Home automation and home control (HA) Software (source code and
links mostly) for the home automation devices like Insteon
PowerLinc V2, CM11A, CM17 (Firecracker), LynX10, WM918, HCS II,
UPB and CPUXA. Links to other hardware/software packages can be
found on these pages also. If you know of any additional links
please contact me at:
ncherry@linuxha.com
Note: These pages are being (slowly) moved to http://www.linuxha.com/. That
will be the new home of the Linux Home Automation web pages.
Disclaimer: None of the opinions expressed on these pages
are paid for . They are strictly my own and may not represent an
endorsement of someone's project, product or service (unless
otherwise stated so).
Index
External Links
Sponsored Links
Update:
2021
2021/11/13 - I'm experimenting with Wordpress. So don't be
surprised if the front page of this web site changes. I'll leave
the other pages where they are but I'll need to update them a bit
to work with Wordpress. I'll make sure everything works before I
switch over. I've also created a NJ
Makerspaces page because I haven't been able to find one. I'll
include a few NY and Philly Makerspaces because sometimes that's
just the closest place.
2021/06/24 - Before anyone gets too crazy, no I haven't forgotten
about my Linux HA
pages. I have been busy with a lot of general day to day life that
I've not had to deal with all at once. I'm still putting a lot of
work into testing things and playing with technology. I've just
been doing more of it for my employer.
I'm now running my Makerspace (with others);
CDL - Computer Deconstruction Lab
What was called IXR - The Institute for eXploratory Research. Oh
I'm also working another TCF HA presentation. This is a big one this time.
I expect to be working on this while at CDL on Monday nights.
2018/03/01 - Corrected the Pytomation entry (sorry
George).
2014/01/04 - Javier Pardo Blasco sent in his HA
project. He's been working in a home automation project, coded in Python
called Home Automation Python Project
He says it's modular, it's web based, it publishes a REST API,
2013/11/12 - I've been a bit busy with work and learnign the
wonderful world of
TDD .
I have a few books on C, Python and Javascript. At the moment they
do a nice job of explaining but a lousy job of showing a few
simple startup examples (but I'm not done reading).
Sergei Jeihala was kind enough to share
his MajorDoMo project with
us. It is:
- Web-based
- Easy to configure / install
- Cross-platform (Linux/Windows)
- Multiple protocols support (Z-Wave, 1-wire, SNMP, ethernet-devices, etc.)
- PHP-based scripting (with visual scripting using Google Blockly)
I'm still working on the ECM-1240, I've run out of serial ports
and I'm working on getting a terminal server working.
2013/09/19 - I've been quiet for a while but I'm hoping (keeping
my fingers crossed on that) that is now behind me. I've just
picked up a Brultech
ECM-1240. I still have to install it. I'll be using Pi as the
terminal/web (node.js) server to it. This will allow me to
monitor my home's power usage. While searching for some more
information I found this blog
called Desert Home. I
think it's cool so I'll add it to
my HA blogs page
(which really needs to be cleaned up). I've restarted writting
software and I'll start adding it here and to
my US Home Automation
web site. I'm also working on an irrigation controller
called Irrnode. I've
got bits and pieces of it up. Hope to have more soon.
2013/02/21 - Pytomation -
Pytomation is an extensible open source automation system written
in Python. It's uses include home automation and lighting control
but is certainly not limited to those functions.
2013/02/07 - Misterhouse
- This is My effort to get Misterhouse back on the map. The
Misterhouse project is not dead. The main Sourceforge page is back
under the community's control (Yea!). The most useful code can be
picked up from the git repository (explanation on the WIki pages)
The History page - where the old
updates are moved to.
My interests:
Inline with the economy's present cost cutting measures (and my
effort to reduce the size of this ;-) I'm moved the interests
section of my HA page to it's own page oddly called my Interests page. In this location instead
you will find a summary of my Interests
page and of course a link to the longer page.
My interests, like any geek, are in gadgets. Almost anything
having to do with home automation, control, computers (hardware
& software) and electronics. Unlike most geeks I also love to
ride my bicycle, not a short tootle 'round the block but prefer
longer rides. Such as 30 mile lunch times rides, 20 mile commutes
to work (each way) and a weekend ride of a 100 miles. Also, my
bicycles are in no way hooked up to my computers other than a
standard bike computer. I prefer it that way. It's my time away
from computers.
My Interests page, in it's full
glory. :-)
Home Automation definition
When I go looking for a Home Automation definition I don't find
one. Even the one that used to be found on the Wiki page isn't
very good anymore. So I've decided to post my home automation
definition a little more prominently on the all-n-one page. One of
the problems I see with many of the definitions is that they're
either limited to one protocol or just devices or too narrowly
focused to be a definition.
Definition: - Domotics, Domotica, Smart Home
Technology or Home Automation (HA) is automation specific to the
requirements of a private residence. It applies automatic
techniques for the comfort, security, entertainment,
communications, and information processing needs of it's
residents. In simplest terms it is control and monitoring of
devices and information.
Software list for Unix (from above)
I am going to also provide links to the authors home page so that
you may get the most recent version of the software. But please
remember that some of the software needs to be modified to run
under Linux. I hope to identify these in some way in the
future.
Warranty - There is none, please use these files at your
own risk. Most of these files have been tested but unexpected side
effects can occur. We (the authors and I) do not provide any
warranty at all. We recommend that you thoroughly inspect the code
to be sure that no one has tampered with the code. Such an event
occured with tcpd (tcp wrappers) and the utils package used by
Linux, though the community caught it rather quickly (a matter of
hours after it occured).
Sometime people don't want to even read the list so I'm providing
a link right to the directory with all the source
files. A few files are really old (the authors links are
usually included in this file instead).
Mr. House: (CM11A, Firecracker, Insteon, UPB, and lots of
other protocol and interfaces, see Bruce's page for a further
explanation) Bruce Winter's Perl app that runs on a number of
OS's (MS & Unixes).
Pytomation Pytomation
Written by Jason Sharpee and George Farris and (Jason wrote a
few interesting Misterhouse modules).
Pytomation is an extensible open source automation system written in
Python. It's uses include home automation and lighting control but is
certainly not limited to those functions.
Pytomation features include:
- - Written in Python.
- - REST API
- - Unique language to describe devices and actions.
- - Smart objects: Doors, Lights, Motion, Photocell etc.
- - Regular python programming in Mainloop for more complicated control.
- - Easy interface to web browsers and other technology.
- - Time of day on and off control.
- - Delays for time off.
- - Idle command, device will return to "idle" state.
- - Map one command to another with optional source and time.
- - Good hardware support with more coming.
- - Very easy to add new hardware drivers.
- - Local Telnet and Web access.
- - Good documentation complete with examples.
- - Much more.
Pytomation currently has support for the following hardware interfaces
with more planned in the future.
- - Insteon / X10 (2412N, 2412S)
- - UPB (Universal Powerline Bus) (Serial PIM)
- - JDS Stargate (RS232 / RS485)
- - Weeder Digital I/O board (Wtdio/RS232)
- - W800RF32 X10 RF receiver (W800/RS232)
- - Arduino Uno, digital and analog
Future:
- - Z-Wave (Aeon Labs) DSA02203-ZWUS
- - CM11 X10 control
- - Others as requested.
Download links and documentation are at the bottom of the web page.
Please use the mail list for help at this time, information about
subscribing can also be found on the home page.
Downloads, docs and mail
lists Pytomation
Insteon Powerlinc: Insteon, from Smarthome, is a Power Line
Carrier & RF based technology. It supports communication with
X10 devices and the 2-way Insteon communication protocol.
- Linux Insteon page (was the
iplcd page). This page is dedicated to Insteon software for
Linux.
X10D: (CM11A & LynX10); These are all software related to
Dan Lanciani's X10d. Each depends on having X10d up and running.
- Dan Lanciani's CM11A code (with
my mods). Here is a link to Dan
Lanciani's X10d software page (for the CM11A, Lynx10 & other
devices). Please note that for Dan's code to run under
Linux it needs to be modified first.
Dan has also been kind enough to share his PIC code for the RR501 and
TM751 (wireless -> X10). His code allows the devices to pick up
more than just one house code. See Dan's pages for further
details, thanks Dan.
- Karl
Denninger's HomeDaemon Page - This package provide handling
of events and status. Karl is now providing AppiDig and Leopard
support and the Leviton RS232 Z-Wave interface. Very useful in a
home automation environment.
- LHAP web interface (WILHAP?
;-) It's a PHP/JavaScript/HTML page that allows you to issue
X10 commands and then get the update. It requires: Apache
W/PHP, MySQL (or a flat CSV file), HomeDaemon,
X10d, & a CM11A. You should be
able to use any browser that supports JavaScript (I've only
checked with Netscape so far). I'm working on a version II
which I have but haven't had time to post yet. Email if you
want it sooner.
- LHAP Web Interface V 1
Page. This version works with NS 4.x (and IE I think).
Remember theses are static pages, there is no PHP preprocessing
these files and no MySQL db access. NOTE: these files
are huge! they may be intolerable on slow links.
- LHAP Web Interface V 2
Page. This version works with NS 4.x and NS 6.x (and IE I
think). Remember theses are static pages, there is no PHP
preprocessing these files and no MySQL db access. NOTE:
these files are huge! they may be intolerable on slow
links.
- Sergei Jeihala's
MajorDoMo project. It
is:
- Web-based
- Easy to configure / install
- Cross-platform (Linux/Windows)
- Multiple protocols support (Z-Wave, 1-wire, SNMP, ethernet-devices, etc.)
- PHP-based scripting (with visual scripting using Google Blockly)
- Dan Lanciani's Lynx code (with
my mods). Here is a link to Dan
Lanciani's LynX10d software page.
- X10d client script X10talk.sh
(should work with my X10d and Dan Lanciani's code)
- Netpipes 3.1 (the X10d
script needs this). There have been reports that netpipes
3.1 won't compile unnder the newer Linux kernals but the
netpipes 4.x does here is a link
to get the newer software.
- X10d Watch program A Perl app
that provides simple xtend like functionality should work with
my Dan Lanciani's original X10d code and my modifications (for
Linux)).
- John C. Peterson's x10es (x10es-1.0.src.tar.gz and
x10ex-1.0-2.noarch.rpm)
- The x10 event scheduler, or x10es for short, is a program
designed for Unix systems to facilitate the scheduling of x10
control command (on/off) events. The program is not a daemon, it
only runs once a day (using "cron"). At runtime, x10es will
parse your event definition table, and schedule individual
command events for the coming day (using "at").
Other X10: Software for some of the other X10 controllers
such as the CM15A and the CM19A.
- Chris Kreutzer has shared his X10AHP
Java (CM15A Java code). He's using Java
Libusb to interface to the USB sub-system. This reminds me
that I have a bit of work to do on my CM15A code (protocol,
driver and daemon).
- Craig Woodward has taken my cm15 driver and cm15d and modified
it a bit and posted it to his cm15a page. I
now have to figure out who to squeeze in the time to take his
changes and integrate them with mine.
- Here's my cm15d and cm19a pages. Currently it's
not even a release candidate but is compilable code which may be
of interest to folks doing there own work related to the X10
CM15A and CM19A.
