Ever wonder where old links go? Well I do and I've decided that when a links dies I'm going to move it here. These pruned dead links will be more for reference and historical purposes. Once I have the CSS file correctly setup you'll find all the links in grey. You'll still be able to click on them but I doubt they'll go anywhere useful.
Also useful is the The Wayback machine (aka the Internet archive). It's useful for looking at older copies of web pages.
I've begun to add links here that need to be researched. All the links here came up 404. Sometimes with a little research I can find where it's moved to or the correction to make it work again. Sometimes it's just dead. More to follow ....
A test link - the link should appear as a grey colored link instead of it's usual blue and it will be underlined.
- TACO - an object oriented control system originally developed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) to control accelerators, beamlines and data acquisition systems. At the ESRF TACO is used to control over 30 beamlines and three accelerators - a linear accelerator , a booster synchrotron and a storage ring. TACO is being used for instrument control for the new neutron source FRM-II in Garching-Munich, Germany. The FRM-II TACO home page has a list of servers and modifications they have made to TACO. TACO has also been applied to telescope control at the 26m radio telescope at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (South Africa). TACO is very scalable and can be used for simple single device laboratory like setups with only a few devices or for a big installation comprising thousands of devices. TACO is a cheap and simple solution for doing distributed home automation.
- Steve Rodgers Hand - It's an irrigation controller. Steve created 3 pieces of linux software written in C. The daemon (hand), a test program (hantst) and an irrigation (irr) control program which reads commands from a text file for the watering sequences. The circuit (postscript) is available and so are the config files.
- libkemo-m104 driver library for the M104 4 way computer switch made by Kemo Electronic (M104).
- PPort - PPort is a simple yet handy automation program and its documented counterpart for interfacing a computer with the parallel port. With this bundle, one can control any household appliance or electronic device with minimal hassle and practically no changes. One thing to note: the project doesn't really have a project page. Instead it jsut uses the summary page.
- M.U.M.I.N. Multi Unit Micro Interface Network. I haven't much details on the project yet but it looks like an RS485 network interface to Linux.
- Parallel port powerSwitch (pp_powerSwitch) is a TCP/IP server, which controls a power switching device through the parallel port. It can be used for controling heating, lamps, computers, coffee machine and other things (device has eight ports). It's written in Java and a little bit of C
- X10 Wireless Camera software - I haven't tried it and I don't know which X10 camera but it looks really interesting! I working on getting more info.
- Embedded Linux Stargate A collection of useful links about embedded Linux and a distribution called LEM, based on Mandrake.
- Dave Houston's Home Automation Pages - Dave also has a very interesting X10/Wireless project plus all the rest of his HA stuff. Check out his page for further details. One of his most recent projects is BX24-AHT All Housecode Transceiver. To find out what it is and does visit the page (it's easier for me that way ;-).
- KRAD Computing has just releases KRAD Heyu CGI. I haven't had a chance to play with the software but I may try later on.
- HCS II Daemon - ** Doesn't compile, I don't know why ?????
- TCL Based Gui A TCL program which emulates the X10 Palm pad (for use with X10's Firecracker).
- Directory Dallas Onewire software Home of Andrew A. Burgess's Dallas Onewire software. I recommend picking up the ds9097.gif schematic for the serial interface to the Onewire network
- BITBUS library for use under Linux. BITBUS is a serial communication system for industrial use, usually called fieldbus. BITBUS is based on a RS-485 party-line (several communication stations on the same twisted pair of wires) and is optimized for the transmission of short real-time messages.
- CM11W - Patrick L. McGillan has decided to write his own x10d like program for the CM11A. He now as the source code available.
- Linux modbus interface software - I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with the modbus.
- http://www.culturenet.ca/usitt/
- http://www.arigo.de/index_e.html
- Q10 - a QT interface to X10's Fire Cracker
- 01/03/2004 - An article about Pluto appeared on Slashdot (no I'm not going to link to the article too much yapping not much to say!). It's a complete home control system to incorporate all 5 major home electronic systems including security, telecommunications, home automation, entertainment, and personal computing. It looks like a nice system but at $15K (US) it seems a little steep and I'm not sure I like having everything running in one box. Now I can do all these things (I don't have the video setup and I don't have a PBX, yet) with MisterHouse but it's not a consumer setup. So you decide.
