Grex Do-it-yourself Conference

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Grex Do-it-yourself Item 36: Home Automation
Entered by keesan on Thu Dec 6 22:36:21 UTC 2001:

Discuss do-it-yourself automation of large and small appliances and other
components of houses and apartments here.  Would you like help getting your
lights to blink five times when it starts raining out?  Programming the heated
floor system to use cooler water when the sun is shining?

13 responses total.

#1 of 13 by keesan on Thu Dec 6 22:37:23 2001:

Has anyone attempted to link an automatic bread machine or anything else with
cycles (washing machine?) to a computer so as to control cycle length?  What
sorts of hardware would be needed?

#2 of 13 by rcurl on Thu Dec 6 22:48:34 2001:

Everyone interested in this should look into http://www.smarthome.com/
for a wide variety of home automation hardware.

I use X-10 components with computer programming for operating some
two dozen lights, both indoor and outdoors, plus for a basement water
alarm. It would be easy to control any single cycle length with X-10
(with a single on and later off command), but more elaborate cycles
would require more elaborate systems. However when operating heating
apparatus or machines one must give more careful consideration to
failure modes than when controlling just lights.

#3 of 13 by keesan on Fri Dec 7 03:42:57 2001:

How much do you think the components would cost (assuming the computer is
free)?

#4 of 13 by rcurl on Fri Dec 7 07:44:31 2001:

The X-10 computer-programmed controller I have cost ca. $60. An
appliance module is about $10. (The controller can be programmed
to  control dozens of modules, so you might as well put lots of
things under control if you get one.) 

I just looked it up on the X-10 web site, and they have a real bargain
for an "aActiveHome" kit for $50. See
http://www.x10.com/products/x10_ck11a_req.htm

You will still need in addition an "Appliance Module" that will control
motors and fluorescents (what is in the $50 kit just works on incandescent
lights).

#5 of 13 by keesan on Fri Dec 7 16:12:47 2001:

The bread machine also has a timed heater as well as a timed motor, which are
not on at the same times (probably).  They are both either on or off.  He also
wants to be able to monitor the temperature and get feedback and have it turn
off automatically in case there is no thermostat.  (I have not yet let him
take apart one machine).  If there is a thermostat he wants to be able to set
it.  (It would probably be cheaper to get a programmable used bread machine.)
And this should all be applicable to making fans go on and off between the
sunporch and house depending on indoor and outdoor temperatures (go on when
warmer on the porch than indoors, unless indoors is under 60 degrees....).

#6 of 13 by rcurl on Fri Dec 7 17:24:57 2001:

People are  doing all these sorts of things. Much of it is DIY, although
there is a  lot of (expensive) home automation gear (with feedback,
etc) on the market. The ultimate is a collection of sensors feeding
data to a computer and the computer controlling what needs to be
controlled.

#7 of 13 by keesan on Sat Dec 8 18:47:54 2001:

Jim sent me to Kiwanis to buy the other Welbilt bread machine (long gone) and
I noticed they had an Oster, marked SOLD, that is already designed to let you
adjust the timing of the cycles. It was $25.  The volunteers were baking bread
in it and promised to save us a broken one.  Two customers, listening in, who
used to buy stereo equipment from us, promised to drop off their broken one
on Jim's porch - it had something wrong with the computer chip, they think.
Turns out they sort of adopted one of Jim's neighbors, as they all speak
German, and they are the ones who got her into and out of a nursing home.
Small world.

#8 of 13 by rcurl on Mon Jun 17 16:14:07 2002:

I've been transferring my X-10 home control data files from a Zenith 150
(XT class machine) to a Mac G4. The problem was finding a Mac X-10 program
with a simple interface. (Another was getting a Mac serial port on a G4,
which is a separate story.) 

One Mac program is called "Mousehouse", but it is very elaborate. I bought
an early version and gave up trying to program it. I just wanted to upload
programs from one computer to the other. I finally found one called
"Thinking Home" that is easy to use. The process is to download a program
from the Zenith to the interface (transmitter) and then upload it into
"Thinking Home".  This bring up all the control actions, but not the names
you give devices or the names of the actions (on, off, dim, etc). So I had
to edit the new file to add these to make the files more explanatory. 

This all was complicated by my keeping five different Season programs,
which account for both the seasonal change in daylight and the
daylight-savings clock changes. So as to not make a single big job of
this, I'm taking a whole year to transfer the five programs. Fortunately,
one can upload a data file into an existing data file, which replaces the
actions but leaves the device names. Just one more to go - for October.

#9 of 13 by rcurl on Wed Feb 4 19:07:30 2004:

I'd like to telephone my home and obtain automatically data on
temperature, power status, and perhaps control some things with X-10. 
"Sensaphone" has devices to do all this, which can also telephone you if
some parameters are out of bounds. However they cost ca. $400 and up. 
Does anyone know of a (much) less expensive telephone home monitoring
devices?

It might be possible to adapt an answering machines with a monitoring
function with which you could listen for noises in your home with the use
of a control code. These were available on answering machines in the last
century and would seem to be even easier to do with modern digital
answering machines. However I cannot find any current model of answering
machine with this feature. Does anyone know of one?

#10 of 13 by keesan on Thu Feb 5 01:29:36 2004:

Kiwanis has dozens of answering machines.  Sat 9-12 am.

#11 of 13 by rcurl on Thu Feb 5 03:08:49 2004:

If anyone is going to Kiwanis would they check for a Cobra AN 8516 or a
Panasonic KX-T1625, which searches suggest may have the monitor function? 

I found an interesting device at http://www.amazing1.com/surv.htm, their
TELCON4K "Infinity + Transmitter", which allows you to aurally monitor
your premises or another phone line at your premises, and also actuate up
to 16 X-10 receivers. This costs $130 in kit form. Their SNP40 is a
simpler device, just an aural monitor for listening for sounds on your
premises: it costs $80 assembled. Neither monitors any other devices, such
as a thermometer or alarm signals.

There is a "talking thermometer" made that speaks the temperature on the
push of a button. Might be fun to interface these devices. 

The company is Information Unlimited. They are one of many "spy" equipment
providers for the _paranoid_. They say, for the above devices, they are
useful to "Avoid ambushes and break-ins!!". Anyone here need to avoid
ambushes?

#12 of 13 by gull on Fri Feb 6 17:31:12 2004:

I wonder if anyone's put together a software package to do this?  It
seems like a computer X10 interface, a modem with voice (aka.
"telephony") capabilities, and the right software could do a really good
job.

#13 of 13 by rcurl on Fri Feb 6 18:27:13 2004:

There are a variety of computer interfaces for telephone data retrieval
and control, but I'm not looking at these as they require a computer to be
left on, which is subject to power interruption problems. The systems I'm
looking at are also affected by power failures, but they come right back
up when power returns. Power failures would, of course, be "reported" by
the inoperability of either type of system.

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