- Here's Michael LeMay's Linux CM19a
device driver link for the X10 CM19A. Michael's driver
differs from my own in that my driver has no additional
intelligence for decoding the user/application input to CM19A
commands (or vice versa).
- jHomenet - a
suite for X10 and 1-Wire net hardware. I don't know if this works
with Linux but it looks like it should.
- ehomeconfigurator -
(software) was created, while I was doing my PhD studies. It will be
one day superseeded by the ComponentConfigurator. It is an
open-source eHome system creator, software integration and
development project. The result of the project will be a tool and
environment for supporting eHome systems and
processes. Note: I seem to have trouble finding
this site from time to time. So here is their SourceForge
files link too.
- ws2500 -
(software) weather suite is a complete software solution for
extraction, processing, and Web presentation of data from an ELV
WS2500 and WS2500PC weather station. Weather data can be stored in a
MySQL database. The main component is the ws2500 application, which
can read data and status information of the weather station via a
serial RS232 connection. It can also set parameters of the station.
- PHP-BottleRocket/SOSDG
- (software) is simple PHP4/5 script that allows you to control your
X10 based home network devices.
- x10bindDB.pl - Alejandro
Gonzalez's script that helps update a table in a database every time
a sensor is switched from open to closed.
- CM19a
Python driver
-
- X10
Lightswitch - based on the CM19A
Heyu: (CM11A) This is all software related to Dan Suthers'
Heyu code.
- Heyu has a new home! Yes the
link: Heyu will get you
to the same place but the new link makes more sense. Originally
Heyu was Dan Suthers' CLI interface to the CM11A software
package. Now it's Charles Sullivan's baby. It now supports
downloading macros and timers to the CM11A. There were a few
bugs and things that got fixed too :-). The history.txt file
mentions the major changes. Also see Xtend below. though I don't
think the new Heyu (2.0) needs it.
- domus.Link - a web-based
frontend for Heyu. It uses Apache + PHP + Heyu to provide a GUI
interface.
- Xtend 1.2b4 1.1
software - Can be used stand alone or with Heyu (but not
with any x10d, yet). Someone has updated Xtend and created this
package. You can check out David Shaw's original home page
for Xtend. Here's the xtend
FAQ which mentions using Heyu Version 1.
- Stephen Martin's TCL interface
to the CM11 using Dan Suthers' Heyu software
- Heyu Web Interface
is a low profile, home brewed CGI design for home
automation. Using heyu as the backend, the web interface gives
you control while home or away. It incorporates simplicity and
speed with mobile or desktop access in mind. Sit back and enjoy
because now you are in control.
X10 Firecracker software - Dang these things are popular! We
seem to get a new one every day. So I've made a separate section for
the x10 Firecracker software. BTW Bruce Winter's Mr. House either
has support for or will have support for the X10 Firecracker.
- Dan Lanciani's Firecracker
software (also for the CM11A, Lynx10, & Red October
). I've posted my code so it will compile under Linux. Dan Lanciani's Firecracker code for
Linux (with my mods).
- Java Classes
for the FireCracker The classes are themselves pure Java,
and should run without modification on any platform with a 1.1.x
JVM, but they require an implementation of Sun's Java CommAPI to
access the serial ports. So far, I know of implementations for
Solaris, Windows, Linux, and OS/2. which communicate with the
FireCracker device, which I am making available for the
amusement of all.
- Control --
A map-based TCL interface by Clif Flynt
- Flipit - Matt
Armstrong's software to control the X10 CM17 (Firecracker). For
BSD & Linux.
- Updated link to BlueLava - Ian
Wilinson's GPL'd CGI script that uses various commandline x10
utilities to control supported x10 devices. It currently
supports Bottlerocket
software (CM17A aka "firecracker"), Heyu (CM10/CM11A/CM12U),
PPower
(CM10/CM11A/CM12U), X10d
(CM11A/CM12U) or Flipit (CM17A). More
are planned.
- Bottlerocket
software Home page. Bottle Rocket is command line software
to permit the use of X10's Firecracker RF X10 interface. Bottle
Rocker was written by Tymm Twillman.
- PHP-X10 - a PHP
interface to Bottlerocket
software. It is based very closely on CGI-x10 but uses PHP
instead of Perl.
- WebX10 Web
based Gui Using server side processing to handle request to
X10's Bottlerocket
software
- Michael Corral has created a GUI frontend for Bottlerocket,
called TK10.
It's written in Tcl/Tk and is very similar to the HR12A
controller unit that ships with the X10 Firecracker kit.
UPB - Universal Powerline:
- UPB has the potential to
pickup the slack where X10 left off. Here's what I can tell from
the available documentation. It appear to use the frequency range
of 4 - 40KHz (spread spectrum fashion) with 40 V peak signal.
It's packets appear to be between 9 and 33 bytes long. Because of
this I'm guessing that both UPB and X10 can co-exist (different
frequency ranges). X10 uses 120KHzat around 5V p-p. UPB supports
250 house codes, 255 unit codes and 254 link codes (I'm not
really sure what that translates to yet). UPB devices ACK the
commands received (X10 do not) so use 2-way communication (closed
loop, where are X10 is open loop). The response time is reported
to be <.25 seconds where as X10 is slightly less than 1 sec. The
devices are more expensive than X10 (though about the same for
the higher quality stuff). There is a PC interface and they have
a manuals
to download that explains how to program it (search down for the
PC interface technical manual). Over all it sounds like a better
X10 to me.
- UPB4Java - Java
API for the UPB automation protocol. Gerald R Duprey Jr has
release his Java UPB API code under the Apache License.
ZWave:
- It appears the Pluto
Home is the first to have code to talk to the ZWave
controllers. You need to go to their tech pages (good luck finding them),
go down to the software section (I can't find it now but did
find the zwave deb file). It supports the ACT Solutions HomePro
ZWave interface which has been added to the Linux 2.6.16.12
kernel. I have the file here: pluto-src-zwave_2.0.0.39_i386.deb.
Hopefully there will be more links to follow as I find the rest
of the ZWave links I had.
Dallas Onewire/IButton: The section covers some of the available
Onewire (1-Wire) software. For hardware, check in the Hardware section.
- Onewire File System
(owfs) which will allows 1-wire devices to appear like files in
a directory.
- DS9490R-
USB to 1-Wire RJ11 - Dallas has a USB device
interface for Linux using Libusb they also have
a device interface for their RS232 version also. Check Dallas Semi
ftp site for new versions of the software. Lastly they have
support for Windows and Java on their 1-Wire
Public Domain Kit page. This company (Dallas/Maxim) seems
to understand Open Source a lot better than other companies!
- DigiTemp -
A Dallas Onewire network package. This is Brian Lane's site
which is a great resource for Dallas onewire links! I haven't
played with it yet but hope to soon. This works with the newer
DS9097U-009 & DS9097-S09.
- One Wire Weather for
Linux (and other OS's). Uses Dallas Onewire chips to build a
weather station. Check out the Dallas Weather site
for further details.
- MIBFM - A simple
utility for uploading/downloading files to/from Memory-iButtons
produced by Dallas Semiconductor. Compatible devices are
DS1993, DS1995 and DS1996. Connection to the iButtons is
through the DS9097U-9 (DS9097U-009?).
- Dallas one wire software Andrew
A. Burgess's Dallas Onewire software (which works with the old ds9097.gif schematic for the serial
interface to the Onewire network).
- Dallas
Tiny InterNet Interface - though not
directly related to Linux, there is a Linux link on the
page. This is a rather interesting device.
- Jesse Peterson has created the TINI Java X10 CM11A/CM17A
Library. This allows a Dallas TINI
to connect to an X10 CM11A. This will fit in nicely into the Linux Home Automation
Project. Lastly Jesse is in the process of moving his site
so this appears it may be up and down.
- 1-Wire
monitor and graphing - This is Marc Merlin's page on the
1-Wire setup he has.
- 1-Wire
Setup - Marc Merlin's digitemp/1wire stuff in more
details
Weather related stuff: Software for weather stations, post
weather infor and other general links and info about weather.
- One
Wire Weather for Linux (and other OS's). Uses Dallas
Onewire chips to build a weather station. Check out theDallas Weather site
for further details.
- Weather daemon
software for the WX200 & WM918. WX200 now has a home,
Timothy D. Witham has creeated a SourceForge project for the
weather station software. It also has a GTK+ interface, both
can be found at SourceForge
wx200d.
- Open2300
- Linux, FreeBSD and Windows software for the Lacrosse
WS2300/WS2305/WS2310/WS2315 Weather Station.
- Sunrise/Sunset programs
Programs to calculate Sunrise, Sunset, Phase of the moon (Setup
for Eastern Coast of the US). This one has been slightly
updated to work better with today's more intelligent
compilers. The authors are: Keith E. Brandt , John Dilley,
Robert Bond, Martin Minow, and Neil Cherry.
- Sunrise/Sunset programs (1985)
Programs to calculate Sunrise, Sunset, Phase of the moon (Setup
for Eastern Coast of the US).
- Phase of the Moon Another program
which calculates the phase of the moon, moonrise, moonset,
sunrise, sunset and a few other things.
- Weather page update and
tools. I use these with my WX200 weather station and info
from NOAA.
- A weather station package, this time for
the Davis
Vantage Pro/Pro2. It can be found at
http://www.wviewweather.com/. I'm not sure what license it
using but it took me to a Sourceforge page so it's probably one of
the Open Source licenses.
- AAG Electronica -
This site has been around for a while. They began selling the
Dallas 1-Wire Weather kits when Dallas stop selling them. (Used to
be at the Dallas Ibuttons as
the Onewire Weather Station. But Dallas no longer sells it). It
appears they now have expanded to LCD's, relays, humidity,
temperature, pressure and other 1-Wire sensors. Very cool
stuff.
Velleman
K8000 stuff: The Velleman K8000 is a computer interface card
which can connect to the printer port, uses I2C and now USB.
- Nicolas Sutre has written a program for use with The K8055 interface board
from Velleman on Linux. It's an analog/digital I/O board
from Velleman. It uses libusb (available for
*BSD, Linux and Mac. A Windows port of
libusb is also available.
- PAUS - Edward
Eefting's K8000 software which he describes as 'controlling
"stuff" with easy scripts. You could for example make the light
in your house go on and off in the way you specify. You also
could use paus to create a remote controlled mp3box that also
has a web-interface at the same time and shows the current song
on an LCD display. :-)'.
- Tom Van den Bon has a web site called Geekhouse. Tom is using
XPL and a K8000 (poke around the site,
you'll find it) to control his home.
- Linux and the
Velleman K8000/K8005 - The K8005 is a stepper motor
controller. Here you'll find libraries to make your own software
for the K8000 and K8005 (for LINUX and WINDOWS in C or
C++). HiHiHi's home
page (may be a better starting point).
- The Velleman K8000
& Linux HOWTO - This document describes how to setup your
Velleman K8000 Board on a Linux system, using the i2c Kernel
drivers.
- The Velleman K7103
Digital Storage scope - k7103 is a build yourself digital
storage oscilloscope kit by Velleman. It is connected to the
parallel port of a PC on which a frontend program is running to
display the measured signal and to adjust the osci
settings.
