Searching For Stimulation

Wall Mounted TV

2009-11-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

I mounted our TV on the wall a few weeks ago and went for the full-in-wall-hidden-cable installation. A quick trip to the electronics store and I had all the cables needed (all 15'). Another stop at the hardware store and I had the boxes and covers I wanted to use. Then it was off and running.

I removed the baseboard and cut holes around each stud so that cables go around each of them. I then cut the hold at the measured-several-times location that the TV side access needed to be. Followed by a hole for where we are placing the electronics which are ~7 feet to the right. Along the way I opened up a wall outlet and tapped in to the 120 so that I could run power to the TV and new electronics box. Several hours and a couple more holes later (there are cross supports in the wall...) the cables were all strung.

Just today we connected the IR repeater allowing us to point remotes at the TV and send the signals to the equipment in the closed cabinet which is an amazing luxury after a couple weeks of having to stand up to change the channel.

From here I just need to close up the walls, reinstall the baseboard, and a beauty of a project will be complete!

Jeff

Computer Performance

2009-01-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

If you are interested in software performance testing or performance engineering I invite you to take a look at my resource for this stuff.

http://performancetest.blogspot.com/

Jeff

Expanding Active RFID and Home Automation

2009-01-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

Active RFID: a technology based on transmitters and receivers where the transmitters are always transmitting. This is unlike what most people experience in their daily lives with security badges and the like which are considered Passive RFID.

Home Automation: a descriptive term for the collection of methods, software packages, hobby boards, clappers, etc that are used to make a home easier to live in.

Merging the two you have Active RFID in a Home Automation system. If you've followed the blog for a while you know all about this and that I use this technology merger in my everyday life. Now, taking this one step further, I have opened a store where you can buy these tags.

Cliste Electronics
http://cliste.sailwhatcom.com

They are compatible with all the leading automation software packages (MisterHouse, HomeSeer, Indigo, HAL2000 and HAL Deluxe, XTension, etc) and communicate over your standard serial port. Check it out...

Jeff

Smart Television Integration

2008-12-04T13:32:00.001-08:00

For many years we have heard how appliances of the future will connect to each other and the internet to provide greater service to the homeowner. Within the last month I've read article after article on new refrigerators, microwaves, clothes washers and clothes dryers. One notable appliance that is missing from all this coverage is the television and yesterday I realized why.

Leading model televisions from well known manufacturers are already integrating with information systems in the home. Our new television comes with network connectivity (wireless if desired), DLNA support, a custom feed reader, television programming guide, and a variety of content from the manufacturer.

Over the coming weeks I'll share how this appliance is integrated into our home systems (Rock PC, Media PC, NAS, Home Automation, etc) to give you some ideas and let you know what to expect.

Jeffrey Kelly

Weather & NOAA Weather Alerts

2008-11-14T15:11:00.000-08:00

There is decision-making power in knowing about the environment outside your home. After pondering this for a while I decided to downloaded the Weather Warnings and WeatherXML plug-ins for HomeSeer to give Jeeves another IQ boost.

WeatherXML
Here are some important considerations for how Jeeves makes use of WeatherXML:
- I do not have any temperature sensors in the house yet
- Jeeves cannot speak (for example weather forecasts when we wake up)
- Jeeves knows when we are home or away or on vacation
- Space heaters (primarily in the master suite) are on appliance modules

Before WeatherXML for HomeSeer the master bedroom temperature was controlled by a space heater (on a UPB Appliance module) that turned on and off at particular times of the day and week. These times were chosen based on when we typically departed for work and arrived home.

Turn Off: M-F at 6am
Turn On: M-F at 4pm

This seemed to keep the room warm enough during the fall, winter and spring when we were home and didn't waste energy during the day. However, on particularly warm days or during summer I had to disable these rules and control it manually.

After assessing the data available to to Jeeves for quite some time I changed the strictly time-based rules to consider time and conditions. Now, activating the heater at night is based on local outside temperature and forecasted low for the night. Turning the heater off now considers the forecasted high for the day.

Turn Off: M-Su at 6am if Today High is over 55f
Turn On: M-Su at 4pm if Current is under 60f or Tonight Low is under 50f

This is obviously a crutch until I install interior temperature sensors but it does add significant smarts to deciding what to do with the heat. Over the past few months it has worked well at keeping the heater on when we need it and off when we don't.

NOTE: The WeatherXML plug-in script was modified to execute SetDeviceValue for Today, Tonight, Tomorrow, TomorrowNight so that device value conditions could pull an integer for temperatures. Without this modification the only value available was Today and Tonight.

