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Linux Home Automation
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Disclaimer: None of the opinions expressed on these pages are paid for (unless otherwise stated so). They are strictly the opinions of the admins' and may not represent an endorsement of someones' project, product or service or those of the projects members. If anyone has any issues with these opinions please contact the admin at moc.ahxunil@yrrehcn

Intro

Pinkie: Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinkie. Try to control the world!

Paraphrased from: Stephen Speilberg's "Pinkie and the Brain"

Jan 2007

Well we've got some really cool toys to add here and some we're working on.

  • 01/01/2007 - I'm moving the hosting of this project to my Linux HA web pages. No particular reason. But I will be paying a lot more attention to this project. If Sourceforge hasn't redirected the link to my new home page then you will be redirected there in a moment.
  • 08/20/2006 - I've posted an RFC (Request For Comment) on the Circuit Cellar BBS, under the HCS forum. Titled: RFC: HCS-L. I think this is the future of the HCS project and I'd like others to comment on my thoughts. It is my effort to merge this project (the Linux HA project) with the Open Source HCS project.
  • 08/14/2006 - I've finished my book (Linux Smart Home For Dummies / Support pages) and it's now available I'm putting together my list of things to work on (Insteon PLC, HCS II, comm-links). One of the things I really need to do is update the look of these pages (HCS II and this page).
  • 07/04/2006 - I now have the CM15A, CM19A, USB Insteon PLC (iplc) and Labjack drivers working properly under Linux 2.6.15. I didn't do any testing other than using insmod to add them to the module table. I am using the CM15A driver with my cm15d daemon. I can set the clock and send simple X10 commands such as A1AON. I'll get to work on the iplc driver and Misterhouse soon. I'll try to get the drivers posted tonight.
  • 07/01/2006 - Yea hoo! I'm finally done with my book (Linux Smart Homes For Dummies)! I'm now working on the USB drivers for the Insteon PLC (iplc), the CM15A, the CM19A and the Labjack U12 devices. I discovered that they won't compile under Linux Kernel 2.6.16. My serial Insteon PLC has gone AWOL (grr!). I need to work on that, I understand the problem and I need to work on ways to get around it. In the mean time I'll get the USB Insteon PLC working so I can put more work into my code. See my Insteon page for further details.

  • 12/11/2005 - I spent some more time working on Mr. House and the Smarthome PowerLinc V2. I've now replaced the CM11A with the PowerLinc and it works fine for On and Off. I haven't tried sending any other commands from Misterhouse yet. It doesn't seem to handle the PRESET DIM commands very well so I need to work on that. And, yes, it sends as well as receives. Currently I don't have a package that I can post but I've put together instructions to get it working on my Insteon Page.
  • I've also enabled the donations link (to the left) for this project. While I don't expect to see any donations you never know! Donations would go towards more home automation controllers.So far I've purchased all but one of them, the Insteon PowerLinc V2 which Jennifer Pinkham donated. At the moment this is the controller I'm paying the most attention to. The Cm15A & CM19A are currently on the back burner.
  • I've spoken with Bob Cusey of Insteon and there is no problem with me releasing my code via the GPL. The only thing that needs to be changed is the name so I've changed it from insteond to iplcd. I now also have an experimental USB driver for the USB Insteon PLC. I don't have one so I can't test it but it is a step in the correct direction.
  • This has to be one of my more brain dead moments. I have to retract the insteond software at this time. The Insteon SDK License agreement and the Open Source License are in conflict (sorry, this is my fault). I'm working with Insteon to see how we can work this out (they've been very helpful so far so I don't see why we shouldn't be able to work something out). More to follow ...
  • OK, I've spent a little time with the documentation and it's looks pretty cool. This Powerlinc device supports sending and receiving X10 commands as well as the Insteon commands. I've started to put a Linux Insteon page together. Currentyly I have working software but it's of Alpha qaulity (I need to clean up the buffers) and there is a readme and history file.
  • Insteon - I'm not really sure what to make of this yet. I looks like X10 with just the PC interface having more intelligence. But I saw something about using a mesh network. I have the doc's but I didn't see anything on that yet. More will follow as I need to write some software for this.
  • CM15A page - I've started to put up information that we've gathered about the X10 CM15A. So far we have some code that's been used with Libusb 0.1.8 and other code that works with the Linux 2.6 driver (the 2.4 driver is untested). We're adding the data as we figure it out. We hope to full documentation once X10 delivers the details.
  • Labjack - the U12 is a USB-based multifunction data acquisition and control device. And here is their Linux Device Driver for it. Very cool! I did some work on the Perl library for it (originally written by Chris Drake). They also have Java and other interfaces to the Labjack.
  • Wish - device drivers for the CM11A, CM17A, SmartHome PowerLink Serial, and SmartHome PowerLink USB transceivers (1131cu).
  • Act Solutions A10 interface TI103 - I've put this device on hold while I work on the CM15A device driver. When I get back to this I'll create a x10d modification to support this device.
  • Dallas' DS9490R - 1-Wire USB to RJ11 adapter - IButton Code examples includes Windows, Java and a public domain kit using libusb.
  • CM19A - (www.x10.com) The X10 USB RF transceiver. Where the CM17A (Firecracker) is a transmit only device, and the MR26A is a receive only device. This one does both. I'm currently working on communicating with this device (initial tests work under Linux) I've put it aside to concentrate on the CM15A. But I will come back to this in due time.
  • CM15A - (www.x10.com) This is a relatively new interface from X10. It combines the CM19A and CM11A into one USB interface. Woody Miller has done most of the work to get it properly working and I've stumbled a long finding news ways of not communicating with it. It's a bit of a frustrating device as it follows one standard here and another there and yet another in a 3rd spot. Woody has a Linux 2.4 kernel and I have Linux 2.4 & Linux 2.6. While I'm using libusb 0.1.8 I don't know what Woody's using.
  • UPB (Universal Power Bus) - Similar to X10 but with many improvements like closed loop control. Better signal strength and a better protocol. So far I haven't purchased the Power Line interface yet but I'm hoping to do so soon. I'm hoping that this may be the one that puts a dent into X10's market. If X10 doesn't improve their product and protocols then it could replace it.