- RS RS232 multimeter software
- EIB
- AAG Electronica has a 1-Wire Weather Instrument Kit V3.0 for sale. Basically they've kept the same product as the original Dallas weather station ($79 US) but it's shipped from Mexico FOB. BTW, these guys have moved to AAG Electronica
- http://www.pcdmx.com
- http://www.pcdmx.com/gb/network.htm
Single-chip (or almost) solutions to making sophisticated, multichannel hardwired DMX512 dimmer _controllers_ are readily available.
- A VA11A driver for the X10 VA11A USB Video Capture adapter (Vendor ID 0x533, Device ID 0x2000).
- DMX1512C Drivers - Linux Drivers for the 1512C ISA card.
- Engenuity Systems - this is a company which sells LonWorks products (switches, interfaces, etc.) Though not Linux related still one of the first companies I've seen that sells end consumer products.
- A program to let the Philips Streamium MC-i200 play MP3's from your local server. 'UVWarning' has created a perl script that lets you run a PC-Link server from any OS that can run Perl. If this keeps up I'm going to have to create new categories on this page.
- TACO - an object oriented control system originally developed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) to control accelerators, beamlines and data acquisition systems. At the ESRF TACO is used to control over 30 beamlines and three accelerators - a linear accelerator , a booster synchrotron and a storage ring. TACO is being used for instrument control for the new neutron source FRM-II in Garching-Munich, Germany. The FRM-II TACO home page has a list of servers and modifications they have made to TACO. TACO has also been applied to telescope control at the 26m radio telescope at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (South Africa). TACO is very scalable and can be used for simple single device laboratory like setups with only a few devices or for a big installation comprising thousands of devices. TACO is a cheap and simple solution for doing distributed home automation.
- http://patrick.lidstone.net/ha - is a site with a collection of tidbits relating to Home Automation, with a European bias, and the emphasis on the practical rather than the theoretical.
- GX10 - GTK based program used to control X10 home automation devices via Bottle Rocket. A GX10 backup link in case it gets changed again
- 10/25/2004 - CNN has a AP article on smart buildings. It's interesting mainly because it discusses the ideas used for the automation of air conditioning and determining the number of people in a room (very briefly mentioned) and the purposes behind the sensors.
- Kellee's RS485 modules - He's gone to a lot of trouble to build some very interesting modules. He's also providing the PCB (uses Express PCB services) and the PIC C source code (using CCS's C compiler). The modules were built for use with the JDS Stargate controller.
- Michel Clavette's HCS II page This page has links to projects to build your own PIC based devices that can connect to the HCS II boards.
- A program to let the Philips Streamium MC-i200 play MP3's from your local server.
- PIC net and lots of exceptional stuff! (may be a bi-lingual link).
- Sharp's press release on "iReady".
- http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/2006/ used to be part of the DMX512 links.
- James Coates has written an article for the Chicago Tribune entitled: "More powerful approach brings appliances in line" which is an article about Insteon from Smarthome. It's part humorous and part informational.
- 01/09/2004 - Another Slashdot article about TiVo's New offerings . Tivo/DVD Recorder, TivoToGo where TiVo users with Home Media Option will be able to transfer files off their TiVo onto their PC and XM Radio for TiVo. It will be things like Tivo that will make it easier to add other home automation offerings to customers.
- Been very busy of late (work and another HA project) so I have a stack of corrections and links to add. The first addition is a commercial link QuickLock Remote Systems (kind of obvious) and the 2nd is Botech AB which is a set of tools for remote access to scada systems (not so obvious). More details in the sections below.
- Botech AB - software that runs on Linux (not Open Source?) - Direct from Botech's web page: "provides secure internet based solutions for integrated building management systems automation, intelligent homes and property administration.". They provide the tools you need to interface to a SCADA system that interoperates with building automation. I'm not sure if this is something we'll see a lot of in single family homes but I thought I'd include it anyway.
- The Linux thermometer project. Joep Verhaeg has created a page where he gives the hardware and software for setting up a Dallas onewire DS1621 temperature sensor.
- CAN4Linux The universal LINUX device driver can4linux supports 82c200/sja1000 and 82527 based I/O interfaces. The AT-CAN-MINI is supported.
- Linux Data Aquisition software. Information on DAQ boards and software.