- The K8K
kernel drivers for the K8000 board.
- K8000 Yahoo
Group - (From the Yahoo page:) The Velleman K8000 is a
computer interface card connected to the parallel port. You can
do all kinds of robotics stuff with it. It has 16 binary Input
or Output, 4 Analog to Digital and 9 Digital to Analog channels.
See http://www.velleman.be. This
mailinglist is about the Velleman K8000 and everything related
to it. All operating systems, all programming languages, all
applications.
Other: Misc, other, or untested. I've combined the sections
together.
- Kit108
PHP Library for the Ocean Controls' Serial
Digital Input and Output Controller. This controller is a 8
relay outputs (each capable of switching 5 amps @240VAC) and 4
opto-isolated digital inputs. Hmm, I didn't know you could do
that with PHP (but I do now).
- Links to various SCADA software some free but I'm not sure of
them all (http://plc.sourceforge.net/).
- James Russo has created a Perl module to interface to the Elk
M1. He's hosting it at ElkM1::Control (V0.1)
on Sourceforge. The Elk M1 is a security/automation controller
(hardware).
- Version 0.2 of ElkM1::Control
is held on GIT Hub.
- Sea Level has a
bunch of PCI boards for various digital I/O. The drivers for
those boards can be found here.
There is currently support for their 4030, 8005, 8255, 8006,
8007, 8014 and 8011 boards.
- Zone Minder is
intended for use in single or multi-camera video security
applications, including theft prevention and child or family
member or home monitoring and other care scenarios. It supports
capture, analysis, recording, and monitoring of video data
coming from one or more video or network cameras attached to a
Linux system. It is suitable for both do-it-yourself and
professional installations.
- DRACONi
Automation - aims to be a home automation and digital
entertainment control package. It's designed to be modular,
meaning new kinds of functionality can be added easily. It
supports the CM11A/CK11A, Applied Digital (ADI)
Ocelot/Leopard/Leopard II Home Automation Controllers, XMMS
Music Player, and Festival
Speech Synthesis Software.
- Domo - Hal
Fulton's Ruby based Home Automation (HA) which is intended to
be a distributed, full-featured home automation software
system, written in Ruby and running on Linux.
- LabJack - is a USB-based
measurement and automation devices which provide analog
inputs/outputs, digital inputs/outputs, and more. Eric Sorton
wrote the original drivers but Labjack seems to be maintaining
them now: Linux
driver (Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels) for the Labjack. Here
are some of the features:
- 8 Single-Ended, 4 Differential 12-Bit Analog Inputs
- ±10 Volt Analog Input Range
- PGA with Gains of 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, or 20 V/V
- Up to 8 kSamples/Sec (Burst) or 1.2 kSamples/Second (Stream)
- Supports Software or Hardware Timed Acquisition
- Supports Triggered Acquisition
- 2 Analog Outputs
- 20 Digital I/O (Up to 50 Hz per I/O)
- 32-Bit Counter
- Watchdog Timer Function
- Easy to Use Plug-and-Play USB Device
- Connect Up to 80 LabJacks to One USB Port (We're not that far with Linux)
- Complete Software Control, No Jumpers or Switches
- No Power Supply Needed
- Includes Cable and Screwdriver
- Approximately 4" x 6" x 1"
In addition I'm going to post my version (a tar'd and
bzip2 file) of the Labjack Perl libraries. Chris has a more up
to date version in CPAN (see the previous link above.
- Chris Drake has added his Labjack Perl Library to CPAN! So if
you need the code just install it through CPAN. It's the "Device::Labjack"
Library. Chris is more up to date than my code.
- Michael Wiertlewski has created labjackd
- a telnet daemon for the Labjack. You can also access the CVS
repositry and his main web site
- The LabJack
U3 Linux Project - The aim of U3 Linux project is to
provide a fairly high level interface without compromising the
speed of the hardware too much. Further should it be easy to
use for the average technical minded programmer.
- The X10 VA11A USB
Video Capture adapter (Vendor ID 0x533, Device ID 0x2000). I
don't have this device but I am interested as I now have 2 X10
camera's. But it turns out that a friend lent me his VA11A
(thanks Vinny) and it needs this SPCA50X driver which
is untested and a work in progress. Sean Fulmer found a link [Spca50x-devs]
the dreaded X10 VA11A and Unbuntu -
Spca5xx. I know it's says Ubuntu but it's applicable to
other Linux distribs as well.
- Project Wish - this
project implements the standard X10 protocol at the /dev device
level so that it abstracts the communications protocol specific
to the transceiver away from the user. As a result, a user
application can be written to talk to the X10 network without
concern for the type of transceiver attached. Currently the
PowerLinc Serial, PowerLinc USB, Firecracker, and CM11A are
supported.
- PPower short for
'Penguin Power', is a piece of UNIX software for controlling x10
home automation equipment connected to the computer via a cm11a
interface. It can be used to turn things on and off and lights
dim and bright. In addition to controlling the x10 devices, it
can receive commands sent to the x10 devices from other sources
such as an x10 remote transceiver and execute commands on your
system in response.
- Warren Bell has created a web-based interface to PPower (uses a CM11A)
called HomeControl.
It's written in Perl and schedules commands to be run and can
run commands directly from controls on the web page. It's
simple, but it's got some decent scheduling features. Demo,
download and readme are on the project page.
- Net 9 provides 9-bit
character message oriented communication protocol, which is
transfered over an RS-485 link. Joachim Franek has schematics
and a Linux driver for the package, very interesting.
- uLan
Driver provides 9-bit character message oriented
communication protocol, which is transfered over an RS-485
link. Linux, WindowsNT/2000/98, and DOS are supported.
- X10BOT -
x10bot is an open source home automation daemon for x10 CM11A
appliance controller and accessories under Linux. X10bot
quietly listens to the CM11A and executes TCL commands and
scripts when events happen.
- Pascal Scheffers' CM11A
TCL Library - Paul wrote it because he needed/wanted a Pure
Tcl solution for using his CM11 interface module. The result is
a work in progress that lets you control your CM11 from any
machine/OS for which a Tcl 8.4 or better interpreter exist
(i.e. a lot). The machine does not even need to have a serial
port, as long as you have a machine that does which can run Tcl
8.4 and has a TCP/IP connection.
- Mindbright's MindTerm
java applet. It's an SSH client that provides support for
proxies (but not dynamic proxing) and SSH tunnels. This is not
strictly a Linux related product (It's Java). There is a version
for Netscape and IE. I've played with the Netscape version and
it seems to work with 4.7 and the 6.0/Mozilla development
versions with the Java plugin.
- Comedi -
software to drive data acquisition hardware (such as from
National Instuments and others).
- GPC - is the Global Premises
Control package. It is intended to be a complete solution to the
DIY home automation. It provides you with a daemon which will
centralize all control functions, and some custom programs for
sound, remote control and things like that. (Admin's note: I
think it is a daemon for Parallel port control though I still
need to investigate it further, in my spare time ;-).
- Parapin
Jeremy Elson recently released a new library called Parapin that
makes it much easier to do PC parallel-port based digital I/O
using Linux-based software and device drivers. The library
exports a much easier-to-use interface than the typical method
of writing directly to registers, making it easier (in my
opinion, anyway) to write software that uses the PC parallel
port for digital I/O.
Parapin
Documents
- TW523 - A driver to drive
the TW523 directly from the parallel port of your Linux
box. Mark Aikens wrote this beast (anyone with programming
knowledge of the TW523 knows what I mean ;-). Currently it can
only send commands (like the CP290) but at least it can be
extended. BTW, I am aware of a similar program for BSD.
- rt_x10 -
(software) is a realtime kernel driver for the X10 "two way
power line interface" (model TM523). It is useful for home
automation.
- A.L.I.C.E. AKA Java Home
Automation - Walter Bogaardt has created a Home Automation
project under Linux entirely in Java (CM11A and Cm17A). Walter
has some additional ideas for other programs in his package.
This could be of interest to Tini
folks.
- DomotiGa - an Open Source
(GPL3) Home Automation Software from the Netherlands. It is
written in Gambas
Basic (Open Source too) and runs on Linux. You can read all
kinds of sensor values with it, let it detect motion and
schedule lights at certain times by the use of several
hardware. For example DomotiGa can use the RFXCom receiver,
Xanura CTX35 A10/X10 controller, Midon TEMP08 1-wire interface
and more.
- X10 Ephem or x10ephem
- This code computes sunrise and sunset times. There is a
library and an assortment of utilities. The most useful utility
is x10events. This program parses crontab files and updates the
time fields to track sun events given instructions in the
comments. This code does not control X10 devices directly. You
need a package like HEYU or X10d (see above) depending on
the kind of hardware you have. x10events merely updates crontab
entries.
- X10 MouseRemote for
Linux - By Dan Wilga. One of the things that seems to be
missing is good software to take advantage of the special
buttons on the MouseRemote under Unix. Here is Dan's attempt to
solve that problem. It was tested in Linux, but the client at
least should work on nearly any flavor of Unix. The server may
need some tweaking.
- TCL X10 Rich Auletta's x10asm
(assembles the CM11A macro/timer file) and x10eeload which
downloads x10macro.bit into the CM11a. Rich says it's not really
ready but it's very interesting all the same.
- CP290 software
- LED Sign Java Applet Creates
an LED Sign.
- LED Font file use by LED Sign
- Sunrise/Sunset programs Programs
to calculate Sunrise, Sunset, Phase of the moon (Setup for
Eastern Coast of the US).
- Phase of the Moon Another program
which calculates the phase of the moon, moonrise, moonset,
sunrise, sunset and a few other things.
- X10 Library for the CM11A
by Herve Regad-Pellagru
- TMon is a room
temperature monitoring system, that uses a digital multimeter
(Mastech MAS-345) connected to a serial port with an RS232C
cable. Temperature readings are taken at set intervals, and
should the temperature reach a certain threshold, an alert is
sent via email or SMS. All readings are either logged to a file,
or via 'syslog'.
- QtDMM2 - is
DMM readout
software and a configurable data logger.
- Ser2Net - The ser2net
daemon allows telnet and TCP sessions to be established with a
unit's serial ports.
- Phantom Home
Automation - A home brewed home automation project that
involves hardware and software.
- XAL - The X10
Abstraction Library. I'm not exactly sure what it is yet. When I
know I'll list it under the correct heading.
- PYX10 - This page
hasn't been setup yet so I don't know what it is yet.
- T_H_X10
- Michael Keryan has built an Inexpensive Whole-House
Temperature/Humidity Monitoring System This is the full text and
graphics of a 2-part article that appeared in the February and
March issues of Nuts & Volts Magazine. Reprinted by permission
of Nuts & Volts Magazine ©1999. Included is software for the
Parallex BASIC stamps (PBASIC), DOS/Windows (BASIC) and Linux
(C).
- Lynx-10 ksh scripts (Untested)
- Net Lighting For the CM11A
(Untested)
- Two Way Daemon For Two Way &
X10 TW523 (both TW523 and RS232 Two Way dongle are needed)
- Cheap Light Switch
- Use relays to control things (Serial/parallel ports,
untested).