Weather Warnings
In Washington we do not get many weather warnings in the summer or fall, but during the winter we often see flooding and occasional severe storms. Giving Jeeves another IQ point with the free HomeSeer plug-in seemed like a good move. So far I have not made use of this functionality in any house specific rules (given that Jeeves cannot talk) but I have implemented the email portion of the script. Whenever the weather service publishes an alert I now get a text message with the gist of the alert.

Having used this through two flooding events I have disabled the texting capabilities because of the annoying frequency of slightly different messages saying exactly the same thing. However, this should be simple to fix within the script so that I get one notice for each group of events. This works for me because once I know there is a warning I'll know what I need to prepare for.

Jeff

Improving ActiveRFID reception

2008-11-14T14:56:00.001-08:00

Over the past 6 months my ActiveRFID receiver has been connected to a variety of computers running HomeSeer throughout the house (which stabilized now that RockPC is done). Unfortunately due to the location of RockPC and the RF interference from the computer equipment, reception of tags was poor in some areas of the house and almost nonexistent outside. So, I decided to move the receiver into the attic and add a 1/2 wave antenna.

The process was quite simple:
1) Purchase 50' serial cable extension
2) Drill a small hole in the ceiling near RockPC
3) Purchase a short extension cord to run power to the attic (given the 50' serial run I decided to use a power supply)
4) Announce that Jeeves would behave weirdly in the next 30 minutes
5) Install a shelf in the attic in the middle of the house for the Receiver and antenna to sit on
6) Run the serial cable from RockPC to the shelf
7) Plug everything in (serial cable, power supply, 1/2 wave dipole antenna)
8) Load up the HomeSeer website to see if the receiver was back in business

The antenna was fabricated from an old section of FM antenna that I cut down the middle and spread like a dipole should be. The length is critical for these receivers so I used an online calculator to precicely size the antenna. I also added the ground connection suggested on the HomeSeer message board.

Reception is amazing compared to the previous location:
- Not a single drop from any tag since the move (changed timeout from 300 to 60 seconds)
- Whole house coverage and >25' range around the house with 8m keyfobs

I highly recommend this sort of placement if you are restricted in your receiver placement due to WAF (wife acceptance factor), machine, or other considerations and are experiencing reception problems.

Cheers,
Jeff

Jeeves (aka Rock PC)

2008-07-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Over the July 4th weekend I decided it was time to separate the Media PC from Jeeves. In general, the media pc is not the most stable platform and the WAF of motion sensors that FAIL to turn lights on and such is not very good. So it was time to build.

The first step was to find a sufficient ITX case so I dropped by our local computer recycler and browsed the options. Everything from old monitors to newer style ATX cases to rack-ables to old electronics. I settled on a $4 stereo tuner, probably from the 70's with a sticker on the front that says simply "Rock". In addition to the case I grabbed a 20GB Maxtor hard drive, quiet 120mm fan, cables, and some 2.54mm motherboard header leads for the power switch. The other components (i.e. EPIA SP13000, ram, etc) I already had from spare parts.

To convert this old stereo to a working computer case requires some non-standard computer hardware as well. A stop at the local hardware store brought in what was needed.

Motherboard & PSU Mounting:
- 6x1" bolts
- matching nuts
- rubber washers

Suspended Hard Drive:
- twine to suspend hard drive

Back home in the shop I ripped out the guts from the Stereo except for the string-drive tuner dial so that the feel would be authentic. Then, after reconnoitering the positioning of components, marked up the metal case for holes and cuts. The cordless drill and hack saw made fairly quick work of the holes for the fan, power switch, motherboard ports, motherboard mounts, and PSU mounts.

The motherboard and PSU were then connected to the chassis with bolts coming from below, secured with 1 nut to hold position, a second & rubber washer about 1/4 inch above the first for the board to rest on, and the second washer & third nut to hold the boards down (in case I flip the case sideways or up-side-down).

I quickly made a little stand to suspend the hard drive and ran twine under and around the drive. This way it can also handle sideways positions without touching anything. The general idea here is to keep noise down!

Finally the fan was mounted and the thermometer positioned on the CPU heat sink... and I removed the little 40mm fan & heat sink that came with the board with a high flow passive northbridge cooler. If I were compressing/uncompressing video this wouldn't be a very smart idea, but since I'm running low-cpu duty work (home automation) it isn't a big deal. After running for a week the highest CPU temperature recorded was during a virus scan at 55C, well within the range of a Via chip.

