Discover The Amazing World Of Home Automation

Home automation (HA) electronics will convey important benefits to your home and living convenience. Consistent with my normal methodology, the entire story with all its details is not presented here. Instead, you are directed to a few pertinent reference sites where you can learn the details to suit the extent of your enthusiasm.

Properly applied, home automation provisions can materially enhnace the security of your home. Also, numerous convenience features may be readily achieved. Typically, a home automation system centers around a digital controller, operating in conjunction with various timers, lamp and appliance control modules, and other devices.

Visit some of these sites where you will find great information about home automation:

1. Smarthome
2. Hometoys
3. X10 (turn on your pop-up blocker, but this is an important site)
4. Home Automation Magazine
5. Smart Home USA
6. X-Home
7. Automation FAQ
8. Bartana (An important source of circuit diagrams)
9. Home Automation Index

Home automation is one of the key approaches to establishing a secure environment for protecting your family, firearms, and valuable possessions. For this reason alone, it is worth pursuing.

If you haven't established a home automation environment, now would be a great time to begin. Save money by seeking out special sales and deals at the various suppliers. HA is a great hobby.

L3



edited the links. Klaus

All I need is to have the house make sure that my wife turns off all her hair appliances and I'm set!

*Suddenly has flashback to the HAL unit*

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[ QUOTE ]
flownosaj said:
*Suddenly has flashback to the HAL unit*

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

And what was that 70's sci-fi film where the household computer takes a fancy to the lady of the house?
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

Could we rely on Windows to ensure the light comes on everytime we open the fridge door - let alone run the house for us?
Nah, the house would crash more times than the car.

Seriously though, I am seeing more and more new homes being specified with some sort of network and central computer control.

L3 - NONE, of the links work for me?!

We need a moderator to fix the links. Every one of them has the CPF address first.

Mark

[ QUOTE ]
Minjin said:
We need a moderator to fix the links. Every one of them has the CPF address first.

Mark

[/ QUOTE ]

Done. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Great post L3. Ain't Home automation great. Up until the point in which my refrigerator overdraws my checking account for buying to many groceries!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif

tiktok 22,

Thanks for the compliment. It is my pleasure to share some of the things I do with other techno fans. This great topic doesn't seem to have many advocates here. Too bad, because it is, as you know, very rewarding and highly practical as well.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Bob

naromtap,

The links seem to work OK for me. If you right click on them and and select 'show properties' you should be able to see the source links. You could then copy and paste them individually to your browser address bar.

I use IE6.0 and Firefox and have had no problems.

I see that K-T fixed the problem. Thank you K-T.

Good luck and best wishes,

Bob

Hi L3,

I think part of the problem is that most people don't really understand home automation or feel it's to complicated(the irony /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif) I think the general public has the idea of a home automation automatically involves an elaborate system of computers,sensors and wiring and couldn't possibly be installed by the homeowner. While this may be true for elaborate systems, there are systems available that could easily be taylored to majority of most peoples needs. Selecting a setup for your home is probably going to be very different from someone elses home. It needs to be structured for your needs and I think some people find this to be very daunting considering all the choices we now have.

tiktok 22,

Absolutely! You are exactly right. However, many of the folks here are of above average technical capability and, hopefully, some will look into the subject of Home Automation. In truth, home automation is simple enough for just about anyone to enjoy. Home automation is not rocket science!

The home security benefits, available with even simple HA systems, are of major importance.

A great way for people to start is to obtain one or two simple X10 digital clock/timers and a few lamp and appliance modules. With the addition of a Palm Pad Controller and Transceiver, they could be turning on lights, etc. from the comfort of their sofas.

It can all begin right here: Automation

While there are some great places to buy home automation items, some excellent deals can be found at X10 online. By subscribing to their free newsletter, notices of special sales and coupons will be received. Overall costs and complexity are generally very low. The benefits are high! With all the fun, it is easy to become a home automation junkie.

The RCA modules represent some exceptional bargains. Once people catch on to these deals, they will want to 'load up' on them.

Best wishes,
Bob

The trick to sucessfull computer-integrated home automation is to not have windows control everything /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

The LG computerised fridge is running on an embedded Windows platform though, and that is a bit scary. Last thing I need is my fridge shutting itself down every time it establishes a connection to the internet /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif

Saaby,

An automated refrigerator has little relationship to the overal topic of home automation.

Note, that Windows has little or nothing to do with many home automation sytems. Also, regardless of what kind of equipment one uses, YOU get to decide WHAT gets CONTROLLED and what does not. Thus, your apparent concern about unwanted events occurring is UNFOUNDED.

Rather than highlighting rare, negative examples, why not take a positive view of the benefits more and more people are deriving from this important technology?

Take a breather bud, I was just joking along with the spirit of some earlier posts /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

LG has a fridge out right now with a computer touch-screen build in running on some flavor of windows, but you're right, unless your HA software was the only thing interpreting the commands (Your system can or can not be set up that way, up to you) and unless you were running all that through the fridge (Unlikely, I don't think it has expansion ports) than a crashed fridge would not crash the house.

I don't think it would even crash the critical functions of the fridge.

My problem with HA isn't an OS problem at all, it's with the fact that we have a crappy ground throughout the house--so X10 commands don't work nearly as well as they could.

Your joke and emoticons are well disguised! Why don't you take a breather?

Grounding problems are resolvable, without a lot of difficulty. Usually, signal transmission problems are related to the need for bridging across the power line phases. Bridges are available as standard HA items or can be easily fabricated.

My favorite topic /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Home automation has been a hobby of mine for years, recently turned paying gig. The last 18 months or so I have been under contract to www.shed.com porting their Macintosh software to the new operating system. This project is finished and of course I think it's the best macintosh software solution available.

