What is home automation (HA)?

• Home Automation (or Domotics) is automation specific to the requirements of private residences. It applies techniques for the comfort, security, entertainment and communications needs of it is
• In simplest terms it is control and monitoring of devices and
  • Lighting and appliance control
  • Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
  • Energy/Resource management

• Security and access control (SAC)
  • Doors and windows control and monitoring
  • fire alarm (FA), fire, life, and safety (FLS)
  • CO alarm
  • Flood/Water Alarm
• Communications (voice and data)
• Entertainment control
• Information processing (things like resource management)
  • Thunderstorm/Tornado/Tsunami/Earthquake/ Weather w

• It is all these things integrated into a single package and is quickly including things outside the
• Because of this HA is now becoming a misnomer
•  perhaps a better name would be Smart Home Information Technology

What can you do with HA?

• With HA you control and monitor devices and information
  • Sprinkler system (device)
  • monitor your email (information)
• trigger things based on time, temperature, email or something else. (information)
• Security
  • monitoring doors and windows
  • fire, smoke, water & CO

• Entertainment
  • music
    • Streaming/Juke box
    • Internet Radio
    • Podcasting
  • TV
    • live
    • recorded (VCR, DVR)
    • Streaming video
    • video casting (YouTube)
  • Radio

• Weather
  • prediction
  • recorded history
  • current temperature, humidity, wind, barometric pressure, rain fall,
  • phase of the moon
  • tides
  • Internet
  • Thunderstorm/Tornado/Tsunami/Earthquake warning

Home Automation Introduction

• Home automation, It often starts with holiday lights
• You don’t need a computer for this
• A simple timer or a remote and some modules will do

HA Introduction

• Typical hardware you’ll start with:
  • Lamps modules
  • Computer interfaces
  • A desktop control is not a bad idea also
• You expand to control other appliances typically lights
• Has a very high ‘Geek factor’
• Wild ideas begin to fill your head
• Reality sets in when gremlins strike
• SAF is very important

2011, the year of convergence

• Disruptive technologies
  • Open Source/FOSS community
  • Linux / GNU utilities
  • X10 patents expiring
  • Touchscreen technology (resistive/capacitive)
  • ARM processors & cell phone usage
  • Apple iPod/iPhone
  • Android
  • The App Store

Technology

• PLC – Power line carrier or communications-  X10

• Insteon
• UPB

• Z-Wave & ZigBee (900 MHz/2.4GHz) both are wireless mesh
• Direct IO (Digital and Analog)
• Networked (IP, RS485, IButton, SPI, wireless)
• PC Interface (USB, serial, PCI board)

What can you do with it?

• Lights and appliances (direct, power line or wireless)
• TV, VCR, DVD, Tivo (IP network/IR)
• Monitor weather
• Temperature
• Thermostats
• Internet Information

Computer Interfaces

• Lots of different vendors, interface types and communication protocols
• Serial, USB, and IP
• Some are plug like some a USB stick like (Z-Wave for example)

Modules

• Lamp module
• Appliance module
• Digital/Analog I/O module (Sprinklers)
• Universal module (digital input)
• Wireless module

Wall Switches

• Some control loads
• Some only transmit a command
• some do both
• They do come in different colors and styles

KeypadLincs

• Some only send commands
• some can control one load (appliance control)
• the ones with a load can receive commands

KeypadLinc w/Dim

• Controls an electrical load
• Sends commands
• can send group
• on/off
• dim/bright

Wall Outlets

• Insteon OutletLinc
• on/off
• X10 Super Socket – I don’t recommend this product

Z-Wave Lock sets

Wireless Thermostats

Table top controllers

• Ugly but useful
• Smarthome has a lot of useful features
• Mini console – 4 buttons (useful for testing)
• Maxi Console – 16 buttons

Insteon Remote

Misterhouse (MH)

• MH is written entirely in
• It has a rather strange Object Oriented method of coding because MH writes some of it’s Perl code at startup
• Very flexible because it’s able to take advantage of the existing library of Perl Modules.
• Starting out is not terrible complex but some knowledge of Perl is
• Plenty of examples exist
• Mail lists are very friendly and

Plug Computer

• ARM (v5) processor
• 1G Hz
• 512M RAM
• 512M Flash/ SD slot
• No math coprocessor
• No fan
• 4 Watts of power
• Linux based

Misterhouse (MH)

• Control & Interface-  X10

• Insteon
• Z-Wave
• UPB
• KNX/EIB
• Direct I/O
• 1-wire/IButton
• IP (TCP, UDP, HTTP, …)

Misterhouse (MH)

• IR
• transmit
• receive
• Wireless remotes (non X10/Insteon)
• Macros
• Triggers
• Tables (.mht ->.mhp)

Misterhouse (MH)

• Speech – TTS
• Listen – STT
• Weather
• News
• On this day, fortune
• Comics
• TV Guide
• Home Layout – Floor Plan

Misterhouse (MH)

• Grocery list
• Organizer/Calendar
• Stocks
• email
• Home Security
• custom Perl code
• custom web pages

Web Interface & Demo

Floor plan

Custom Web page

MH .mht file

# Type     Address     Name                    Groups #

X10A,      01,            Holiday_Lights,       Holiday|O,

X10A,      O1,          xO1,                      Holiday|Test|O,

X10A,      01,          Backup_Lights,        Holiday|O

, X10A,    O2,          xO2,                      Holiday|Test|O,

X10A,      O3,          xO3,                      Holiday|Test|O,

X10A,      O4,          xO4,                      Holiday|Test|O,

X10A,      O5,          xO5,                     Holiday|Test|O,