- TCL interface to the
cp290.tgz Adam Hightowers software.
- Voice recognition Ears 0.32
(Alpha, untested)
- Voice recognition
kvoice 0.11 (untested)
- Text to Phoneme software,
also see Festival below. (untested)
- Sound card Oscilloscope
Cthugha (untested)
- Tab Source for above
Oscope (untested)
- Radio Shack Pen Oscope
software (untested)
- Pen Oscope
software - yet another pen oscope package for X11. ALso has
support for Bitscope!
- x10mp3 -
Mp3Anywhere for Linux
- I had been wondering how to take advantage of turning my
printer on and off remotely via the cups scripts. Well I found
some info on how to do just that. Here at: http://funderburgs.net/linux/x10printer/.
While I'm not sure it's the best way to do this it is
useful. One thing I need to add is SNMP so I can see if the
printer is still printing and wait until it's done. More to
follow on this!
- ACCSNMP -
A Perl backend wrapper that accounts for jobs by querying the
printer over SNMP for its pagecount before and after the job.
Built-in support for job and user blacklisting. Simple
accounting function stores user pagecounts in text files.
Easily customizable.
- Asterisk PBX - While not
really Home Automation it can be when added to Misterhouse or
adding the appropriate AGI code to control x10d or Heyu.
- SIMPL -
Framework for Access Control (opndrs) project. The idea is to
build modules (ICs) that are building blocks for HA
systems.
- Fredrik Hubinette's
Home Automation
Software, some programs that Fredrik runs at home. Most of
them are Pike modules for interfacing with projectors, light
switches, etc. Most of this software is not written with the
intent to be configured and used by non-programmers. If you
have questions, use Fredrik's email address which can be found
in the code.
IR stuff: For those that are interested in IR (not IRDA).
- Linux
IR remote control software (LIRC) is a package that allows
you to decode and send infra-red signals of many (but not all)
commonly used remote controls.
- Looks like this link is gone! I can't find another that
replaces it. GDM's Xr3
Xr3 (Linux RedRat2 Remote Toolkit) - Xr3 is package of Linux
tools for the RedRat2 serial port based Learning IR Remote
Control. It was initially developed for use with a ReplayTV
Personal Video Recorder(PVR) but has now been expanded to handle
any kind of IR controlled A/V equipment. RedRat2
- David Kramer's perl IR
Program. IR is an interface program to Chris Dodge's RedRat 2
infrared controller. It will not work with any other infrared
device, especially IRDA. It is written in Perl. It uses only the
basic Perl constructs and no external packages, so it should
work on any platform that supports Perl and serial
communications.
DMX512 stuff: For those that are interested. I've yet to check
these out but it is an alternative to X10.
- Q
Light Controller 2 Project - K Light Controller Project aims
to develop a "cheap" way to control a set of lights through a
computer interface. The name KLC comes from KDE Light
Controller, although this software has no connections to KDE in
any way. We wanted to keep the name as it is for nostalgic
reasons (and because I've printed the name on one of the
PCB's... :)
- Linux Lighting Group -
Lighting Hardware and Software for Linux and similar platforms
(DMX).
To learn more about the USITT DMX512 (1990) standard see:
CAN stuff: For those that are interested. I've yet to check
these out but here are some links to CAN for Linux. (I'm currently
working on this one so it's a bit ugly but it's a start).
- OpenCAN
is a software platform for interacting with various Controller
Area Network (CAN or CANbus) devices. It provides an abstract
C++ interface that can be used to control CAN devices. Support
for specific devices can be written as plugins, and then loaded
through a simple API call. Each component is cross-platform,
enabling the efficient development of CAN software on Windows
and Linux. And you are free to use and extend it according to
the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
- CAN Festival
s a set of drivers, API and tools aimed to implement Can and
CanOpen field-bus layers. Lot of docs available in the
tarball.
- OCAN
- Open-CAN is a device driver for the Intel 82527 CAN
controllers. It's quite lightweight and is equipped with a tiny
hardware abstraction layer to support different hardware
mountings of the chip.
- CANpie - The goal
of this project is to define a standard API for access to the
CAN bus. The API provides functionality for ISO/OSI Layer-2
(Data Link Layer).
- I found the Linux Lab project which can search for CANopen or
can4linux.
- http://www.llp.fu-berlin.de/
There seems to be a project at:
-
http://www.llp.fu-berlin.de/pool/newproj/CAN/ It appears
to have a mailing list. I'll do some more research and add it to
my collections of web links.
-
CAN4Linux The universal LINUX device driver can4linux
supports 82c200/sja1000 and 82527 based I/O interfaces. The
AT-CAN-MINI is supported.
- CARACA - CARACA is
a home automation project based on a net of interconnected
programmable circuits suited to perform different tasks like
switch on/off appliances, decode commands from Ir remote control
units, control thermostats, measure temperature and more. Every
node of the net communicate each other through a robust protocol
(CANBus), and the status can be monitored by a PC possibly
connected to the Internet. Now with Linux programs!
- For those of you interested in Linux and CAN (Control
Automation Network) there is a project on SourceForge called: CANopen - this
project intends to become a complete standard compliant CANopen
library for Master (Linux) and slave devices (PIC18, C51, and
AVR's so far).
Parallel Port stuff: For those that are interested in doign
automation via the parallel port.
GPIB stuff: For those that are interested in GPIB.
LonWorks stuff: still a little light on links but we seem to be
making progress.
- Göran Hasses' Arigo driver software. This
card interfaces to the LONWorks network. This is the first piece of
software for use with Linux and LONWorks. Thanks Göran!
Arigo board
- Nautsilus - a company
selling LonWorks tools for Linux and QNX.
- Device Drivers
for I2C, DMX, DAQ, CAN and Lonworks boards.
- Gadget Stack by Adept
Systems (ASI) has software that allows one to access LonWorks. I
think it's a developement enviroment and not an end user APP. As an
interface there is a LonWorks/IP router. See this
Building Automation article for details of the system.
EIB/KNX stuff: For those that are interested in European
Installation Bus (EIB). EIB has now changed it's name to KNX and coverged with the EHSA and
BATIBUS standards.
- Salari Sandro (XCode) pointed this out on comp.home.automation:
KNXLive
based on Knoppix 3.9, the CD contains, pre-installed and ready to run:
- A BCU1/PEI16 device driver
- An EIBnet/IP Tunnelling server ("Tweety"), which uses a
BCU 1 with serial interface for EIB access
- A Java Library ("Calimero") for accessing EIBnet/IP
Tunnelling servers, handling group data exchange using
popular data point types and maintaining a simple point
database
- A graphical demonstration client for Calimero
- A tool set for writing and downloading BCU applications,
RAD-style ("BCU SDK")
- The powerful EIB access daemon ("eibd") of the BCU SDK
- Here's a link for info on
EIB (Thanks Dave!).
- EIB for
Linux is a Linux driver and tools for the European
Installation Bus (EIB) connected via BCU1. This package actually
contains a low level device driver for linux kernel 2.2.x and
BCU1, console and X busmonitor (GTK), Eiblet - EIB Low Level
Group Object Bus Communicator, and a sniffing tool.
- Eib4BSD - Frank
Behrens' EIB BCU1 FreeBSD driver.
- Linux (and
Windows) EIB Home Server - This project provides a framework
interfacing with the European Installation Bus (EIB). It allows
users to control EIB devices from their PC. It is designed for
standardized bus coupling units 2 (BCU2) using the FT1.2
protocol over RS232.
- For those looking for a newsgroup for EIB take a look at domotique-EIB.
Domotique-EIB domotique.EIB est un forum de discussion,
consacré aux aspects de la domotique basée sur l'EIB "European
Installation Bus" Ce forum est semblable à
fr.sci.techniques.domotique mais traite exclusivement des
aspects domotiques liés à EIB. Using Babelfish to translate
the previous text to English Babelfish says (and I'm not making this up):
domotique.EIB is a forum of discussion, devoted to the aspects
of the house automation based on the Drunk EIB "European
Installation" This forum similar to fr.sci.techniques.domotic
but is milked exclusively aspects house automations related to
EIB. Which means it's a French forums devoted to EIB (similar
to the newsgroup fr.sci.techniques.domotic. (Forgive the
translation, it was just too funny).
- I'm not quite sure where to put this but ... Connect is a
software to design, setup, commission and test home and
building-automation systems. It will support various bus
systems such as EIB.
- Freebus.org - Basically an
open buss system - open bus system, hardware, firmware, eib ,
knx, konnex, ets, etc. The site is in German (I think) and it's
a little hard for me to translate.
Modbus stuff: For those that are interested in Modbus.
- Raditex AB IP
IO-module - Raditex AB has developed an IO-module suitable
for mounting on a DIN-rail. This module is commanded by IP. The
module has 4 relays, 4 digital in/out ports and 4 out ports
that givs 0-10 volts. The module is driven by 12V. The commands
that are needed can be found in the documents on this
page. More info to follow ...
- IP I/O module is
an IO-controler running modbus (open source). The module is low
cost. (about 200$).
- Libmodbus Open source implementation of modbus
- Libmbus
Open source implementation of M-BUS (Meter-Bus)
PLC's (Programmable Logic Controller):
- Df1 for
linux. Df1 is a small implementation of the DF1 Protocol use
by AB with SLC500 and PLC5 series. This program is a daemon to
communicate with ethernet TCPIP from programmable logic
controller SLC500 and MicroLogix ALLEN-BRADLEY connected on the
serial port . You can read and write float, integer and bit in
SLC500. Only Full-duplex is implemented.
- Beremiz - Open Source
framework for automation. Directly form the home page: With Beremiz, you can :
- Automate everything.
- Take any processor into a PLC.
- Program once, run anywhere.
- Create PLC controled customizable HMIs.
- Conform to standards.
- Avoid vendor lock.
Ocelot stuff:
- Tom Witmer went ahead and wrote a GPL'd Java toolkit ("Javacelot") for
communicating with the Ocelot. It uses the RXTX utilities for
the serial port communications.
- CPU-XA to Linux interface
(A.K.A XALIB)
I received the Ocelot (an upgraded CPU-XA) and I've started
to work with it using Misterhouse. Works great!
HCS II stuff:
The HCS II is an expandable, network-based (RS485),
intelligent-node, industrial-oriented supervisory control system
intended for demanding home control applications. The HCS
incorporates direct and remote digital inputs and outputs, direct
and remote analog inputs and outputs, real-time or Boolean decision
event triggering, X-10 transmission and reception, infrared remote
control transmission and reception, remote LCD displays, and a
master console.
- The Open Source HCS
project. This is a project that I am involved in. We're taking the
entire line of HCS II product and Open Sourcing the hardware and
software. The project is geared towards those who don't mind picking
up soldering iron as well as an assembler or C compiler.
Future stuff:
- Directory Index - a Perl
script that creates an index of a directory and output's it to
index.html. As usual I couldn't find a simple tool to do this
so I wrote one.
- Weather page update and
tools. I use these with my WX200 weather station and info
from NOAA.
