. It took me some time to discover that the bug in my program was caused by the ON string being "ON". Perversely, On when used with the TELL command has no space. Despite such small irritations the BASIC is very powerful, and only your own programming ability limits the complexity of the systems you can devise.

There is no doubt that efficient and sophisticated automation and security systems can be developed with the Red Boxes, but I have some reservations. One is cost. There is really very little that you can do with the unexpanded starter system. Mounted 2m above floor level, Red Two can detect human movement up to about 4m away in a direct line, decreasing as the angle sharpens. Most rooms would require at least two, covering the door and window areas, for real security. At £34.95 each, I will leave you to work out the cost of total cover for your home. Each Red Two needs its own power point, which would make it impractical in most houses I have been in. Red One could be used for an alarm, but if you also want to turn lights on and off to give an impression of an occupied house, you will need more of those at the same price. It may be possible to make a less pricey system, using window and door switches and pressure mats the manufacturers are developing, and less Red Twos, but no details or prices are available yet.

The red boxes are smart but, dotted around your home - some of them 6ft up the walls - with their bright red cables trailing to the nearest power point, will hardly blend inconspicuously into your decor. The system will probably appeal most to someone venturing into home automation, who can expand it gradually, or to someone interested in networking computers, because an RS232 device is also planned. No details are given, but it suggests possibilities for networking with no linking cables other than the ring mains.

This is an interesting system, and great fun to use, but the £129 for the starter pack has to be seen as the first of many payments if a practical system is to be put together.

JACK-IN-THE-BOX

Ian Waugh looks at a new product which can form the basis of an automation and security system for every home.

Red Boxes were developed under the auspices of Chris Curry, co-founder of Acorn, and his new company, General Information Systems. They form the basis of a home automation and security system and although you may not have been able to find a power station to control with your ZX-81, Red Boxes will certainly let you control your home environment with a Spectrum, a Commodore 64 or a BBC or, in the near future, any of five other micros.

Red Boxes communicate with each other along the standard 13-amp ring main using a mains-borne 129KHz carrier, a frequency set aside by the British Standards institution for such a purpose. That means you can plug-in the boxes anywhere in your house and you do not need to put long trailing cables under floors and along ceilings.

The Red Box starter system costs £129 including VAT - add £4 p&p if you buy by mail order - and includes a Red Leader, at Red One and a Red Two. Red Leader is the master control unit and contains its own computer. You program it and monitor its instructions via your micro and the advantage of the system is that once Red Leader has been programmed you can remove your micro and use it for other things.

Previously, home control meant occupying your computer all the time, which is not very practical. Red One is a simple on/off switch and Red Two is an infra-red movement detector.

Red Leader connects to your computer with 3 DIN lead and when it is switched-on it transfers Red Basie into the micro and runs the main menu program. Commodore and Spectrum computers download the program as if it were on tape. The BBC version uses the RS423 socket but the BBC Master defaults to a different baud rate than model B and instructions for changing it are hidden in the fault-finding guide. It would have saved me an hour if the full instructions had been included in the loading section.

Once the main menu is loaded, the next step is to tell Red Leader about the other boxes you will be using in the system. All boxes have a security number - one of more than 16 million possibilities - so as well as making it difficult, or almost impossible. for unauthorised people to tamper with your programs it lets you run a number of Red Box systems on the same wiring in a large building or office block.

The menu can display information on up to 10 Red Boxes and lets you give them instructions, such as times to switch on and off. You can also make one device control another - you can use the sensor - Red Two - to trigger an alarm plugged into Red One.

You can probably set most aspects of security and environment control from the menu but, for more flexibility, you can use Red Basic. Anyone with a smattering of Basic will have no difficulty with it. It is identical for all computers, although some commands, such as mode changes, will have no effect on computers which lack certain facilities.

Once Red Two has been triggered, its status remains ON until reset from the menu but I wrote a program quickly which made Red Two trigger Red One - switching on a light because it was nearby, and then reset the system after a few seconds.

Other modules are being developed - in particular, a real-time clock with battery back-up so that Red Leader does not forget its instructions when it is unplugged or after a power cut. I think it should be fitted as standard but it will cost between £10-15 so you do not have to buy it if you do not want it.

Also being developed are analogue devices for temperature measurement and light dimmer control, RS232 units, a 106db warbling alarm, window contact switches and pressure mats. Additional Red Ones and Twos cost £34.95 plus £2 p&p each but prices on the other items have not yet been decided.

There is also a Project Manual at £9.95 containing application ideas but I can think of dozens, ranging from typical security aspects to automatic heating control and switching lights or TV on and off when you enter or leave a room. I suppose the major practical restriction will depend on how many Red Boxes you can afford. They may also clash with your colour scheme but no new technology is without its sacrifices.