- UPB has the potential to pickup the slack where X10 left off. Here's what I can tell from the available documentation. It appear to use the frequency range of 4 - 40KHz (spread spectrum fashion) with 40 V peak signal. It's packets appear to be between 9 and 33 bytes long. Because of this I'm guessing that both UPB and X10 can co-exist (different frequency ranges). X10 uses 120KHzat around 5V p-p. UPB supports 250 house codes, 255 unit codes and 254 link codes (I'm not really sure what that translates to yet). UPB devices ACK the commands received (X10 do not) so use 2-way communication (closed loop, where are X10 is open loop). The response time is reported to be <.25 seconds where as X10 is slightly less than 1 sec. The devices are more expensive than X10 (though about the same for the higher quality stuff). There is a PC interface and they have a manual (PDF) that explains how to program it. Over all it sounds like a better X10 to me.
- Kellee Crisafulli's has created his own boards for his HA and hooked them up to a StarGate controller. He has given enough detail that you can take his PCB layouts and order up a few boards for yourself! Thanks Kellee. The boards are based on the popular Microchip PIC chips.
- My weather page! It's the first run of the programs to poll and post to the internet. Currently it runs every 4 hours but the Anemometer and Rain guage are really off line. I'm now taking advantage of the sitecopy program to post the info to the net and it has worked very reliably.
- www.weatherwatchers.org software This is a page of software for the WM918 and WX200 weather stations. Various operation systems and various languages. The Java software works on a few OS's (sounds nice).
- Linux K8000 House Alarm System
- Alan Womak's24 days to complete home control.
- Check out the HCS II link
- Open Home Automation - Home Automation Framework with Artificial Intelligence features. Main features: HAL with X10 and ibuttons modules, NLP, Speech Recognition/Synthesis, Intelligence: Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic, Expert Systems, Open Framework.
- Dan Hoehnan's Page - Contains some nice links to other people's pages so you can see what other people have done. BTW: This is his new location.
- 01/10/2005 - Robert X. Cringely makes his 2005 predictions in Betting a Billion. While it's not HA related it tend to give us an idea of the enviroment for the next year. Let me add my prediction to his that we'll see a lot more HA this year and that many of the systems will be Linux base but built for Windows use only (ARGH!).
- 10/17/2004 - Robert X. Cringley, of PBS's i, cringley fame, has written an article titled: "The Limits of SpongeBob SquarePants". Robert goes on to tell a tale of Open Source, wireless internet, new technology (VoIP and Wireless TV ;-) and the ingenuity of one individual, Andrew Greig. Andrew built a WiFi network for Internet, television, and telephone. He cancelled his telephone line and cable TV service and now his neighbors get their service from Andrew. Yes it's legal and it works. Definitely an interesting read.
- Linux K8000 House Alarm (same place 2 different links)- An interface between the Velleman K8000 (sorry they keep changing the link) and Linux. It's used as an alarm panel (among other things) and the KEL (K8000 Event Language). This sounds a bit like my HCS II & XPRESS project but with Linux.
- The WebDock dev team has created Linux DataPort for the Allen-Bradley PLC/SLC's. DataPort for Linux (codename Excalibur) is designed to log data from Allen-Bradley Ethernet connected PLC's (PLC-5, SLC, and SoftLogix). DataPort uses MySql as it's back end database.
- Linux Network Service's flagship product CELL the CIP/Ethernet Library for Linux. CELL is a programmers library that allows you to gain full read/write access to all the data objects within an Allen Bradley ControlLogix PLC. CELL is open-source software and is available without cost. They also have gCL - a GTK-based ControlLogix data monitor and ABEL - Allen Bradley Ethernet Library for Linux.
- www.weatherwatchers.org software This is a page of software for the WM918 and WX200 weather stations. Various operation systems and various languages. The Java software works on a few OS's (sounds nice).
- QuickLock Remote Systems - Hardware, not directly Linux related - QuickLock makes home keyless entry systems that can use X-10, c-bus and i-bus (never heard of i-bus before). Direct from their page: "You choose what type of remote keyless entry system you want, whether it is a 4 button keychain remote control, keyless entry with keypad, biometric fingerprint lock, access card control, or even your mobile phone (if your home is fitted for home automation system wiring)." Nothing really revolutionary here but it is hardware we can use.
- Poweroff It uses a few switches connected to the serial port and some software. You can then use the switches to turn on and off the PC.