DIY%20Home%20Automation

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DIY Home Automation

• Chris Barrett

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Disclaimer

• I am a hobbyist
• I have no attachments to any of the companies
  that I will mention other than that I have bought
  some of their products.
• References to the companies and their products do
  not constitute endorsements.

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What is Home Automation?

• home automation
• smart homes
• intelligent houses
• Automating aspects of your home to make things
  more efficient and/or enjoyable.

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My Introduction to HA
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The Technologies in my House

• X10
• 1-wire
• Infrared
• Text to speech
• Caller ID
• Digital IO

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X10

• Powerline Carrier (PLC)
• Control signals are sent over the houses
  existing electrical wiring
• no extra wiring is required!
• The signals are not noticed by and dont affect
  the operation of non-X10 equipment.
• Developed and patented in 1978

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Examples of X10 Equipment
CM12AU Computer Interface
AM12 Appliance Module
LM15EB Socket Rocket
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X10 Addressing Scheme

• Each device (eg a light) is assigned an address
• made up of a House code and Unit code
• House Code A,B,C,,P
• Unit Code 1,2,3,,16
• So a light in the kitchen might be K3
• 256 (1616) combinations
• Multiple devices can have the same code but will
  be controlled as one.

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Examples of X10 Commands

• K3 ON
• Turns the kitchen light on
• K3 OFF
• Turns the light off
• K3 DIM25
• Turns the light on but at 25 of its normal power

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X10 Gotcha 1

• X10 wont work with devices that need a human to
  press a button for it to do something.
• The device needs to be capable of doing its job
  as soon as it gets power.
• For example, X10
• Wont work with a VCR, but
• Will generally work with a kettle or a pedestal
  fan.

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X10 - Gotcha 2

• X10 signals can occasionally get lost or
  corrupted.
• Most X10 modules are not bi-directional.
• No feedback to confirm if the command was
  received.

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1-wire

• Firstly, it actually uses two wires
• 1 wire for ground
• 1 wire for power and data
• this is where the name comes from
• The 1-wire devices in my house use the existing
  Cat-5E cabling.
• Each device has a unique ID (like a MAC address)

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iButton

• One physical implementation of 1-wire devices.
• Looks like a watch battery.
• Two main types used for HA
• Thermostat
• Serial number
• Can be used to identify regular occupants

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Infrared

• IR transceiver connected to the PC
• www.usbuirt.com
• Allows the control of
• devices (eg TV, stereo, VCR) from the PC, and
• the PC using a surplus IR remote.
• An IR-gtRF-gtIR repeater allows me to keep the PC
  and USB-UIRT in a closet.

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Text To Speech

• Reads out information, reminders and warnings
• Reads out the weather forecast each morning.
• Reminds me the night before and the morning of
  rubbish day.
• Tells me when the news is on.

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Digital I/O

• Serial interface board
• www.weedtech.com
• Each of the 14 lines can be configured as inputs
  or outputs.
• Switches, LEDs, push buttons, etc

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Misterhouse

• The ring master or brain of the the system.
• Open source.
• Written entirely in Perl
• Multi platform Win32, Linux, Mac, etc
• All of the automation within my house was created
  using Perl.
• www.misterhouse.net

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Heating

• Wireless thermostat.
• PC based RF receiver (W800RF32)
• www.wgldesigns.com
• The system looks at the temperature provided by
  the thermostat
• Compares it to my desired temperature for the
  time of day
• If necessary sends commands to an X10
  controllable relay which in turn controls the
  ducted gas heater.

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Motion Detectors

• Generally one in each room.
• In some rooms, the lights are turned on
  automatically if motion is detected and its
  dark.
• In all rooms, the lights are turned off if no
  motion is detected for a user-defined period of
  time.

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Motion Detectors

• Can double as sensors for an security system.
• A work in progress at this stage.

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Doors

• The front and back doors are fitted with devices
  that send a signal whenever the doors are opened
  or closed.
• The system advises when a door has been left open
  too long.
• A device has also been fitted to a closet and a
  light is turned when on the door is opened.
• just like the fridge.

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Doorbell

• Plays a WAV file when someone presses the button.
• If the front door is not opened within 45 seconds
  then an email is sent to me indicating that we
  missed a visitor.
• Future plan is to install a camera (eg web cam)
  to take a photo and include it in the email.

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The code that manages the doorbell

• Doorbell_timer new Timer()
• Doorbell_Answer_timer new Timer()
• if (state_now Doorbell /normal/)
• play(volumegt100, filegt'Trumpet1.wav')
• flash LoungeRoom_light
• if (inactive Doorbell_timer)
• set Doorbell_Answer_timer (45)
• set Doorbell_timer (120)
• if (expired Doorbell_Answer_timer)
• Send_Email(undef,"Doorbell"," No-one answered
  the door",undef)
• if ((state_now FrontDoor eq "open") (active
  Doorbell_Answer_timer))
• unset Doorbell_Answer_timer
• print_log "Door has been answered - email will
  not be sent"

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Caller ID

• Modem detects the phone ringing.
• The system
• reads the phone number from the modem,
• looks up a database of phone numbers and reads
  out the name if its known or the phone number,
  and
• sends an IR signal to the stereo to turn down the
  volume.

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Weather Data

• The system downloads
• Weather conditions (current temp, wind speed,
  etc) from the Bureau of Meteorology every 20
  minutes.
• Forecast information once an hour.
• Conditions are plotted on a number of graphs.
• Forecast is read out each morning, and when
  requested.

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Irrigation

• Project is on hold because of the water
  restrictions.
• Plan is to have a system that will adjust
  watering parameters depending on
• the forecast for today and the next couple of
  days,
• the current conditions,
• the recent past conditions, and
• any government imposed watering restrictions.

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Example 1- My computer room

• Each morning when I walk into the room for the
  first time, the system
• Turns on the light if its dark,
• Reads out the forecast for the day,
• Reminds me if our dog needs its monthly pills,
  and
• Turns on the radio in the lounge room and sets it
  to Triple J.

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Example 2 - Rubbish Day

• We have our rubbish collected on Thursdays.
• On Wednesdays at 1815, 1915 and 2015 the
  system announces that It is rubbish day
  tomorrow.
• On Thursday morning the system announces at 0715
  and 0745 that It is rubbish day today.

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Example 3 - Front door

• Motion sensor outside near the front door detects
  motion and turns on
• the exterior light if its dark outside and
• the light immediately inside the front door if
  its dark inside the house.

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Example 4 - News Time

• At 1757 the system announces that The news is
  on soon.
• At 1759 the system transmits IR signals to
• Turn the TV on,
• Set the channel on the TransACT STB to 9, and
• Set the stereo to accept the audio feed from the
  TV.

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Demonstration

• A live demonstration of the system via the
  Internet.