Other systems to computerise environment control have been available for some time but GIS is the first to put it all together in a comprehensive, versatile and useful system.

SIMPLY RED

Complete control - that's what Red Box offers. We asked our man abotu the house Gwyn Hughes, to investigate.

FAX BOX
Product: Red Box
Producer: General Information Systems
Price: £129

Remember the early days of the micro revolution? We were all going to get up to wizard wheezes like running our train sets with our ZX81's? But computer control was never that simple, and in the end it attracted only those most hardened of hobbyists - the trainspotters.

Well, maybe Sir Clive's early advertising claims that the good old '81 was powerful enough to run a nuclear power station were a little OTT. But it's still true that a Spectrum can be used for more than playing games, and that's the thinking behind Red Box.

Few peripherals are so aptly named as this one. The starter pack consists of not one but three boxes and all at them are undoubtedly very, very red. They are also very, very plain. No unpleasant edge connectors or difficult dials.

That's the secret of the Red Box system. You plug in whatever you want to control just as it you were connecting it to an extension lead. And, even more cleverly, it uses the mains to connect units in a network. They sit there, happily talking to each other and using minimal electricity, without any clumsy, trailing cables.

Wow, you're saying - this is just what I need to run that nuclear power station in the basement from the safety of my bedroom. Well, this is how you do it. First, follow the instructions carefully, as they take you through the early stages slowly and clearly. Here's the basic process:

Set up your Speccy as it you were about to Load a tape, but with the Ear socket connected to Red Leader rather than a cassette recorder. Then switch on the command unit and it'll automatically download a control program. You can then plug in other units, and introduce Red Leader to them.

Each unit, whatever its type, has a unique code, and though you'll probably find it easier to refer to them by a short name, the control chip uses this to to send commands. Note: if you're worried about hackers breaking into your system via a shared circuit, don't be. Red Box uses a complex encryption system to prevent intrusion.

Once every unit knows the others' names and is happily hand shaking, you can start to have some fun. Plug a light into a Red One socket and you can turn it on and off from the main menu.

Eventually, after about ooh... ten seconds or so, you'll get tired of strobing your anglepoise and want to get down to something more ambitious. How about getting Red Leader to turn the light on at midnight, then off again five minutes later? It's simplicity itself, you just enter the relevant twenty-four hour times and then set the command in motion.

What next? How about a bit of fun with Red Two. You can slave units, so that they won't switch until they get a signal though the mains. You can use the infra-red sensor to turn on the lamp, though sadly it won't turn it off again. All you have to do is wave your hand in front of Red Two and, lo... let there be light!

Now you're beginning to get an idea of the god-like potential of the system, and there's no need to stop with the starter pack. You can connect a infinite number of units to one ring main - in theory at any rate. To make the most of all that command power though, you'll need to take the next step, into Red Box Basic.

Okay, I admit, this is where it gets just a tiny bit technical, and unluckily the manual isn't quite so helpful for novices at this point. But when Red Leader downloads the command program, it also gives you a new dialect of the language you already know and love (or hate, or ignore, for that matter).

It adds a number of commands that are missing from Spectrum Basic, such as programming aids like Delete, plus conditionals like Repeat... Until and even commands dedicated to the system, such as install. These let you write quite complex chains of commands, so that you can not only turn on your nuclear power plant, but also switch on the kettle to boil a cup of tea.

Whether you get into proper programming, or settle for slavery by single key commands, once you've sorted out a satisfactory sequence you can tell Red Leader that you're satisfied, then unplug your Spectrum. So long as the big red one remains plugged in, its own little on-board micro will carry on doing just what you asked it. And as each Red unit contains a micro too, you can unplug them and move them around and the Leader will still keep in touch.

By now you should be thinking about how you can use the system, and if you're lacking ideas, there are a few below. But the real future of Red Box lies in... the future! You see, GIS has lots of exciting expansion plans on the cards.

For starters there's a real time clock with battery back up for Red Leader, which means that even if there's a power cut it'll know exactly what to do and when. There will also be other sensors, and most excitingly, work is underway on an auto-dialler for use with your phone. Imagine being able to set a sensor at home, so that if it detects an intruder, it phones somebody and warns them with a pre-recorded message!

The uses of Red Box are really only limited by your imagination. From remote control of a trainset to switching on the fire to the creation of a security system, Red Box can do it. The only real restriction is that it's not suitable for extremely high power devices, such as immersion heaters or cookers.

Apart from that though, it's extremely easy to use, so what are you waiting for? Now there's no excuse not to join the Red (Box) Revolution and take control!