My Mac running the house does standard stuff like turning on the outside lights in response to motion, and some inside lights too. More importantly it turns lights off some time after people leave rooms and forget to do so themselves. My family cannot be trusted to do this so the computer does it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

There are 25 or so motion sensors around the place, all activity of which gets saved in the database so that I can view reports either in realtime or later and know just when the cat sitter arrived while we were away and such.

The temperature is measured in 8 different rooms in the house, this data is also logged and graphed each day so that I can tweak out the HVAC settings for the best response. The thermostats are new and plugged into the system too but I haven't quite gotten around to setting direct control of them up yet, but thats soon on the list.

There are a couple of those inexpensive cameras setup all plugged into the computer so that in response to motion it takes some pictures or short movies. Each day a time lapse movie of all action in certain places is uploaded to the server, but I can create it and access it at anytime from anywhere.

It is wired into the security system so it can follow all those actions as well and respond. It knows when we go out, whether we remember to set the alarm or not, and will keep the outdoor lights on bright for us until we return. It knows if my wife got paged to go into work late and turns on the outdoor and inside lights for her until she returns. It knows if we're not here then delay setting up the house for the evening. It even keeps a count of the number of times the cat has been in the litter box and reminds me to clean it out /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif When suspicious or unexpected motion is sensed in the house, it can send messages to my cellphone or my wifes pager and I can then log in via the WAP browser on my cellphone and see if other motion hits continue and call the police, or wait for the security system to do so if I feel it's warranted. At the very least it will have snapped a few pictures of the perps and uploaded them to a remote server so that even if they stole the house control computer I'd still have them in pictures /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

It monitors the temperature in the attic and controls my attic fans to keep the temp as far down as possible up there without letting it condense and cause moisture problems.

There are wireless remotes all over the place for different things, and also all functions and information are available to a few Audrey touch screen internet appliances that I picked up cheap when 3com dropped the line. They are great for home control!

Any and all info is available to me anywhere via the internet connection and web interface software. When I'm sitting up in my office at one side of the house I can see when my daughter gets up from her nap and starts down the stairs and go meet her rather than find out after she has been playing in the kitchen or something /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

The garage doors aren't controlled directly by the computer for safety reasons, but I monitor their position and know when they go up or down. If someone leaves them open the garage lights won't turn off and a message is displayed on the VFD display in the frame in the living room letting us know that they have been left open. I also have them on an interlock switch so that the computer can disable them after we go to bed and when we're out of the house. So even if you cloned my garage door opener they won't open for you while we're on vacation, and if they did it would send me a page wherever we are and call the cops.

The sprinkler system isn't directly connected yet, but I do monitor when it goes on and off and for how long it runs. I can see if the rain sensor is working that way. eventually this will all be controlled directly by the computer based on the information form moisture sensors and the rain sensor weather station that I'll be adding in a few months.

I've got a lifetime of projects waiting to get setup, thats just the ones I've gotten around to in the last year since moving into this house /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I'm currently working on a little CDS cell module to connect to one of the data acquisition units so that I can tell the difference between a cloudy or dark day and a sunny one and adjust the indoor lighting in the active areas of the house accordingly.

There are SO many fun things you can do /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Anybody with a Mac that wants to get into doing this should check out the site above, as well as the articles about it and the web interface software on my own webpage and feel free to contact me directly and I'll log you into my web system so that you can see what it does /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

James,

Outstanding. I am delighted to see that you are using such an elaborate sytstem and are knowledgeable about the subject. As you are well aware, the possibilities of HA are truly unlimited, and the activity is a tremendously interesting hobby.

A quick look at your web page reveals many interesting details. I shall examine it in greater detail later.

Great work, my friend. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Bob

L3, I'm always excited to see the topic come up. As you say it's pretty unlimited, and the cost of entry isn't very high. You'll be nickel and dimming yourself forever though as you add this and that and the other /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Like I said there are projects enough for me for well into the future, I never have a chance to get bored.

My advise to those starting up, don't make your bedroom overhead light the first thing you setup /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif If it comes on in the middle of the night or refuses to come on when you wife presses the button you'll be in a bad position to negotiate further purchases of gear! Start small, add one piece at a time and wait till it's working before you move on. Annoy the family a little at a time or they will demand you undo your hard work /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Also remember there is a difference between a "Smart" home and one with distributed light switches. I do have a button for all on panic. But just having a fancy switch that turns other switches on or off isn't all that neat after a while. Your system needs to know a little bit about you. This requires some scripting and thought and is something that evolves over time. There is no out of the box automation system that will do anything but be remote light switches. The rest you have to devote yourself to sorting out. It's FUN!

I really do appreciate the links and information that has been provided. I do however have some questions:

1) can whole house automation be accomplished without having to purchase all those damn plug in units? Say I am building a new house and want to keep everything clean, can I not do some sort of centralized box and have every outlet in the house be hardcoded (maybe) with its own signal?

Or even something to go in the wall at each outlet instead of having an additional box on the outside then plug in my appliance etc?

2) how is video automation and me checking on my driveway or something along those lines handled.

Thanks in advance.

Curtis

I used to have all three floors of our condo set up at one level or another with X-10 HA gear. It was pretty handy, but we occasionally had problems with some of the hardware. I still have everything, and maybe one day I'll set up our house with it again, but since moving to a ranch house in the country a few years ago, I haven't felt the need (or had the time--two small kids now) to really start setting everything back up. Another problem with our HA setup was that my wife and I had mastered the controls, but anytime family or friends would come over, they would have trouble figuring everything out. For now we just have simple dimmer switches in most of the rooms of our house, and they meet our needs for now.

-Keith