The only extra trip to the store was for a CMOS battery as it had been a year or so since the motherboard was connected to power...

Rock on Jeeves!

Jeff

Simple RFID Presence Detection

2008-04-04T12:15:00.001-07:00

Key fobs, vehicle boxes, & movement switches are just some of the applications of the CheaperTronics set of RFID products. My load arrived a couple days ago. This will complete the security system for the house. I've already tested messaging between Jeeves and our cell phones to great success. This knowledge of whether cars, people, family, or known-guests are present will make a huge difference in Jeeves Brain capacity.

Jeff

UPB Links in HomeSeer

2008-01-25T12:56:00.000-08:00

HomeSeer supports UPB communication through a plug-in and this has the affect that not everything is intuitive or polished. One of these areas is in how HomeSeer handles UPB links.

HomeSeer imports links just as it does UPB devices using the UpStart export file. In HomeSeer devices and links are named as in UpStart, the location is specified for devices, and links are identified as such, without a location. Links can be activated and deactivated just like a device and can be used in Events and Conditions. When a link is active, its status is noted as Activated, when inactive it is noted as Deactivated. In all cases (for devices and links) the most recent timestamp of activity is included.

The difficulty for me comes in the fact that I have multiple links (scenes) that work in the same room. When switching between them I do not deactivate the current link and activate the new one, I just send a new activate message to change the scene and the UPB devices take care of the rest. So, when creating Events or Conditions in HomeSeer I am unable to rely on the status of the Link to determine the current state of lights in a room.

I can easily check the status of various lights and appliances directly in Events, however this is a workaround because HomeSeer now knows the details of my links and when I change a link I must change events and conditions. I have not decided how to handle this yet so stay tuned for more.

Jeff

Interfacing HomeSeer & UPB572

2008-01-23T10:22:00.001-08:00

With HomeSeer in the mix I had an architecture decision to make with regards to wireless devices.

Pre-HomeSeer I used a UPB572 to translate wireless device signals into UPB actions such as turning on lights or links. The primary reasons for this setup were two-fold 1) I didn't need a computer to get some of the benefits of motion detection and remotes and 2) the convenience, performance, and WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) of a hardware solution is hard to beat. This worked well but capacity is limited since I decided to make using of the link activation capability of the UPB572 instead of direct device control. Now that HomeSeer is on the block I had a decision to make: Do I keep the UPB572 in the system or transition to something else?

I started by playing with HomeSeer a little to get acquainted with the response time from device status change to event firing to power line command to lighting action (1-2 seconds with a basic install) that I read about on the boards. I decided to keep the UPB572 in the picture since response times through the UPB572 are less than 1 second (and considering #2 in above).

My best solution so far is to create dummy devices in UpStart and import them into HomeSeer so that when the UPB signal comes across the wires, HomeSeer knows what to do with them. This involved reconfiguring the UPB572 to make use of the UPB Device ID mapping instead of Link activation, otherwise there is no DID to use in UpStart for the dummy device. After exporting the UpStart configuration and getting HomeSeer to load them up, it was as simple as creating HomeSeer events for the actions I wanted. To keep the WAF high for critical functions (like turning on the laundry room light which is motion based since there was no light in the room) I continue to make use of UPB572 link capability.

More to come as I learn and experiment.

Jeff

HomeSeer Setup

2008-01-23T09:56:00.001-08:00

Here is a rundown of the home automation setup I'm currently running with:
- HomeSeer running on the MediaPC with a UPB interface
- Presence detection with HawkEye and EagleEye Motion Sensors
- Living room laziness supported by a 4 circuit remote
- Lighting control via UPB light switches and lamp modules (RS101's and US240's)
- Appliance control (fans, space heater, etc) with high-rating UPB lamp modules
- Powerline noise filtering on major appliances in the house
- Wireless to UPB translation with a UPB572
- Mobile security/alarm alerting via email and SMS

Sitting on the bench are:
- Phase coupler to strengthen signal throughout the house
- Wireless wall switch for the master bathroom

In the pipe are:
- Additional security/alarm infrastructure
- Simple RFID using Cheaper RFID products
- Whole house audio
- Automatic vacuuming
- Water detection under sinks, in the laundry, at the water heater
- Possibly a CCTV system
- Skype or telephone integration
- HVAC automation, with temperature and humidity monitoring
- Blind and Curtain control
- Automated water heater control

Jeff

HomeSeer

2008-01-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

When I started dreaming about my automated home a couple years ago I was pretty fixated on being able to talk to my house. The first major tool to support this vision I found along this line was Hal2000 and I spent quite a lot of time on the message boards learning about what it could do. Initially, HomeSeer was out of the picture because I was focused on the tinkering nature of HAL. Over time I decided on a variety of other technologies for my implementation and HomeSeer became more prominent because of the polish, reliability, and user community. Now, I've spent about a year on the HS boards and a few days ago, purchased HomeSeer.