- Link Checker V 0.1 - A simple
Perl program which checks links on a give URL (page) and checks
to see if they return 2xx, 4xx, 5xx or other codes. I tried the
far more complicated ones and settled on this for checking my
pages from Misterhouse. Future releases will generate a web page
report (currently it's just a plain text report).
- Link Checker V 0.2 -
I've taken my original linkcheck code an made it so it can out
directly to sendmail. This includes the correct email headers
and html support. I did this so I could get color in the
report. I've tested this with Thunderbird. Currently the color
version doesn't have a plain test option but that's why I kept
the previous version of link check. The support page for both
versions of Link Check
can be found here
Other related projects: (this may get it's own
section) In case you are wondering why I would advertise
other projects that could compete with my own (LHA). It's because these
pages are devoted towards Linux and not my own projects. Let the
better software win. Competition is good for all.
Zigbee/802.15.4/Bluetooth: - The whole family of protocol
suites of low powered wireless protocols for Linux. You'll also find
some of my wireless toys here too.
- One-Net - ONE-NET is an
open design standard (protocol) for low power wireless devices,
optimized for residential and small business control
applications. I've taken notice of this and I like the fact that it
supports point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, and
multipoint-to-multipoint networking.
- Zigbuzz - The
ZigBuzz project is an open source effort to create a ZigBee(tm)
stack for Linux.
- Freak Labs - (hardware)
An Open Source ZigBee Blog
Other:
- JOmniLink II - API is a very
thin wrapper around the published omnilinkII spec. This Library
is Licensed under the GPL v2, if this does not work for you
please contact the author for other options. This is for the new
HAI protocol.
- Omnilink -
(software) Java implementation of the Omni-Link Serial Protocol
and Network Protocol as described in two separate specification
documents released by Home Automation Inc (HAI). Possibly
talking to an older version of the HAI API.
- HAI Omni Communication
Library - The purpose of this project is to provide a
comprehensive library to support communication to HAI’s
family of Omni home automation controllers via Ethernet and
serial. The code is compatible with GCC and MS VC++. It can be
compiled into a static library, dynamic library, Windows DLL,
or a stand-alone test application. It has been tested on
Linux, Cygwin, and WinXP.
- STANTOR - a
French site (but the author took the trouble to translate it to
English). It contains a home automation server for Linux &
Windows. Understanding this site is a little difficult.
Not ready for primetime: (Alpha code)
- LHAP Web Interface V 1
Page. This version works with NS 4.x (and IE I think).
Remember theses are static pages, there is no PHP preprocessing
these files and no MySQL db access. NOTE: these files
are huge! they may be intolerable on slow links.
- LHAP Web Interface V 2
Page. This version works with NS 4.x and NS 6.x (and IE I
think). Remember theses are static pages, there is no PHP
preprocessing these files and no MySQL db access. NOTE:
these files are huge! they may be intolerable on slow
links. Here is the source code to the LHAP web interface
- Linux HCS II Page -
information and software for the HCS II.
- The Linux Home
Automation Project. I've registered the project on
SourceForge and seeking help on a variety of sections such as
the main daemon code, GUI interfaces, and event
processing.
Documents
Other Software Links
- Dan Lanciani's X10d software
page (for the CM11A & Lynx10) This is the software I
mainly use. I've made a few modifications to my copy. Dan has
ton's of other HA related software on his page including hacks to
X10's RR501 to allow it to become an all house code RF/IR
transceiver. This is very cool!
- Dan Suthers' Heyu software
Page. Dan's page has the all important protocol.txt file a
must have for programming the CM11A. Dan also has his own code
for the CM11A that works under Linux.
- Xtend
software This software permits the use of monitoring events
and performing actions based on those events. So far it only
works with Dan Suthers' Heyu software. I've attempted to get Dan
Lanciani's software to work with it but Xtend's X10 state engine
doesn't work exactly the way the CM11A does.
- Directory
Dallas Onewire software Home of Andrew A. Burgess's Dallas
Onewire software. I recommend picking up the ds9097.gif schematic
for the serial interface to the Onewire network
- CP290
Software This is Paul Fox's CP290 software for Linux. Perhaps
the very first software for use with Linux (Paul also modified
someone else's code).
- FreeBSD
Home Automation though not really Linux related directly, it
does have the HCS II software I started off with. I will be
replacing that software with an X10d version that interfaces to
the HCS II board. I've already written the frame work and will
now begin the work of directly interfacing it to the HCS II.
-
Festival Speach Synthesis This is really a pretty good speech
synthesis program. I particularly like the XML language extensions.
Currently I use it to help tell me the current temperature (from my
weather station).
- CMU's Sphinx
project (Open Source Speech Recognition Engine).
- Bruce Winter's perl based HomeAutomation (HA) program called mysterious (mh).
It runs on Windows 95, 98, NT, Linux, BSD and AIX. Since it is
written in perl, it can in theory run on any OS that runs
perl.
- Karl Denninger's X10d
addons for use with Dan Lanciani's X10d. Karl now has support
for the AppDig modules. Karl's software is written specifically
for FreeBSD but it compiles under Linux. I hope to have a few
patch files available so it can properly compile under
Linux.
- The link to get the
netpipes software
Hardware Links
- Freak Labs - An Open Source ZigBee Blog (not Linux specific)
- USB/IP Project aims
to develop a general USB device sharing system over IP
network. To share USB devices between computers with their full
functionality, USB/IP encapsulates "USB I/O messages" into TCP/IP
payloads and transmits them between computers.
- Linux,
C18 and the Bol-Bot - (robotics) I've created a page
explaining how I use make, wine and C18 to compile programs for
the Bol-Bot.
- My robotics
page - a place for my robotics projects.
- USB/IP Project -
(hardware) aims to develop a general USB device sharing system
over IP network. To share USB devices between computers with
their full functionality, USB/IP encapsulates "USB I/O messages"
into TCP/IP payloads and transmits them between computers.
- opnode
("open node") - an 'Open Source' network controller design (I
think). Two opnodes are available at this moment: opn-one
and opn-232
(with opn-x10 application which support the CM11A). Currently I'm
having a little trouble figuring the whole thing out but it looks
like it also supports the xAP and xPL protocols.
- EZBridge Insteon
to Ethernet Bridge Server - This provides an ethernet
interface to the Insteon PLC. It's not a standalone
server. EZBridge allows Ethernet connections into an Insteon home
automation network using a TCP client/server socket. The unit
receives and sends XML messages and does the appropriate
handshaking with the PLM
- ISY-26/ISY-99 -
IP Bridge/Controller is a standalone, INSTEON-compatible home
automation controller that allows you to link the devices on your
INSTEON network without having a dedicated computer running
24/7. You can set up timer events and custom event triggers, as
well as monitor and control all the INSTEON-compatible devices in
your home from any web-browser anywhere in the world! Now you can
check if the lights in your house were left on and remotely turn
them off from your computer at work. X10 commands are not
supported at this time but a future release of the software will
support X10.
- C-Bus Open
Protocols - the name pretty much describes it. Though it may
be an 'open' it seems to be closed source and a program you need
to be a partner for ($$$ in my opinion).
- Bill Richardson has posted schematics, on his web site for his PIC based projects. He is
looking for ideas and advice on his projects. He wants to make
open source home automation products for anyone to afford & use.
He'd appreciate any help.
- Computer
Solutions Ltd (ComSol) has a LIN
Interface and Gateway with Linux drivers.
- Dave Houston's X10 info
Pages - Dave has some interesting X10/Wireless project
plus all the rest of his HA stuff. Check out his page for further
details.
- IButton/Onewire -
Maxim/Dallas SemiConductor's web site for their 1-Wire & IButton
products. It contains everything you need to support and purchase
their products. I wish more vendors where like this!
- AAG Electronica -
This site has been around for a while. They began selling the
Dallas 1-Wire Weather kits when Dallas stop selling them. (Used to
be at the Dallas Ibuttons as
the Onewire Weather Station. But Dallas no longer sells it). It
appears they now have expanded to LCD's, relays, humidity,
temperature, pressure and other 1-Wire sensors. Very cool
stuff.
- Bitscope Digital Storage
Oscilloscope (DSO) - Bitscope is an open design 100 MHz Digital
Sampling Oscilloscope and 8 channel Logic Analyzer. It comes in
kit or preassembled, has a serial interface default (115Kbps) but
you can purchase a network interface (625Kbps remote access, very
cool!). I have on of the older VM120 Bitscope but I can't wait to
get the VM220 upgrade.
- Home Automation
Knowledge base - Ido Bartana's home page. It has an incredible
collection of information on X10. Definitely a must see site for
those interested in X10.
- The Yakko
project is a home automation system. It defines a new
protocol implemented as firmware running in AVR atmega
microprocessors. The goal is to build a method to make logical
connections between hardware devices such as lamps, switchers and
so on.
- Raditex AB IP IO-module -
Raditex AB has developed an IO-module suitable for mounting on a
DIN-rail. This module is commanded by IP. The module has 4
relays, 4 digital in/out ports and 4 out ports that givs 0-10
volts. The module is driven by 12V. The command that are needed
are in this
document. More info to follow ...
- Richard Kinch's
Pool controller setup - This page describes Rich's project to
control the equipment and chemistry of his residential swimming
pool using a PC running Linux. This essay describes the goals of
the project and the custom designs he used to implement his
ideas.
- Dr. Edward Cheung's front
door (Home automation is on his home page, follow this link
to that page). Dr. Cheung has created his own HA nodes on his
network. He has some very interesting devices there.
- Circuit Cellar The
Computer Applications Journal. And Circuit Cellar Ink, the
magazine of embedded control applications.
- Marrick LTD Makers of
the Lynx-10 controller and the now released Lynx-10
PLD.
- ADI - Applied Digital
Inc. Makers of the CPU-XA, Ocelot, Leopard and IR-X
boards. All look interesting for HA. Here is their support
link
- I don't know why I had forgotten this but Dataq Instruments has an
inexpensive 8 bit ADC w/3 digital inputs, the DI-194 Starter Kit
(you'll need to search for it as the link is gone). I know it says
free on the page but you need to qualify to get it free but at the
~$13 (US + P+H) it's still inexpensive! They have other data
acquisition kits also, check em out. And for those who wish to
writ there own programs check out this link for raw data information (useful
for creating your own programs). Here is a link to a C file (dataq.c
and makefile)
to access the Di-194 under Linux (BTW, I have the source so if the
link ever dies I can post it here).
- T_H_X10 -
Michael Keryan has built an Inexpensive Whole-House
Temperature/Humidity Monitoring System This is the full text and
graphics of a 2-part article that appeared in the February and
March issues of Nuts & Volts Magazine. Reprinted by permission of
Nuts & Volts Magazine ©1999. Included is software for the
Parallex BASIC stamps (PBASIC), DOS/Windows (BASIC) and Linux
(C).
- High Tech Horizon (HTH) - They
have a power line modem (PLM) kit which runs at speeds up to 2400
bps. They have a Linux library to interface to the SNAP
protocol. and they also have an interface to the 3Com Palm
platform. Basically you hook the PLM to the serial port and the
AC line and you can communicate across the AC. This looks
interesting and I hope to get my hands on the kits in 2000.
- Express PCB - PC board
layout software and manufacturing service. This one may come back
to bite me because it's Windows software but I wasn't aware that
such low cost services were available. Further investigation is
warranted.
