Re: Starting over

[Pat <pat@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 11:50:58 -0700, Rover <rover@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>On 7/14/2012 8:40 AM, Pat wrote:
>> It is interesting to see how similar our stories are.  Yes, I am
>> retired.  But that means I have more time to play!  Regarding using
>> the Internet, I created my own interface that does that using my
>> 1132CU.  (It helps to be a retired engineer/programmer).
>
>Funny, I have the same background. I have not used 1132CU though.
>Instead, I switched to CM15A after CP290 after I screwed up the latter
>when I tried to change it's default house code from A to another one.
>All I achieved was that it no longer worked with any house code.
>
>I would be interested though how you managed to get your X-10 to be
>controlled remotely via Internet. I still like to dabble with hobby
>electronics, though my background is not electronics, but power
>distribution. I just "married" my old Heath SD-6000 "Barking Dog"
>alarm's PIR sensor with a new D-link DCS-2230 IP camera's digital input
>trigger in order to take video clips of anyone approaching my front
>door. It took some IC project to get the PIR pulses trigger an X10 alarm
>interface which then transmitted that signal over the power line to a
>universal X-10 adapter near the camera to close its digital input
>contatcs for the clip taking. I must admit though that the major design
>work on that circuit was done by a helpful Dutch guy at another news
>group and mine was only the original idea and the execution.
>
>So maybe I would also understand what you did with that IP interface of
>yours.
>
I like "marrying" things together, too.  (I never had a barking dog,
but I had lots of other Heathkit stuff).  My best example of marrying
this together is my Internet to X-10 interface - a pure Rube Goldberg
implementation.

I run a small website on my main computer.  My internet provider
doesn't seem to care since the traffic is very low.  (They used to
block port 80, but stopped a few years ago when web based cameras,
thermostats, etc became popular).  I then added PHP to my website so I
can run PHP programs from any web browser equipped computer or cell
phone.  I wrote a small PHP app that displays buttons that look like
an old x-10 maxi-controller.  Whenever a button is pressed, the PHP
program calls a small console app written in C#.  The console app
interfaces with the 1132CU to send the X-10 commands. Every key press
causes all that stuff to run and then exit.  A programming efficiency
expert would cringe.   I also have some IP cameras, so when I am away
from home, I can turn lights on and off and watch the camera to see it
happen. It isn't all that useful, but it is fun to play with.  Did you
happen to see the "Big Bang Theory" episode where they sent messages
around the world and then turned on a lamp via x-10?  I thought I
would die laughing when I saw that.

Pat