Thus, it is time for an introduction. Blog readers, meet Jeeves. Jeeves, meet my blog readers. Jeeves is my home automation system and from here on out, things will get a lot more interesting.

For more information on HomeSeer:
http://homeseer.com
http://board.homeseer.com

Jeff

Living Room Remote

2007-12-02T15:57:00.000-08:00

Now that we have adapted to the convenience of increasingly automated lighting we are getting lazy. I say this because in my latest purchase from Automated Outlet I picked up a 4 code remote to sit on the end table. This allows us to stay under our blankets and change the lighting. A great purchase so far, and it's just day one. :-)

Jeff

New Outlets for Christmas Lights

2007-12-02T11:13:00.001-08:00

Well, it is that holiday time of year and one thing missing from this great old house is exterior electrical outlets. So, my project for the weekend was to install a couple outlets so that we can light up the trees in the front yard.

I started with a simple electrical plan, decided where to place the switch, where to tap into an existing circuit with plenty of amps to spare, created a parts list, scoped out good locations for the outlets, and headed for Mclendon's. With parts in hand I headed home and started working.

Here are some of the decisions I made:
- The switch will be at the location of an existing circuit where I can tap into an existing feed from the breaker box.
- Outlets will be covered with weather tight cases where extension cords are covered while plugged in.
- Outlets will be on the wall just below the roof line because I would prefer to work in the attic than in the crawlspace.
- Two outlets will be installed, one in the vicinity of each tree.
- This new circuit may also run motion-based Outside lights at some point so build in enough slack to handle this.

Step 1: Run wire, install box in the attic to distribute power, run wire to the outlet locations.
Step 2: Mark wall for location of boxes
Step 3: Cut holes in your walls
Step 4: Install boxes and outlets
Step 5: Install weatherproof covers, calk
Step 6: Turn off breaker
Step 7: Change interior box to a double, install UPB switch
Step 8: Turn on the breaker, check everything for continuity, power

With the outlets in and switch installed I programmed the switch to respond to Christmas light links, checked the programming, and headed outdoors to setup the lights.

Parts List:
150ft NM-B 12 Gauge 2 conductor (+Ground) wire
1 Single-Gang box for the attic
1 Single-Gang box cover
1 Double-Gang box
1 Double-Gang decor box cover
2 Metal Single-Gang boxes for exterior outlets
Bag of Wire Connectors
2 15A Outlets
2 Waterproof Outlet covers
Exterior Calk
Wire Cutters
Phillips Screwdriver
Wireless Screwdriver
2.25" Wood Screws

Jeff

Lighting & Motion Performance

2007-11-12T11:09:00.001-08:00

Well,

The automation implementation is young but growing, all that is installed is motion, lighting and appliance control, and I'm starting to find the spots where the system is unreliable. Here are some of the problems:

- When the microwave is running, transmission on that phase is generally lost
- In a variety of conditions, one lamp in the living room fails to turn off when told
- Some motion detectors do not get the lights on reliably

WAF is something key to the system and in these cases, it is lacking. To be frank, it isn't reliable enough for me either. So, it is time to do something about it. I'm planning the following:

- Some FilterLinc's on key appliances (Refrigerator, Microwave, Entertainment Center)
- UPB Phase coupler to help promote signal propagation

The FilterLincs were first used with X10 and will work fine for UPB. Phase couplers however are specialized, so I need one specific to UPB. At some point in the future I may need an X10 coupler as well, and that will be for another day and once some other projects are implemented.

So, stay tuned and I'll let you know how this goes.

Jeff

Home Automation Blogs & Resources

2007-10-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

I like to read up on the experiences and ideas of others working with home automation. So, since I also like sharing, here are some of the places I check out from time to time.

