Controlling things around the home has always been hyped as a good and 'serious' use for your home computer. Trouble is, the idea of letting your C64 control things like heating, the lights, cooking and the burglar system has remained more a dream than a reality. That's because early systems needed the computer to be linked permanently and required you to be an electrical boffin to install it. Red Boxes are different; they're simple to use and don't hog the computer. So will they catch on?

Industry has been using computers to control machinery etc for many years, but now you can utilise the power of your micro to control appliances in your home.

Red Boxes provide a complete computerised control system for domestic electrical appliances and security, and they don't tie up your computer while they're working, or need special wiring.

It works like this: at the heart of the system is Red Leader. Red Leader is actually a computer complete with its own Basic interpreter and memory. You write programs for Red Leader by using your C64 as a terminal (a bit like using Prestel). Once a program is running, your C64 can be disconnected and put to other uses, like Fist II or Gauntlet.

Red One is a mains switch, designed to plug into a wall socket while the appliance to be controlled (an electric kettle or table lamp, for example) plugs into Red One. Any piece of equipment that would normally be plugged into a wall socket can be controlled in this way.

Red One needs no wires connecting it to Red Leader. Almost magically it transmits and receives its instructions along the mains wiring of your house. This is perfectly safe and, in fact, nothing new!

Red Two works in the same way as Red One, but instead of switching things on and off, it senses moving heat sources (human beings make ideal subjects) and can be used as part of a burglar-alarm system, or to turn on a light when someone enters a room.

After unpacking the units (bright red in colour and very sturdily built) and reading the lengthy instructions, I was ready to check them out. Red Leader was connected up to the cassette port of my aging Commodore 64, and after pressing SHIFT-RUN/STOP, turned on the mains. This cleverly downloads the operating software as it it were on cassette instead of on a ROM inside Red Leader. Just a couple of minutes later, I was ready to go.

The screen I was presented with contained a menu of options and would later display the current status of up to sixteen Red Boxes.

The next step was to install Red One. I decided to use Red One to switch a table lamp on and off and tapped in the security code for that particular box. Security codes are necessary to prevent your next-door neighbour's Red Leader system interfering with yours.

After the code was entered and Red One powered up, the system was active. Telling Red Leader to switch on the table lamp couldn't have been easier. Simply select SET from the menu and type ON. After a couple of seconds, the LEDs atop both boxes flickered briefly and the table lamp came to life.

Installing Red Two was just as easy and immediately its LED started flashing as I moved around the room. Even small movements from the other side of the room were detected although I found I could cheat it by moving very slowly. If I set Red Two OFF from the control program, the next time a movement is detected, Red Two's status will change to ON.

The control program is little more than a timer. After setting the real-time clock, you can program each device to turn on and off at preset times. The program is really only a demonstration of what the system is capable of. To write your own programs, you will need to select the QUIT option from the control program menu. From here on, you are writing direct to the memory inside Red Leader, and any program you write can be executed even with your C64 disconnected.

For example, the following program will flash a lamp plugged into Red One on and off repeatedly:

10 FOR I = 1 TO 500
20 TELL(1,ON)
30 FOR I = 1 TO 500
40 TELL(1,OFF)
50 GOTO 10

Programs can be saved to cassette, although this involves swapping cables back and forth. Because most applications of Red Boxes will involve timing, Red Leader automatically keeps track of the time, day, date, month and year. You could, for example, tell Red Leader to turn on your electric blanket for one hour at 9.15 every evening except Wednesdays, or run more complex systems involving security. The applications are really only limited by your imagination.

The system shows its first real weakness here. Because you are writing direct to Red Leader, you lose out on your C64's excellent screen editor. The only way you can edit a program line is to type it in again!

The manual describes how the system works before detailing the control program, with the greater space allocated to Red Basic. The installation instructions are clear and precise with numerous diagrams to help you. But the section dealing with Red Basic is somewhat brief and clumsy. A handy fault-finding guide and index completes the package.

I was immediately impressed with this package, from its potential capabilities to its high manufacturing standard and presentation. When dealing with mains voltages, safety is always a major concern, and one should apply a little common sense when setting up Red Boxes: Don't set an electric fire to come on when you're out of the house! No mention of the not-so-obvious do's and don'ts in the manual, so be doubly careful.

Practically, though, I don't think the public at large are ready for this sort of thing yet, you've only got to blow a fuse and the whole thing needs to be reset! Despite that, Red Boxes must be the best attempt at easy home control we've seen so far. But can you afford it?