- JDS - JDS
Technologies manufactures Home Automation and Environmental
Control systems and peripherals including STARGATE,
STARGATE-Lite, TimeCommander-Plus, TimeCommander, TeleCommand,
Infrared Xpander and a variety of accessories.
- Momitsu DVD-V880N Networked
DVD Player (they've since come out with a new model). An
interesting toy, a networked DVD player. It is capable of playing
MPEG 1, 2 and 4, AVIs, various audio (like OGG and WMA), display
JPEGs, and Shoutcast. You'll have to search for rest of the specs
here they've changed the
site around (sorry). It comes with support for Windows but you
can get their Momitsu Media Center for Linux and OSX by sending
them an email.
- MSP430
Development with Linux. While not HA it still makes a good
dev platform (the MP430) for HA nodes.
- Dominic Rath has created OpenOCD
- Open On-Chip Debugging, as part of a diploma thesis at the University of Applied Sciences,
FH-Augsburg. To put in basic term, Domonic has created a
project that allows us to build a simple jtag interface and using
software like gdb debug your processor on an embedded
system.
- I've created a 'hacks' page for the Linksys
WMLS11B, you can't run Linux on it but there is some support
from the user community.
- I've created a 'hacks' page for the D-Link
DSM320. D-Link has made the GPL Linux source code available
for a number of their products. This page will attempt to provide
various information on buildling a new distribution for the DSM
family.
- For those that needs to boost their weak X10 signals there is the
XTB (X10 Transmission Booster). A
few users have reported that this has helped with their X10 when
they've started adding Insteon modules.
- I now have an ESM1
page. It's really for my own reference but I thought I'd post
it just the same.
- I've been taking notice of the ELK M1
Gold - much like the HCS II it has lots of IO. I've also
noticed the ELK
M1EZ8 which is where I'll start. The M1EZ8 seems to be a good
starting point and I can add the features like an Ethernet
interface.
- Nash's inspiration for the Espresso mod was Tim Hirzel's PID
PIC NES mod for his Espresso machine.
Micro Links
This probably deserves it's own section (probably under
electronics) but for now anything related to microntrollers and
DIY
electronics projects should go here.
Projects
- DollHouse - is an Open
Source Perl based DIY HA project intended to run
on small, low power, embedded Unix (Linux, BSD, etc.) systems to
monitor and control your home using off the shelf components,
such as X10, Insteon, Z-Wave and other devices. This project will
take Misterhouse (MH)
and trim it down to behave well in an embedded system
environment.
- gHCS a Home Control
System based on Steve Ciarcia's HCS II (Z180 based SC and remote
comm-links). This project will bring the project more up to date
by using newer, less expensive, more available, technologies
(Linux & the Arduinos for instance). The principle is the same a
simple if/then/else language for manipulating and monitoring
remote resources connected to the comm-links. The remotes allow
for control and monitoring of various types of I/O and
sensors. The Linux based SC should allow full access to the
tools, languages, system and internet resources available to
Linux.
- Pytomation - Written by Greg
Farris and Jason Sharpee (who wrote a few interesting Misterhouse
modules). Pytomation is an extensible open source automation
system written in Python. It's uses include home automation and
lighting control but is certainly not limited to those
functions.
- Mister House -
Bruce Winter's Perl based HomeAutomation (HA) program called
mysterious house (mh) or MisterHouse. It runs on Windows 95, 98,
NT, XP, Vista, Win7 Linux, BSD and AIX. Since it is written in
perl, it can in theory run on any OS that runs perl.
- Home
Automation Python Project - Javier Pardo
Blasco's HA project. It's
coded in Python called it's modular, it's web based, and it
publishes a REST API,
- mochad,
mochad is a Linux TCP gateway daemon for the X10 CM15A RF (radio
frequency) and PL (power line) controller and the CM19A RF
controller. mochad stands for Multiple Online Controllers for
Home Automation Daemon. It's built for use on embedded system
like the OpenWRT routers. It doesn't use a kernel driver instead
it uses LIBUSB.
- Open-zwave's
goal is to create free software to interface with all available
Z-Wave PC controllers, allowing anyone to create applications
that manipulate and respond to devices on a Z-Wave network,
without requiring in-depth knowledge of the Z-Wave protocol or
the purchase of expensive development kits.
- Open-ZB provides open source
tools for IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee.
- The Open Home Automation Bus (openHab) project
aims at providing a universal integration platform for all things
around home automation. It is designed to be absolutely
vendor-neutral as well as hardware/protocol-agnostic. OpenHAB
brings together different bus systems, hardware devices and
interface protocols by dedicated bindings. These bindings send
and receive commands and status updates on the openHAB event
bus. This concept allows designing user interfaces with a unique
look & feel, but with the possibility to operate devices
based on a large number of different technologies. Besides the
user interfaces, it also brings the power of automation logic
across different system boundaries.
- R-House
- Rails for Home Automation presentation. This presentation
introduces rails home automation. We will walk thru a dsl that is
setup to control various devices thru out your house. You will be
able to setup scenes, dims lights, figure out who is at your door
and take necessary actions using ruby. Using the R-House gem you
will be able to integrate these features in a web application and
control devices thru out the house using your iphone as a remote
control.
- Priscilla
(X10, EIB/KNX, 1 Wire & IR) is a BETA Home automation
software which allow you to control some of your home devices
from anywhere. Control your X10, infra red devices and 1wire
sensors with a web interface by Pierre Doleans.
- Domotik (English - xPL
based) is a free home automation solution. At the moment Domogik
is still in development so there is no stable version yet. It is
based on the xPL protocol? in order to easily use a lot of
different technologies.
- Mango
Automation (MA) is not an application. It is a platform with
which to build the exact application for your automation
needs. MA is a Java application that provides a library of
functionality with which to easily build the control application
that you need. Using ECMAScript (AKA JavaScript, the world's most
popular scripting language) you can quickly create your own
custom automation behaviour.
- Open
Automation - aims to supply the necessary parts for
automation solutions like home automation. (It is not an
automation solution on its own). It appears to be based on xPL and uses Javascript
and Python for various portions of it's code.
- FHEM -
GPL'd perl server for house automation. It is used to automate
some common tasks in the household like switching lamps /
shutters / heating / etc. and to log events like
temperature/humidity/power consumption. It has support for a lot
of protocols used in house automation like FS20, FHT, HMS,
OneWire, X10, S300, EM. See the Hardware section for more.
- MinervaHome - a
complete, easy to use home automation suite. It allows you to
switch your on lights from anywhere using a mobile phone or PC,
email your video, check CCTV footage, control your central
heating, and much more. It relies on command line and can
therefore be run from virtually any platform (smart phone, PDA,
laptop, or remote PC) with identical functionality. The
architecture consists of three parts: input, output, and
process. Each is completely distinct, meaning you can control any
of the house processes from any supported input conduit such as a
Web browser, remote control, or SMS. Reports or notifications can
be sent to any of the available output conduits.
- Mi
Casa Verde Source Code -
- WOSH - Wide Open Smart
Home. An open source, multi-platform framework (message oriented
middleware) Service Oriented Framework (SOA) providing a (Network)
OS independent infrastructure for developing component based
software (services, aka bundles), but it ships with many
implemented services and some end-user applications.
- The BACnet protocol
stack library provides a BACnet application layer, network
layer and media access (MAC) layer communications services. It is
an open source, royalty-free library for an embedded system,
Windows, Linux, or other operating system. Example BACnet client
and server applications are included. BACNet is a Data
Communication Protocol for Building Automation and Control
Networks (see bacnet.org for
further details).
-
Digispeaker - is a
purely digital whole house audio system. It is capable of
obtaining and delivering purely digital music directly to the
speakers installed throughout a home or business. Only at the
very last moment is the music converted to analog sound. All
sourcing, transportation, processing and amplification of the
music signal is done digitally. Because of this, DigiSpeaker is
an extremely versatile and efficient system for playing music
throughout a home.
Each DigiSpeaker is a self contained network node, audio
processor, 100W amplifier and speaker device. DigiSpeaker is
designed to be installed in the walls and ceilings of homes. Or,
optionally, it can be configured as a standalone unit that can be
placed in a room. Each DigiSpeaker exists as a node in a network
of DigiSpeakers that share information wirelessly or via
cable. DigiSpeaker only requires standard house power. No other
connections to the unit are necessary although some connections
are desirable depending on the installation.
- Pieter Knuvers' site: Bwired.nl. He also runs the Domotica Forums,
Europe. Domotica is the name for Home Automation in the rest
of the world. The folks on the forums have all sorts of
interesting HA
products. I'll add this under the Projects
section.
- Eric-jan Riemers' Home
Automation Wiki - A place for home automation information.
- Open Source HCS - this
project is one of my favorites! We've Open Sourced the Circuit Cellar HCS
project. We have the source code to the main controller's (SC or
supervisor controller) firmware. And the source code for the Host
and XPRESS compiler. We've found a substitute controller for the
SC and we're working on replacement Comm links. We'll be
supporting the older modules and designing new modules and a more
advanced SC.
- Asterisk PBX - While not
really Home Automation it can be when added to Misterhouse or
adding the appropriate AGI code to control x10d or Heyu.
- For those interested in monitoring their home power usage we have
this nice link to Building a Home
Power Monitoring System. It won't give you your exact power
usage (it watches trends) as it doesn't watch both current and
voltage (AC Watts require you take into acount the phase angle in
the math). But still nice to have. If you want exact power usage
check out Dr. Ed Cheung's web
site (go to -> Home Automation -> Power Line
monitor).
- Tivo HME SDK - An
SDK for developing applet type applications to run on the
Tivo. The Tivo interface will act like a browser.
- Java Home Media
Option - a media server for the Home Media Option from
TiVo and adds new innovative features beyond the existing
functionality provided by TiVo's implementation.
- Linux Wireless
Sensor LAN Project. Basically it's 802.15.4 (aka
ZigBee)standard low-rate wireless personal area networking.
- Frank Hitzel's VIMMS - Visual Module
Management System. frank has built a system powered by the ATMEL
AT90S2313 micro controller and a Linux PC that controls a digital
I/O interface and hardware watchdog interface, a stepper motor
controller and a RS232 multiplexer.
- VSCP - Very Simple Control
Protocol VSCP a very simple and free protocol for SOHO
automation tasks. It seems to interface to CAN and the EDA
project. They currently have examples using AVR's for
temperature, humidity and IR.
- Domo - Hal Fulton's
Ruby based Home Automation (HA) which is intended to be a
distributed, full-featured home automation software system,
written in Ruby and running on Linux.
- MIT's Oxygen -
Bringing abundant computation and communication, as pervasive and
free as air, naturally into people's lives.
- CANopen - this
project will become a complete standard compliant CANopen library
for Master and slave devices.
- MythTV is a homebrew PVR
project.
- Freevo is an
open-source digital video jukebox (PVR, DVR) based on Linux in
addition to a number of open-source audio/video tools. Freevo can
be used both for a standalone PVR computer with a TV+remote, as
well as on a regular desktop computer using the monitor and
keyboard.