Home Automation Starter (Blog by Adam)
http://homeautomationstarter.blogspot.com/

Automate This (Blog by Mike)
http://automatethis.blogspot.com/

Nothing Up My Sleeve (Blog by Gordon Meyer)
http://gordon.typepad.com/

Linux Home Automation (Blog by Neil Cherry)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/

A Geeks House (Blog)
http://www.ageekshouse.com/

The Johnnynine Weblog
http://johnnynine.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Home%2BAutomation.aspx

Mac Home Automation (Blog)
http://www.machomeautomation.com/

Blog From The Loft
http://www.pkshiu.com/loft/

Comp.Home.Automation
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.home.automation/topics

Have a blog or site that you would like listed? Add a comment and I'll check it out. :-)

Jeff

Jeffrey R. Kelly
http://www.sailwhatcom.com
Copyright © Jeffrey R. Kelly, 2006

More Motion Detection

2007-10-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

Now that some time has passed and we have lived with motion detection in the house for a couple weeks, here are some lessons learned:

Just turn lights off
In our office we get a lot of light through two large windows. So, we do not want the lights to always come on when we enter the room... during the day we have plenty of light. So, after some pondering I realized that turning the lights off if I have left the room is still desired functionality. To implement I started by removing the link transmission from the UPB572. Then I realized that I should continue to send the ON link because it is easier to program the switch to not respond to the link, than program the UPB572 to send it when I change my mind.

Kitchen counter lights
Adding motion detectors under the kitchen cabinets above our counter tops it is trivial to never need to turn them on by hand again. There are a few tricks though:
1) Use outdoor motion sensors above the stove since humidity is really high
2) Use multiple sensors set to the same house & unit code to cover a large area
3) Experiment with the turn-off delay... 1 minute is probably too short when you are cooking

Dusk and dawn
Lights are not necessarily the only thing to control at dusk and dawn. We head our bedroom with a space heater, but only at night. So, it was simple enough to setup a 12 Amp appliance module to respond to dusk and dawn links. There is a fire hazard associated with automatically controlling any heater, so it is important to plan ahead for this sort of thing. Our space heater turns off automatically if it is not straight up and down and has a major stand-off to keep burnables away.

Power-line noise
There are areas in the house where power-line noise is significant when certain devices are on (baseboard heaters, refrigerator, microwave). The impact is that lights do not turn on/off automatically all the time. This decreases the WAF of the system so considering the location of the UPB572 power-line interface is important! Place the power-line interface on a circuit that does not see much (or any) interference so that even when noisy devices are on, most of the system is reliable.

I'm still looking for a solution to this one so if you have any ideas please leave me a comment. Have you tried using X10 filters on a UPB network?

[Update 2007/11/05]
You can use X10 filters to clean up the line noise.
You cannot use X10 phase couplers but there are UPB models on the market now...

That's all for now,
Jeff

Jeffrey R. Kelly
http://www.sailwhatcom.com
Copyright © Jeffrey R. Kelly, 2006

Motion Detection Version 1

2007-09-21T19:21:00.001-07:00

So, the first version of motion detection is in place. :-)

The Equipment
Last month I ordered the following:
15 HawkEye Indoor Motion Sensors (link)
5 EagleEye Outdoor Motion Sensors (link)
1 UPB572 X10 to UPB All House-code Transceiver (link)
1 4-Button Wireless Wall Switch (link)

I decided on the UPB572 as opposed to the computer based modules (which have slightly better motion-to-light response time) because I consider lighting a core function of the house. This means that you must always be able to get light, even if the home automation server is down. I don't have a dedicated server or software for this yet, so it also let's me go into the motion space without one.

Step 1: Does it work
I started with the goal of learning how all this works together so, I opened a HawkEye and and the UPB572 to try to get this up and running. I also grabbed a desk lamp and plugged it into an extra UPB lamp module so that I had the whole setup running in the office.

To begin, I worked on programming the UPB572 to send a UPB link that the lamp module would pick up. The application used to program the UPB572 is not intuitive, I read the directions 3 or 4 times before just messing with it to get an idea of how it works. In trying to setup the link my biggest hurdle was determining the ID of the link used by the lamp module (go into to UpStart, visually edit the link, then hold your mouse over the link icon, it will pop up the link ID). With the 572 loaded and plugged into the wall I proceeded to setup the HawkEye and create motion. To my surprise it worked! The only hitch is that once the HawkEye send the OFF signal, the light didn't follow suite. It turns out that when in link mode, you need two links, one for Motion Detected and one for No Motion Detected. With this figured out, I was ready to try a real install.

Note 12/2/2007:
Some instructions on how to use the UPB572 Config program:
- When loading an existing config that uses Links, check the Link A or Link B checkbox, whichever you are using, before loading config. Otherwise the load will fail.
- I have not been able to get Link A and Link B to work together. When I use them both, whatever is set to the house code for B is processed as if it is the same code as on the Link A side. If you figure this out leave a comment and I'll include it here.