One product you won't see here is the Z-Wave interface. I've discussed creating open source drivers for the USB Z-Wave interface with the folks at Zensys and we could not come to an agreement or understanding on the issues. I'm quite frustrated by the lack of understanding of what Open Source is and how it works from the perspective of vendors (not just Zensys). I understand that they have built a business model around the hardware and software (Windows only) but it seems to be a bad model in my opinion. So with that I will not provide support for the Z-Wave products. I'll have more on this rant on my Linux HA BLOG in the next few days.

Sept. 2004

And it's been sitting idle for way too long. This is just a quick update to let those who are interested. most of the work on this project has been distributed between 2 other projects. the first is the hardware portion: the Open Source HCS project. For the other half, the software, I really like Misterhouse. So you see it's not abandoned but the effort has been moved to other projects. Later when the HCS project takes off a bit further there will be specific hardware that can be shared with Linux and I will post that here. I still have my Linux Home Automation web page that I update regularly. See it for further details.

The Linux Home Automation project is a bit of a misnomer. It's really meant for use under any Unix like operating system. We already have one gentleman who uses QNX so he'll keep me honest. ;-) I fully intend to keep the source code as portable as possible. And I'm working on getting a *BSD system up and running real soon. The initial intent is to create a daemon that interfaces between a plain command line interface and a Home Automation controller. Currently most of the controllers I have attach to a serial port (X10's CM11A, X10's CM17A, X10's CP290, ADI's Ocelot, CCC's HCS II). I also have a WM918 Weather station, and a bunch of Dallas DS1820 temperature chips. Even though X10 may start out as being the primary communication method others will be explored, such as Intel's Linux Universal Plug-n-Play SDK (UPnP), HTH's PLM (power line modem), CeBus and LONworks. We can also attach RS485 networks to the serial port and create devices which follow a standard protocol (like HAN or SNAP). The Linux box would be the master while the remote devices the slaves.

The driving force behind this project is that I have visions (I know "and we have Doctors for that :-)") and I can not accomplish them alone. I will spell out further details later. If you wish to find out further details visit my home pages and route around. My X10 page will give you an idea of what I want to do (Warning! it's long and wordy.)

I'm fully aware of other projects such as Mister House and I think that this project can compliment such a project.

Note: This project is not related to the High Availability Linux project, sorry for any confusion this might have caused.

Purpose:

The initial purpose behind this project is to provide a standard interface to various HA controllers. I have a number of them and more will be released. At this time I want to concentrate on the daemon code and getting a stable interface to at least one of the controllers. If you're interested in a user interface that will come later. I don't intend on replacing a project such as Bruce Winter's Mr. House. In fact if the daemon is written correctly it should be possible to run Mr. House on machine A and the daemon on machine B and still be able to control it using Brand X software from machine A-Z.

Further Home Automation software can be found at http://www.linuxha.com/ This is the admin's personnal home page.

Future goals:

  • Support for Intel's Linux Universal Plug-n-Play SDK (UPnP)
  • Support for CeBus devices (non-existent! Vaporware?)
  • Support for Lonworks (this one is going to be tough).
  • Support for HTH's SNAP protocol. Since I just ordered the kit, this looks like a goal we'll be able to meet.
  • There are other protocols just coming out such as Zigbee (sp?).

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