I got into X10 about two years ago, and got playing with
Misterhouse, which is a perl-based home automation.
http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-10/lw-10-mrhouse.html
There's links from there to a bunch of sites, including MH's.
I found it after a while to be overkill, but now that I have a
wireless network up and running, I may look back into setting
it up.
Right now, I've scaled back X10 to two main areas. First, the
bedroom, where (in typical NE fashion) the light switch is outside
the room. I replaced the switch with an X10 one and can use
the remote to either turn on/off the light from bed (so I don't have
to walk around in the dark, or in 60F weather, or step on the dog).
I can also dim the lights if I want to read, but my wife wants to sleep.
A bit more complicated, I wrote a perl script that would return the time
of sunset. Hook this into an application called heyu (as in, Hey You!
Turn
off the light!), and the outside light comes on every day at sunset. Very
handy when it gets dark at 4PM.
One caveat, though. When you get stuff from X10, they'll start spamming
your mailbox something fierce. It's easy to get off of, but they
also throw in really strange deals, like large discounts on new or
very old equipment.
If you do go with X10, you won't have much trouble installing equipment,
as it's a drop-in-replacement for light switches and outlets. Much
of the equipment is also available from Radio Shack, in case an outlet
goes bad and you have to replace it quickly.
-Mark
"Tilly, Lawrence" wrote:
>
> My wife and I are doing some self-education on modest home automation (basic
> lighting, A/V control & security combined). Although there are several
> companies that sell "brain" units, I would prefer to use a PC based control
> system, but this is a new area to me. From some web searches, I have
> already found some Linux based software (some open source, some $$ ) and am
> trying to learn the ropes of X10 and similar systems.
>
> My question for the group would be if anyone out there has any personal
> experience in this area that they would not mind sharing (via email or, even
> better, face to face). We are planning to build a home this spring / summer
> and I would like to incorporate the home automation into the process. I'm a
> competent C / C++ programmer and *nix scripter, and am learning Java at this
> time, so I'm open to learn about any Linux based software out there, gui or
> no gui.
>
> Thanx in advance for any help! :-)
> -Larry
>
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Mark Komarinski - Senior Systems Engineer - VA Linux Systems
(cell) 978-697-2228
(email) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Have one day pleasant" - Babelfish
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