Step 2: The Laundry Room
My first target for motion based lighting was our laundry room. It doesn't have a light (or a switch) so this desk lamp and HawkEye fit the situation perfectly. Once everything was in place, I started causing motion and waiting for the light to turn off... it would, but then it turned right back on. Bummer! After about an hour of trying this and that, Eureka! The problem was that the HawkEye could see the desk lamp and the heat signature it creates. When the lamp would cool off, the HawkEye registered motion and turned it back on. So the solution was to place the HawkEye under the lamp. Now, it works great.

The other part of using these sensors is how long the light should stay on once triggered. For the Laundry room (since it is small and you are generally moving around a lot) I decided on a 1 minute delay. This means that 1 minute after the last motion was sensed by the HawkEye it will send the Off command, which in this case is another link that deactivates the lamp.

I'd also like to point out that this has a huge Wife Acceptance Factor value, she loves the fact she doesn't have to go into the room, reach around for the desk lamp, then leave in the dark after she is done. For the record, I love it too since we both do laundry...

Step 3: Walk In Closet
Now I was on a role. My next move was to setup the walk in closet in the master bedroom with a motion sensor. A few weeks ago (knowing this was coming) I replaced the light switch with a basic UPB model, so everything was ready to go. We have an organizer shelf and hanger system that takes up all the wall space nooks and crannies, so location was a challenge. Ultimately I settled on just setting the HawkEye on the floor pointed away from the door. This way it picks up the motion of our feet and doesn't trip when we are just in the bedroom. Works like a charm, and we found that we were used to not having any light, so when the light pops on we are stuck by how convenient it is. It is also on a 1 minute timer.

Step 4: Front and Back Doors
Beyond lighting, motion detectors are one of the pillars of an effective home security system. Since the interior rooms are now bing overtaken with motion sensors, the perimeter was my next thought. After trying various locations for the EagleEye's I settled on placing them on the inside of windows near each door, looking out. This adds to the security of the device and it works great. There is also the added bonus of turning lights on at dusk and off at dawn, which is just as easy as lighting a room, just a different house code.

One other note is that since the sensors are on the inside looking out, the one at the back door is turned just enough to see someone leaving, so that the light turns on at night before you open the door. Perfect for when we are letting the dog out for a while.

Step 5: Office
Now that the basics are covered, I'm experimenting with motion detection in one of our main rooms, the office. Here the problem space is a little different:
1) We do not always need lights to turn on, just when it is dark out
2) We spend long periods of time in front of the computer, not moving much
3) We are completely used to using the light switch, and it is in a convenient place

The jury is still out on this one. The delay is set to 4 minutes and the sensor is placed so that it doesn't pick up motion in the hallway, just the room.

Final Thoughts
Since I do not have automation software yet, this is a good start at motion. You may have noticed the wall switch was left out of the discussion, that will come up later when I address lighting in the master bathroom. Stay tuned... :-)

Jeff

Jeffrey R. Kelly
http://www.sailwhatcom.com
Copyright © Jeffrey R. Kelly, 2006

Security and Occupancy

2007-08-19T15:04:00.001-07:00

It is time to move on in the quest to automate the house and I’ve decided to go wireless. The considerations are thus:
1) To complete lighting automation in the master bath, a wireless switch is needed
2) We have a room without a light switch that we want automatically lighted
3) Automatic under-cabinet lights
4) Automatic control of the porch lights
5) Detection of intruders!

To execute this next phase I selected the following equipment:
1) Whole House Transceiver with X10 RF to UPB PLC
2) 15 HawkEye II indoor motion detectors
3) 5 EagleEye outdoor motion detectors
4) 1 wireless wall switch

The primary consideration in purchasing the power line X10 RF to UPB transceiver is the wife acceptance factor of the system. It is exceptionally important that if the home control server goes down, that the lights continue to work intuitively. So, the slight delay associated with the power line signal transmission to the server is more than acceptable.

Stay tuned for more as I implement.

Jeff

Media PC: Version 2.0

2007-08-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

Introduction

When we returned from a recent vacation we opened the door to hear silence, the first indication that the MediaPC was down. Over a few weeks I replaced parts, looking for the problem. Thus, the hardware list has changed. Look below for details.

