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.