- xAP Home
Automation Protocol. xAP, (pronounced ZAP) is an open
protocol intended to support the integration of telemetry and
control devices primarily within the home. It is the glue that
supports the interconnectivity of Home Automation devices. It
seems to be similar to the UPnP protocol but with less over head
(UPnP won't fit on a PIC).
- Tony's Home Automation
Website - The XPL development web site. It contains details
about the XPL HA protocol (for 'LAN' use such as, but not limited
to, RS485, ethernet etc.).
- The Official XPL web
site - XPL is a network protocol for handling XPL messages
(related to HA) and network services for handling of the message
to execute scripts.
- NIC-based
Adaptive and Efficient Residential HVAC Control
(NIC-aerc). Uses the 'net, temperature sensors and calculations
to figure out the heating and cooling of a home.
- ActiveKnob - Marc
F. Hult has a collection of DMX512 related links (including
software and schematics) for his ActiveKnob project. His project
is his 19th century home.
- mTW523 - This is my
modified TW523 page. The projects allows you to build a modified
TW523 so that all the bits on the AC (pertaining to the X10
protocol) are displayed.
- The Linux Home
Automation Project. I've registered the project on
SourceForge and seeking help on a variety of sections such as the
main daemon code, GUI interfaces, and event processing.
- HAT - Adam
Davis' Home Automation Terminal. It's an LCD terminal based on a
PIC 16F876.
- Portable SDK for UPnP
Devices - (libupnp) provides developers with an API and open
source code for building control points, devices, and bridges
that are compliant with Version 1.0 of the Universal Plug and
Play Device Architecture Specification and support several
operating systems like Linux, *BSD, Solaris and others. This site
replace the next link.
- Intel's Universal Plug and
Play* (UPnP) SDK for Linux. he UPnP SDK for Linux provides
developers with an API and open source code for building control
points, devices, and bridges that are compliant with Version 1.0
of the UPnP Device Architecture Specification. Intel Corporation
originally developed this SDK and has donated it to the open
source community through SourceForge*. They have the spec's, SDK
and a mail list. There are alos more links to other useful
info. Use the previous link instead of this site.
- Gatespace. Gatespace is a
charter member of the Open Services Gateway initiative and
provided the core of the reference implmentation of the OSGi
standard. Or in other words they have the OSGi dev kit on their
site. You have to sign up for membership and then you can
download there dev kit. Please carefully read the license when
you install it into your system. There are limitations that may
cause some problems. Editor's Note: This membership
doesn't cost anything as opposed to the OSGi membership below.
- Open Systems Gateway
initiative - OSGi The Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi)
is an industry group working to define and promote an open
standard for connecting the coming generation of smart consumer
and small business appliances with commercial Internet
services. The Open Services Gateway specification will provide a
common foundation for Internet Service Providers, network
operators and equipment manufacturers to deliver a wide range of
e-services via gateway servers running in the home or remote
office. Editor's note: Membership cost $20,000 US/year
(OUCH!). Anyone care to chip in for the LHA projects membership?
;-)
- ECS is a commercial
all-purpose object-oriented Windows/Linux automation
program that is suitable for virtually any tasks (in
commercial, industrial, and residential environments).
Supporting a large variety of devices, ECS is elegantly
simple, yet extremely powerful. Automated
tasks may be implemented via simple time-based schedules
(great for novices) and/or English-like scripts (which
give power users the flexibility they demand). And anyone
who can surf the web will be comfortable with ECS, as it supports
a browser-based user-interface (accessible via the
Internet or WAP-enabled phone/PDA). Editor's note: I
asked Mark Gilmore (ECS's author) to send me a description of his
product because I didn't get enough of a chance to really put it
through it's paces. I know it sounds a bit like a sale pitch but
that's all right. I've been on Mark's mail list for ECS for a
number of years and he provides excellent support and deserves a
little slack. This product is not Open Source and is a commercial
product but that's OK as there is enough room for Commercial and
Open Source products.
- Pluto - Pluto is
a free, open source smart home solution that seamlessly
integrates:
- media with a server for music, movies and tv shows, plus a
PVR and DVD Player,
- a home automation system with touch-screen tablet and
Bluetooth mobile phone controllers,
- a phone system with video conferencing,
- a security system that feeds you live video on your mobile
phone when there are interruptions, and lets you speak to
visitors through your stereos,
- it lets you control your X10 devices with the PC, webpads,
pdas and mobile phones, using both scenario shortcuts and
interactive floorplans.
- LinuxMCE - LinuxMCE is a free,
open source add-on to Kubuntu, complete whole-house media
solution with pvr + distributed media, and the most advanced
smarthome solution available. It is stable, easy to use, and
requires no knowledge of Linux and only basic computer
skills. It's a fork of Pluto Home. It has
support for ZWave (wireless home automation controller and
modules). Here's a 25 minute Google
Video on it's installation and use. Lastly here's the LinuxMCE
History page. It's an interesting read. This looks like it's
going to be an intereting project.
- Building a
Home Automation and Security System with Python, which has a
do it yourself hardware from QualityKits. Shows how to control a
serial I/O kit (relays) from Python. Looks like fun! :-)
- Shell
Scripting a Camera Server, cool.
- The DIY Zoning
Project is moving and changing it's name to Home Climate
Control. For the moment I',m leaving both links as the new
site seems a bit incomplete.
- The DIY Zoning
Project is a repository containing the information about
architecting, designing and implementing the Do It Yourself
Temperature Zoning system, introductory course for those planning
to install a ready-made temperature zoning system, and those who
just want their home comfort.
- NetHomeServer
is a Java based Open Source (LGPL 2.1) HA project that interfaces
to X10 (via the CM12), FS20 (via the FHZ1000), Nexa and
Deltronic. Other sensors are supported and all access is
provided via a Web interface.
- Freedomotic - Open
Source Building Automation (a universal building automation
framework). Freedomotic is a cross-platform,
HA hardware agnostic,
distribute, scalable and event based framework for controlling
your home. The software is written in Java. Currently the
software is in Beta and is searching for contributors (developers
or not)
OpenRemote
OpenRemote: the digital home operating system. OpenRemote
is an Open Source Community Smart Home, Automation and Domotics
space. We develop panel and control software on off-the-shelf
hardware and integrate with a variety of protocols in the
field. Whether you are a hobbiest or professional installer,
OpenRemote has something for you.
Other Links
- I've updated the Linux Coffee
Howto and given it a new directory. Originally written by
Georgatos Photis (and in Greek and English) I've cleaned up a
little bit of the English translation and added a few things.
Over all it still George's work but I hope to continue to
contribute to improving the howto.
- A nice link to an interview
that Marc Merlin did with
Omnes.tv on MisterHouse (April 2010).
- Nash's inspiration for the Espresso mod was Tim Hirzel's PID
PIC NES mod for his Espresso machine.
- The Home Automation Wiki. It has
a rather interesting link to the Lego RCX X10 RF sniffer along
with other links to X10 RF stuff.
- The Linux driver for the Quickcam Web
camera.
- ClassOver
Lib - this is a library of JavaScript functions for doing a
mouseover popups. I found it while working on my LHAP Web
Interface. It provides support for IE, NS 4.X/6.X and
Mozilla.
- AbsoluteValue Systems
is a company specializing in wireless LAN system product
development, especially for embedded applications. AbsoluteValue
Systems is an avid supporter of the Linux operating system, and
they are the creators of the linux-wlan Project. Editors
note: The development system is rather expensive.
- LinuxDevices.com, "the
Embedded Linux Portal", features a broad spectrum of Embedded
Linux topics -- including news, articles, events, links, jobs,
polls, discussion forum, product, and company information -- all
exclusively focused on embedding Linux. A wealth of information
is provided about hardware, software, tools, and support,
including both commercial and noncommercial real-time and
small-footprint Linux distributions for embedded applications.
- Embedded Linux
Consortium The Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC) is a
nonprofit, vendor-neutral trade association whose goal is the
advancement and promotion of Linux throughout the embedded,
applied and appliance computing markets. Members contribute dues
and participate in management, promotion and implementation
efforts, in return for a growing market opportunity for
all.
- FreeDos - An Open Source
effort to create a DOS clone (I think). The reason I've included
this here is that there is always the opportunity to run DOS on a
small x86 system as an embedded controller.
- My weather
page! It's the first run of the programs to poll and post to
the internet. Currently it runs every 4 hours but the Anemometer
and Rain guage are really off line. I'm now taking advantage of
the sitecopy program to post the info to the net and it has
worked very reliably.
- Circuit Cellar BBS -
For many of the engineering community the Circuit Cellar BBS was
a great place to share and question ideas. It has now been
replaced by a news server and an ftp server. Instructions on how
to connect to it can be found at http://bbs.circuitcellar.com/phpbb/
- Site Copy - Basically
a program which takes copies of your homepages and other related
files, which you store on your local machine, and transfers them
up to the web server only when there has been a change. It only
transfers files added or changed and will delete file that you
remove. It's an easy way to restore backups or keep pace with
updates.
http://www.lyra.org/sitecopy . It's written by Joe
Orton.
- Slashdot - News for nerds! I love
this site.
- Freshmeat - get you're
daily dose of new file info. Also a great place to find other
files!
- HTI Home Toys - Home
Automation Information including a news magazine, product and
services directory, shareware library and comprehensive list of
links.
- AutomatedBuildings.com
is an on line magazine and web resource providing the news, as
well as a connection to the exciting and rapidly evolving
industry that automates large buildings. We provide news, press
releases, interviews, education and articles for any automated
building system stakeholder. We seek and publish articles that
reflect the users and designers of Automated Buildings' point of
view.
- Home Automation Ponderings - This is
a page that I've created in response to a Slashdot post about
Linux and the Palm Pilot. Eventually I'll merge it into the
x10d.html page. That page has gotten too large to be usable, as
has this page.
- Home-Automation.org
which touts itself as "the most complete directory of home
automation links on the web". To which I agree, It has a very
nice collection of links to many HA site and software for many
OS's. I take it this site will be around for quite a while.
- O'Reilly has a new news
letter for the DIY (old school type hackers :-). It's called Make. Personally I think the
name isn't very good but it is to the point. It touts itself as
"The First Magazine for Technology Projects". I think it will
follow along with the "Hacks" (Hacks - n., A
clever solution to an interesting problem) series of books.
- Alek Komarnitsky's web page -
Alek has a Halloween
lights & Webcam page and a Christmas lights
and webcam page Check out his other links as he has quite a
few that are interesting. Somewhere on his site I found a link to
where he discusses surviving a 'Slashdotting'. I've got to find
that again!
- OK, I'm beginning to see problems with software patents and I
don't like the direction commercial enterprises are going with
it. So I'm adding a link to NoSoftwarePatents.com.
And as a bit of fuel for the fire, here's an example of what's
wrong with the patent system: Microsoft's IsNot
patent and Slashdot's
reaction. Being able to compare addresses is basic to
assembly language and C. So how can something so simple be
patented? It's obvious, not innovative!
- Here's an interesting use of the NSLU2, Unslung 6.8 and SIS-PM
(a 4 port USB-switchable power socket). It's has European outlets
which isn't very useful for the US and Canada but I'm sure the
European's don't mind. ;-). Folks in other countries can probably
purchase a Labjack, some
relays and sockets to accomplish the same thing.