Also, there are several software changes since the replacements I purchased have more horsepower:
- SageTV is replacing Hauppauge and home-grown software
- SpeedFan now controls the motherboard and system fans

Updated Hardware List

Initial Hardware List:
- Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 350
- VIA EPIA SX 15000 Mini-ITX Motherboard
- CP2600 Mini-ITX Case
- PCI Riser Card
- 60W Power supply
- 120V-12V converter
- Panasonic Slotload Slimline CD/DVD-ROM
- Slimline CD to Desktop IDE Adapter
- Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA Hard Drive
- BTC Wireless Multimedia USB Keyboard
- OCZ Gold GX 512MB 184-Pin SDRAM DDR 400
- Linksys Wireless G Broadband Router
- Linksys USB Wireless G Adapter
- 15" Flat Panel Monitor

Additional Items:
- 2 quiet 20x20mm Fans
- Fan cable splitter (3-pin)
- Fan cable extention (3-pin)
- Zip Ties
- Monitor Extension Cable (15')
- USB Hub
- USB Extension Cable (15')

Shopping

I shop around at several high quality and reliable internet vendors for computer parts. Here is the list of online vendors that I used:

Newegg.com
Mini-ITX.com
LogicSupply.com

More Lighting

2007-08-19T14:45:00.001-07:00

Over the couple weeks some changes came my way, so it was time to make some changes to the lighing setup.
1) New Bedroom Furniture
2) Purchased a stock of US101s

New Bedroom Furniture
- We no longer have control over a light on my side of the bed and one on my wife's side; instead we now have one switch for the both of them. So they are controlled by a single appliance module.
- The bedside controller was setup to control the bed side lights separately, now it controls them together

More switches
- I've added light control to the HOFF (Home Office) and to the Guest Bedroom
- Since we have a relative staying with us in the guest bedroom I modified the "All Lights" link to be the "Common Spaces" link. Now we cannot turn off ALL the lights in the house at once, but this is more realistic for the future and how we use the house.

Steps to complete the lighting portion of this project:
1) Run a ground/negative wire to a few light boxes that do not have them
2) Purchase some more wire connectors
3) Purchase a couple US240s

Jeff

Lighting With UPB

2007-05-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of slowly moving all lighting control over to UPB enabled switches.

My first step was to purchase a UPB evaluation package with a PC interface, a couple UPB240's, a couple faceplates, and a couple plug-in modules. The result was a great solution to not having control of the living room lights from the front door! Installation was seamless after I fried one of the 240's because I didn't follow the directions (thank you Francis Frankini [sp?]).

Next I tried to conquer the switches in the most central location of the house. Once the wall plate was off I had a surprise... only one wire. So, the renovation of this location is on hold until I run a ground or line to the box.

Continuing the infestation I was able to find a bunch of HAL UPB switches at my local Fry's and as I have time I replace the other switches around the house with these. Soon the revolution will be complete!

Jeff

Home Automation with UPB

2006-11-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I am now a home owner and as a techie, I am very excited to start automating. I've spend a few months reading, learning, and reading some more. I’ve checked out everything from manufacturer sites and papers to message boards and blogs.

Here is where I think I am going:
- Lighting: UPB
- Wireless Switches & Remotes: X10
- Controller: HomeSeer
- Whole House Audio: AP800, HomeSeer
- Phone/Internet Control: HomeSeer via VPN
- HVAC: Custom Solution for Electric Heaters
- Cleaning: Roomba + IR Blasters

Stay tuned for more as I start implementing.

WinTV Scheduler Enhancements

2006-03-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

Introduction

As you know I've been working on a replacement for the Scheduler program provided by the manufacturer of my TV capture card. Since V1 I've been tinkering with the program to fix some bugs, add some features, and address some usability pot-holes. The following is a list of changes thus far.

Completed Changes

- Schedule Start Date
I found that when setting up a weekly or daily schedule, sometimes I did not want to start right away. In this case, the date, not the day of the week, should determine the start date of the schedule.

This also came into play when needing to skip an iteration (or more). When editing the schedule there was no way to do this... the solution was the same.

- Schedule End Date
Not as common as the start date problem identified above, but sometimes there is a known end date for a daily or weekly schedule. In this case I was not able to use the end date/time selection because that would remove the ability for recordings to span a date line. The solution was to add a schedule end date field.

- Current Time & Next Recording Countdown
The main form started as simply a data grid with minimal system buttons. Over the first week or so, two ideas came to mind: showing the current time, and the time until the next recording started. The addition was simple via the addition of a couple timers and some logic to track the next recording.

- Sorted Show List
The sorting capabilities of the data grid are really limited. I found this most annoying when sorting based on start date/time or end date/time. Due to the US date format, shows were not sorted correctly. My response was to conduct sorting at the data row level and turn off sorting at the data grid. Shows are now sorted by the start date.

Pending Changes
There are several features that I still want to add to increase usability and decrease dependence on the old scheduler application.

