Levi Pearson wrote: > That doesn't look wireless to me. I'm pretty sure it's wireless. Besides the fact that X10 devices are (all?) wireless, the users manual[1] seems to hint that it's wireless. I imagine that's how you "control your sprinklers from your couch". :)
I guess that means I would also need a transmitter -- more cost. > And, if you're using a > microcontroller instead of a regular CPU, you've probably got a bunch > of I/O pins you can drive relay circuits with so you don't have to use > a silly USB-to-Serial interface and another microcontroller to decode > the serial commands. Yes, that's a big decision. Do I take the simple but slightly more expensive route using a microcontroller, or do I get a pre-made board with USB and Linux. I'm not at all familiar with how I would program a microcontroller. Would I need special tools (physical or soft)? I also worry that getting WiFi to work with a microcontroller would be (very) difficult, relative to a Linux board. > The relays, transitors, LEDs, diodes, and > resistors on that relay board can't cost more than $20 or so, and the > circuit to control them would be well within the reach of a beginning > electronics project. I think this would be super fun. What would you recommend I buy to get started? I'm an electronics noob. All I've done is solder R/C stuff together to wire up motors, speed controllers, servos, and the like, but that stuff was all pretty much plug-and-play. I'm thinking I'd need a board to wire it all up, some reference material to prevent magic smoke escaping, and some software tools to write the code. --Dave [1] ftp://ftp.x10.com/pub/manuals/um506-is.pdf /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
