What’s it all about?

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Operator mannequins, Telecommunications Museum...Image via Wikipedia

The Decision

OK, so it’s time to automate my house.  I’m tired of having to walk through the rocks to turn on my pool light, or having to walk back into the kitchen to turn off the porch light, or lock up the house.  In a word, I’m lazy.  And what is technology for, if not to make it easier for me to lay in bed, eat pizza, and watch TV?

Anyway, I can do this.  I’ve been programming for 20+ years, and electronics is a hobby of mine.  Finally, everything I need to automate the house is available online - I just need to bring it all together.

I’ve decided to use the iPhone as a controller.  It’s ability to connect to WiFi coupled with the Safari browser make it ideal to work as a controller in any web based system.  I’m leaning towards developing everything web based so I can control it via the Internet (through appropriate security and NATing), as well as with my iPhone.  There are also some nice tablet PCs out there that would work as well (the Nokia N810 comes to mind).

What to Automate?

Here’s a list of what I want to automate:

  • That pesky pool light
  • Lights throughout my home (both for security purposes, and for “scenes”)
  • My alarm system (I want status, and I want to be able to set it)
  • All of my AV equipment.  In ANY room.
  • My thermostat.
  • All of my ceiling fans.
  • My phone system (home PBX?)
  • My landscape watering system.
  • My pool cleaning cycle
  • My DVR
  • My music collection

The Ultimate System

Here are some things the ultimate system should allow me to do:

  • I should be able to access my email on ANY platform appropriate - the iPhone, the tabletPC, TVs in any room.
  • I want to get the status of my system in as many ways possible:  iPhone, tabletPC, via a Browser, maybe even on a touch panel in the hall.
  • My phone system should be fully integrated with the automation.  For example, if I’m watching a movie, and somebody calls, my iPhone gives me the choice of whether to answer or not.  If I choose to answer, my movie will pause.  Once I hangup, my movie will continue.
  • My system should know if I’m home or not (based on whether my iPhone is home?) and act accordingly (phone calls follow me, energy usage is reduced, etc).
  • I should be able to control an AV component in any room with the same controller.  As I move between rooms, the system should sense that and act appropriately.  For example, if I leave the bedroom - the TV should shut off.
  • The system should handle multiple users.  So, if my wife has an iphone, and I leave the room, but she doesn’t, the TV should stay on.
  • HOWEVER, this should be configurable in the system, so that either the system is controller agnostic, or actions are tied to a specific controller.  That way, if I want, I can tell the system that if I turned on the TV, and I leave, the TV should go off.
  • I should also have the ability to configure the system so that the TV would also come back on when I return to the room (i.e., the system would maintain state).

How am I going to do it?

One step at a time!  I’ll start with the hardware, then write back-end software to control it, a server to handle the events, the rules, the creation of control screens, etc, and finally, create a web interface to display my control screens.

Watch for the next post to discuss the hardware needed.  And please, feel free to comment.  Spam comments won’t be tolerated, but you can DEFINITELY point me to hardware and software you feel would be useful!

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18 August 2008 in The Project | tags: ,

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