Re: Linux, anyone?

[james@xxxxxxx (James Derrick)]

On Wed, 10 Mar 1999 09:42:52 -0000, you wrote:

>Dear all,
>
>Anyone out there using Linux to automate some (or all) of their homes?
I've had a Linux box running the show for about 3 years, starting with
a 16MHz 386. It look 2 days to compile a kernel, but was fine for
automation.

>At the moment, I've got to the stage where I can control some of the
>lights with a convenient Web interface ;-)
That's the bit I use the most- why leave the keyboard to hit a switch,
just pull up a browser.

>1: Anyone got any experience of hooking up switches so they send
>"messages" to a daemon running on Linux?
I've got lots of fag packet designs for a networked architecture with
device specific daemons communicating via Unix network sockets.

The network code has recently been rewritten into a set of libraries
to make this process easier. The main stumbling block is the event/
device object model, but the big idea is to have controlled devices,
data sources and controllers all sharing data via an ASCII protocol
not unlike FTP/ POP3. As the server has CPU and bandwidth to spare, it
can make things easier for the programmer by hiding the hardware and
nasty binary protocols needed for device- device comms.

I have an 8255 PIO card monitoring my alarm system including room
PIRs. This enables a chunk of C code to spot me going in to a room and
turn the lights on via X10. Temperature, light level, will all be
added, but for now a Realtime DIY Anemometer logs the weather.

I use Dan Lancini's X10 server to provide an interface that is used by
a bit of CGI programming to give a WWW interface, and command line
scripts. I've been using Unix too long as it's easier to set a cron
job for my alarm clock than set a 'real' best!

You've caught me in the early stages of WWW design (is there ever a
'finished' site?), so my site is rather bare. You might get an idea of
what my plan to take over the world is by looking at:
http://www.amarok.demon.co.uk/dl/dl_protocol.html
http://www.amarok.demon.co.uk/aned/aned_driver.html

The site is a mess, (I know about the broken links), but it might give
you some ideas.=20

At the moment, my code is not in a releasable state, but it will be
going out GPL'd eventually, particuarly with the Realtime Anemometer
driver.

I've collected shed loads of links, bits of code, documents, examples,
etc, but rather than go on here, I'll try and put some of them on the
site this weekend.

James
---
James Derrick    james@xxxxxxx, Cramlington, Near Newcastle, =
England
Forwarding Service: jderrick@xxxxxxx
Beyond the Horizon of the place we lived when we were =
young,
In a World of Magnets and Miracles. Pink Floyd.

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