- Collision Detection
Currently, this tool does not provide any collision detection between shows. This means that when creating or editing a show the times must be manually checked with all other programs in the queue. I cannot wait to have this one done!

- Colored Data Grid Rows
Hand-in-hand with collision detection, I'd like to show colliding programs in the main window through coloring the rows of impacted programs. Based on my research thus far, I'll be completing this through overriding the paint method of the data grid. I'm also planning to color the background of the currently recording show.

- Titan TV Integration
The last major hurdle to eliminating the existing scheduler application is to handle the file type downloaded by Titan TV when creating a new recording. At this point the file type and format are completely foreign to me, so some additional research is needed...

Final Thoughts

This application is maturing very well and I hope to be able to uninstall the manufacturer WinTVScheduler application in the near future.

WinTV Scheduler Replacement

2006-02-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

Introduction
The MediaPC program we are using for managing scheduled recordings is limited, bug ridden, and just generally frustrating. Being an engineer with quite a bit of .NET background I figure the best solution, given the current state of the MediaPC, is to write my own scheduler.

Our media PC uses a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 350 and the corresponding Hauppauge supplied software suite. This suite includes:
- WinTV2K: Recording and playback of the video feed
- WinRadio: Recording and playback of the FM audio feed
- WinTV Scheduler: Scheduling of video and audio recordings

This project is designed to replace the video recording management capabilities of WinTV Scheduler. Radio scheduling is out of scope since we never use it.

Requirements
Since this tool is replacing an existing application, I had a pretty good idea of what I liked and didn't like. Here is the list of requirements I came up with.

Priority 1:
- Current and future recordings are displayed on the main form with name, next start date, next end time, and any other tier 1 information.
- Recordings can be created for Once, Daily, or Weekly schedules.
- All aspects of recordings can be viewed, edited and saved.
- Recordings created with WinTV Scheduler are seamlessly imported.
- Recordings created with the replacement need not work in WinTV Scheduler.
- Recordings can be deleted from the main form.
- All scheduled recordings must work with the WinTV2K application.
- The Windows Scheduled Task Engine shall be used for all recordings… this is not a job engine.
- Support all known WinTV2K command line parameters.
- Support recordings created or edited by hand in the windows scheduler control panel folder.
- Interface is a .NET forms application.

Priority 2:
- Implement NUnit tests for all forms and functions.
- Periodically refresh the main window data (i.e. every second).
- Display the time to next recording (countdown) on the main form.
- Display the current system time on the main form.
- Automatically detect (not resolve) recording collisions.
- Automatically expand recording window by x minutes and shrink window if adjacent recordings are added.
- Handle creation of new recordings with the file format used by WinTV Scheduler (i.e. from the TitanTV homepage).

Priority 3:
- Add Copy to New Recording functionality.
- Add multiple schedules for recordings.
- Implement user configurable defaults for new recording parameters.

Priority Future:
- Create a Zap2It component that allows for browsing & searching TV listings in an integrated interface with scheduled recording functionality.
- Create a IMDB component that supplements information on movie recordings in the scheduler.
- Create an integration layer to expose IMDB data in the Zap2It component.

Resources
There were several resources I tracked down before starting to design the code. Here is a list:
- A Scheduled Tasks wrapper class in a .NET language
- Command line parameters for WinTV2K
- Microsoft Scheduled Tasks documentation
- Example scheduled tasks created with WinTV Scheduler

Code Components
Since this application is a .NET Windows Forms application and the scope is simple, I decided to make two forms, much like the design of WinTV scheduler.

The main form holds a grid displaying current and upcoming recordings. All functionality of this main form is included in the form code; no outside classes are used except for the Scheduled Tasks wrapper.

The second form is the Create/Edit form for recordings. This form has a variety of validation and behavior which is embedded into the form code (like enforcing that the recording end date and time be after the start date and time). Due to my love of reusing components, the Create/Edit form is not aware of the classes exposed by the Scheduled Tasks wrapper.

Future design changes are up in the air at this point (think Zap2It TV listings and IMDB data) while I work with the core scheduler. Delivering a working product into the hands of the consumer early to find bugs, suggest improvements, and test usability is central to how I design software, so I'll wait to discuss grand future plans.

Conclusion
The initial design and delivery took about 20 hours of my time including the forms and resources mentioned above along with a setup project. Overall, V1 looks great with only a one significant bug of low priority and severity surrounding the "Current Status" field which determines whether a recording is underway. If you are interested in making use of this application let me know and I'll consider releasing it.