Re: Home Automation Software?

[Neil Cherry <njc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 5 Feb 2008 08:22:17 -0800 (PST), julvr wrote:
> Hi there.  I am looking into getting some home automation software
> that I can customize to a good degree.  I got homeseer trial, but I
> find it both clunky (the interface is very slow), and expensive.  I'm
> wondering if there's any good open source programs (preferably written
> in C or a derivative) that can control my Insteon power-linc, and USB-
> UART.  I don't need web access, just to be able to send and recieve
> commands, and to be able to run custom scripts when I get an event.

I was going to lament the sad state of affairs that there was no
command line software available. Then drops into my mail box this
package from Matt Randolph (Thanks Matt!):

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~mcr/plmtools-0.0.1.tar.gz

Here's Matt' description:

I've written a few tools for the Insteon PLM for linux.  I call them
plmtools.  They include:

plmsend - takes ASCII hexadecimal parameter and sends it to the PLM,
          waits for a reply from the target device, or times out.
plmcat  - reads data from the PLM and displays it as ASCII hex
plmtty  - an interactive PLM communication program for debugging

I also included a couple of shell scripts:

insteon - A wrapper to plmsend (eg. insteon kitchen on 33).  This is
          useful in cron jobs.

x10toinst - An example of how plmcat and plmsend can be used to
            convert x10 messages into insteon messages so that they
            will be repeated by insteon devices.  Allows x10 remotes
            to control insteon devices more reliably.

The use of shell scripts with these programs should make it possible
to do all sorts of neat tricks.  I can imagine things like:

- create X10 scenes or hybrid X10/Insteon scenes.
- control a program on a PC using X10 or Insteon like a media player.
- control more than 16 devices with an X10 remote through multi-key sequences.
- most anything else you can imagine.

Here's the URL for the moment until I find a better home for it.

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~mcr/plmtools-0.0.1.tar.gz

I'm calling it alpha software for now because the code could probably
use a cleanup, but I'm using it successfully in my own home.

I've also posted this here:

http://www.linuxha.com/common/plmtools-0.0.1.tar.gz

Matt says this is still alpha but it's a good start. :-)

I'll post an update to my pages so that there is a reference link for
all to find.

--
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.linuxha.com/                         Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog
Author of:    	Linux Smart Homes For Dummies