- I've created an entire Multi Media page
devoted to Entertainment systems for use with Linux. So far it's
mainly UPnP media (music and video) servers but I hope to expand
that much further.
- I created a page devoted to Linux,
Sendmail and Comcast.net. Recently Comcast made a change to
the way 'home' users connect to there mail clients. I've created
this page to document the changes I made to be able to properly
send mail with sendmail.
- Here are 2 interesting articles (part I and II) on home
automation: Home
Automation Portal Appliance and Home
Automation Portal Appliance, Part II. From a quick perusal of
the articles it sounds like my thoughts on modern HA.
- IO-Anywhere - which
appears to be a company that sells hardware that supports SIMPL. The
hardware allows you to have remote ports (serial, digital, analog,
etc) via RS232, RS485 or Ethernet.
- Not Linux related but still interesting, The LAUG
Podcast 06.07: Home Automation. It's about an hour and a half
long but you need Quicktime (ick!). This is Bruce Sergeant's MAC
presentation on home automation. He's using Xtension and he talks
about X10. He does get a few minor details incorrect but it's a
decent presentation.
- This is an interesting article from Sun on It's Come to
This - http://www.myfridge/check_ice.html - New appliance portal technology from Sun Labs
makes web connectivity cost-effective and useful for appliance
makers. The technology incorporates a next-generation
architecture that may change the way web servers serve.
While it sounds like a good idea I need to learn more about this
before I can give it a thumbs up. I will say this much I like
Java and I like object oriented programming (OOP). In home
automation they can work really well. In my Perl code I make use
of several OOP features.
Sendmail
I've had a few problems with my local mail provider so I've had to
work out a few different ways to get sendmail working with my
Linux system. My current setup is sendmail sending via my Google Mail account. I had a
working setup with my 1 and 1 service but I'm missing
something important and I can't get that working anymore. I also
had a working Comcast setup but I'm finding that Cocmast is
interfering with my mail so I switched to Google mail.
Commercial products available for Linux & HA hardware
Note: None of the following links are are being paid for and
I'm not endorsing any of the products being sold at these
links. They are simply supplied as reference and you should
investigate each supplier before purchasing.
- ECS is a
commercial all-purpose object-oriented Windows/Linux
automation program that is suitable for virtually any
tasks (in commercial, industrial, and residential environments).
Supporting a large variety of devices, ECS is
elegantly simple, yet extremely powerful.
Automated tasks may be implemented via simple time-based
schedules (great for novices) and/or English-like
scripts (which give power users the flexibility they
demand). And anyone who can surf the web will be comfortable
with ECS, as it supports a browser-based user-interface
(accessible via the Internet or WAP-enabled
phone/PDA). Editor's note: I asked Mark Gilmore
(ECS's author) to send me a description of his product because I
didn't get enough of a chance to really put it through it's
paces. I know it sounds a bit like a sale pitch but that's all
right. I've been on Mark's mail list for ECS for a number of
years and he provides excellent support and deserves a little
slack. This product is not Open Source and is a commercial
product but that's OK as there is enough room for Commercial and
Open Source products.
- Home Automation System - A
commercial home automation system based on RF modules. D.I.Y.ers
can use the code free of charge. The commercial portion is the
appliance, it's setup and support for the PC and RF module. I'm
currently not sure if these RF units can be used only in Cyprus,
or in Europe or in other parts of the world.
Articles I've written
Various articles I've written hopefully I'll be given a chance to write a lot more. :-)
Web sites I've authored
Web toys (geek mind candy)
Since the web first began we had various 'toys' on the net to
watch or control. As a geek I can appreciate taking something that
was meant to do one thing and adding electronics to it to automate
it or make it do something else. The first 'toy' I can remember
reading about was the networked soda machine and the networked
elevator (I need references). Then the was the Internet Coffee
machine (with a web camera to watch it) and the Internet
refrigerator. Now a days everyone has web enabled weather stations
and web cameras. This section isn't for those. It's for the toys
that we built by the user.
- And our first stop goes to Alek Komar who caught a lot of
'do-do' for the his 2004 Christmas display (see
this Slashdot
Article where they called it a scam, a bit harsh in my
opinion). Alex has since built
a Controllable
Christmas Lights web site. In 2004 Alex and I spoke about
the technical details and difficulties of a web controllable
setup. In 2005 he built a working web controllable site (though
there appear to be plenty of doubters but not me). He has put it
up again this year. Also check out Joe 's Linux.com column
called Linux
powers controllable Christmas lights for charity. The
article isn't all that much but the tech video is
interesting.
- Here's one I've had for a long time. Georgatos Photis' Linux COFFEE-HOWTO. It's
from 1998 but I like it. It used to come with every Linux
installation (but not anymore). I really need to update it and
add to the ASCII graphics as graphic images.
- Like most geeks I like odd toys, especially ones where they're
computer controlled, can be built at home and come with an
explaination (schematics and software are a bonus :-). Here's a
push
puppet for Linux. Pierre-Philippe Coupard built this and has
posted the software, schematics and how-to. Now that's a great
toy!
- Al Linke created a DIY
Magic Mirror (I don't know, Disney kinda scares me
... ;-). Anyway this in pretty neat!
- Robosapien - I've got one and I'll post hacks here. For now take
a look at Evosapien and
Robodyssey for
hacking information
- Lego Mindstorm - I've also got this and I'll post hacks
here.
- My interests have turned towards robotics
and AI so I created a page to put up anything I think
important (or not) enough to save.
Temporary links:
Links here may not last more than a few weeks. These are press
announcements, news articles etc. General stuff of interest to the
home automation group.
- International
Journal of Smart Home is intended to foster the
dissemination of state-of-the-art research in the area of
SHE
including business models, security services, and novel
applications associated with its utilization. In this Journal,
we plan to publish high quality papers, which cover the various
theories and practical applications related smart home. The
published papers are expected to present the high level results
to solve the application services and various problems in the
various SH fields. In addition, we expect they will trigger
further related research and technology improvements for SH.
- Home
Automation Guide - Normally I wouldn't post a link to what
I consider a link farm but this article is well done and the
reference links also go to somewhere useful.
- University
of Florida Smart Home: This smart home is the full time
residence of Matilda the mannequin and is an example of how
home automation can improve the daily life of those with
special needs.
- The Drexel
Smart House will transform a late 19th century Powelton
Village residence into a cutting edge and sustainable platform
for design and technology. With a design focus on energy,
environment, interaction, health, and lifestyle, the house
includes quarters for eight students, a residential assistant,
and a guest. The new rear addition will house a classroom for
university use and community outreach, flexible space above,
and a third floor indoor/outdoor room complete with accessible
green roof. - Editor's Note: I'm not sure this
is a 'Smart Home' it seems more like it's a
sustainable home but I like it.
- Home
Automation for the elderly and disabled - excellent Wiki
entry
- The Smart Home, Part I
- The Smart Home, Part II
- Power
grid is found susceptible to cyberattack. My opinion is that
this is nothing new. That doesn't mean it isn't serious.
- Clearing
the Air About Hacking Into The Smart Grid - I'm not sure
about this one. I think the article may be a little bit of a
FUD piece.
- AT&T
takes smart grids residential - (you may need to login)
- I've posted my Linux
Geek Holiday list on my blog. I only have a few
ideas but I wouldn't mind people sharing their ideas.
- The BBC has an interesting story called: Smart
homes a reality in S Korea. There's a lot of interesting
information as well as some not so practical technology such as
wearing mini-PC's on your wrist (so you can be tracked).
- Here is an article called "An
Avatar Is Born". Though it seems to play up the avatar,
Cleopatra, it vaguely covers othe subjects that most HA
enthusiasts seem to enjoy in various setups. The subject of
voice recognition (VR) was brought up and it seems that it's
still tough to tweak VR so it understands everyone.
- I found this link: The Pepper
Pad about an interesting tablet type PC that runs Linux. It
has an 800x600 LCD and a 600+MHz processor and more. I suggest
reading about the spec and you decide. I think it's too
expensive. The President of Pepper posted a response to a PCMAG
(pcmag.com) review of the Pepper Pad. To see my comments take a
look at my Blog entry: Misc. news. My
opinion in short, the Pepper at $850 (US) will go the same
route as the Audrey. I think the Nokia 770 at $350 will work
out to be much cheaper. I'll just use the ADI
Ocelot (<$200 US) as my IR solution with MH
- CNN has an article on HA in
there Tech section titled Smart'
homes not far away By Julie Clothier (for CNN). It about a
family of 4 living in an experimental home that will adapt to
the user's routines (this aught to be interesting). And then it
goes on about water main breaks and using your cell phone to
control your home. Rather mundane stuf to those who are already
doing it. ;-) Still an interesting read and the sidebars have
some interesting side effects. I think it's worth a read.
- 09/30/2004 - Dilbert's
Ultimate House (duh) - though it's not really HA it is an
engineering kind of thing. :-) In fact they rejected HA because
it was too complicated. :-O There is a tour but it will require
Quicktime and Flash to access it. They have pictures and the
specs also.
- 01/14/2004 - Wired has a story, Welcome
to the Broadband Home of the Future - Not really home
automation or a futuristic home but a bit interesting.
- 01/09/2004 - Another Slashdot article about
TiVo's New offerings . Tivo/DVD Recorder, TivoToGo where
TiVo users with Home Media Option will be able to transfer
files off their TiVo onto their PC and XM Radio for TiVo. It
will be things like Tivo that will make it easier to add other
home automation offerings to customers.
- Wired magazinehas a few
interesting articles on Home Entertainment (and by association
Home Automation). The first: Home
Is Where Intel Wants to Be - the short of it is consumers
want to simplify the entertainment stack (VCR, DVD, Stereo, CD,
Amp and TV) and Intel think it can deliver (big screen no less)
and at an affordable price. The next article: Future
Home Full of Web Wonders - I think you've just got to read
this. :-)
- 12/28/2003 - Slashdot has another article titled: Japanese
Firms Create Home (Appliance) Network on Home appliance
networking. Various Slashdot subscribers question why we need it
others defend it, blah, blah, blah. Some good links to other
useful things (a few included below).
- Diomidis Spinellis' Info Furnace,
basically a PC-type device that integrates existing consumer
home-control, infotainment, security, and communication
technologies to provide in a transparent manner user-friendly
access and value-added services. Something we all seem to
looking for in Home Automation but seem to get there via
different methods.
- Push
Button Manor - a home automation article from the the
Dec. 1950 Popular Mechanics magazine. Now that's ahead of your
time! Emil Mathias of Jackson, Mich. automated his home with
electro-mechanical equipment (like surplus WW II bomb
sites). This is got to be the ultimate home automation project!
Not only that but the SAF was there too!
HA Forums
Various forums for the discussion of Home Automation and releated
topics
If you have questions about Home Automation and/or Linux you may email
me at
ncherry@linuxha.com
. This email
address is not for unsolicated email (if
I didn't opt-in then it's
unsolicated).
Please come back and visit my page again (hopefully this is worth reading).
Last updated: Saturday November 13, 2021