The software I use for home automation set up has had a major update to 3.0. I've been beta testing it when it was known as 2.5 and there have been quite a few significant features added. There is now support for the Insteon thermostat adapter, which I've been using. There is also support for scenes and links, which allows the control of multiple Insteon devices at once with a single powerline command.

The Unoffical Apple Weblog has a quick write up on it as well as a CooconTech thread.

Smarthome is having a $20 Off $100 Sale on April 3rd only. You can find the coupon code on Smarthome's website.

After I purchased the Insteon thermostat adapter and T1700 thermostat bundle from Smarthome, they offered this $5.00 off deal.

Use this coupon code on checkout: eFebruary

Discount: $5 off any order of $50 or more (excluding auctions) on Smarthome.com

Valid Dates: Until 11:59:59 PM on 2/29/08

There's some discussion on this device at the Smarthome message boards and it's not know exactly what it supports, extra humidity or temperature sensor or remote fan control? The developer of Indigo has indicated that the final release of Indigo 2.5 will support this device.

It's hard for me not to run out and pre order it right away. The cheapest Venstar Thermostat is $70 and the adapter is $99. It might seem expensive but the TXB16 thermostat is $300.

Smarthome is having a new years day only coupon for $20.08 off $100 or more. That's a good 20% off if you can keep it to $100.

Perceptive Automation has released Indigo 2.5 Beta 11 which now includes the long awaited Insteon Link Management. Links are a way to create scenes or groups with a single command sent through the power line. It also allows the setting of individual ramp rates and brightness levels.

I'm not completely familiar with Insteon PC software, but I don't think there's a software package that allows both link management and control of triggers and scripting in a single package. Yes, I'm a Indigo fanboy, but for good reason.

Here's some screen shots of the new features:

Manage Insteon Device Links

Edit Action Group

A lot of information on the intertubes on the energy bill passed by congress, like engaget, has incandescent bulbs banned by the year 2012. In fact congress did not specifically ban incandescent in favor of florescent technology or any technology. Trying to find a news source which actually reported the specifics was difficult, a article on thedailygreen.com has more information.

Under the measure, all light bulbs must use 25% to 30% less energy than today's products by 2012 to 2014. The phase-in will start with 100-watt bulbs in 2012 and end with 40-watt bulbs in 2014. By 2020, bulbs must be 70% more efficient.

They also say that florescent bulbs meet the 70% standard. What happens to bulbs higher than 100 watts? Scientific American had this to say

About two dozen categories of light bulbs are exempt from the U.S. law's efficiency requirements, including oven and refrigerator bulbs, candelabra lamps, plant lights, replacement traffic signal bulbs and the summer necessity -- the yellow bulb that doesn't attract insects.

Althought they will have a tough time meeting the 70% standard in 2020, incandescent are far from dead. I'm all for more efficient bulbs, but I am not a fan of the current compact florescent technology. I spent a small fortune on dimmable CFL bulbs only to be left with a pile of dead CFLs of which most lasted less than a year. I am not impressed with their dimming ability either (all of my switches are dimmable as part of my home automation system).

Whatever happens, incancesdents will get more efficient and CFLs and LEDs will get better/cheaper, and I will be happy to replace them with whatever works best. It may not matter anyways, 2012 is the end of the world.

Smarthome has a public beta of new Insteon SwtichLinc like dimmer that does not need a neutral. Some houses do not have neutrals in every switch location which means they cannot use current SwitchLincs

How it Works
The INSTEON 2-wire Dimmer Kit comes with two main pieces: a companion switch that installs in the switch box and a fixture dimmer that installs in your light fixture. With these two devices you'll now be able to convert one of your two wires in your switch box to a neutral, enabling reliable control of your light. The companion switch and fixture dimmer are "paired" at the factory so both devices will act as one. This means that once they're installed, you won't have to go back into the fixture, either for control OR for linking to other INSTEON-compatible devices. Simply put, the companion switch's SET button acts as a remote SET button for the fixture dimmer, giving you added convenience and flexibility.

Sounds a lot like the switches that are wired up to ceiling fans to allow separate fan and light controls from a single switch

Check out the discussion on the Smarthome forums

Smarthome is having a 20% off sale. I doubt they will have one greater than this.

Use the code ESAVINGS at check out. The sale ends Thursday, November 15th.

Smarthome is having a sale on Insteon Devices. The sale is 24 October through 26 October.

10% off over 70 Smarthome-brand INSTEON Products

I'm still hoping for a bigger sale before the holidays

I have read about many people on the Smarthome and CocoonTech message boards have a lot of their Insteon devices failing. Some people have had a high failure failure rate. I've been following these discussion closely because I have yet to have any failures. Until a few months ago.

My first device to fail was a Switchlink V2 that was controlling the bathroom light. The device simply failed to turn on the lights nor would the LED bar light up. If I pressed the reset button and held it down, it would light one of the LEDs. According the the Smarthome message boards, this is a common failure mode.

Despite the inconvience of having to replace the switch (in a room that has no natural light), I have to admit that Smarthome has been very generous with replacments since these switches are probably out of warranty. On the other hand, these are all early first generation type switches, which are showing design issues. So they should be replacing them.

The other switch that has died is a LampLinc V2, it simply doesn't operate nor does the set button have any effect. I expect that Smarthome will replace it without question.

Smarthome is having a 25% off sale on a few Insteon items. Mostly Icon's and paddle replacements.

Good to see this sort of thing coming out on the Mac

This application (and included userspace driver) implements portions of the INSTEON command set and allows users to build a list of devices that can be controlled remotely. This application (and driver) is currently under development and will be extended and completed as time permits. The long-term goal for Shion is to package it as a reusable framework for other MacOS X developers.

Shion

The Simply Green blog recommends the GE's Energy Smart dimmable compact florescent bulb.

What I like about the bulb is that it mimics the light of a traditional bulb, all while giving you the huge energy-saving benefits of using it. It lasts 6 years and will save you $45 in energy cost savings over the life of the one bulb. I was surprised how soft the light was when I flipped the switch on the lamp. I found myself carrying the bulb going socket to socket around the house seeing how it worked in other fixtures.

At $11 a piece, thats a good price. I question how long it actually will last. I've had plenty of dimmable CFLs die in under a year. The cheaper they are, the less likely they will live up to their claims (unless the technology has actually improved).

I'm sticking with regular and halogens for now.

The RemoteLinc and Access Points arrived from SmartHome today. So far they are working without a hitch. More to come later.

Smarthome's RemoteLinc is now available for pre order. The RemoteLinc is a RF remote for Insteon. The bad news is the RemoteLinc is not compatable with the current SignaLinc RF to Insteon bridge. They are replaced with a new product called the Access Point. The good news, Smarthome is offering a "free" upgrade to the access point if you have SignaLincs. If you buy a 2 pack of refurbished access points and send in your old signal lincs, they will refund your money and send you a free RemoteLinc.

This certainly makes it easier to speculate that SmartLabs was having technical problems with their RF protocol, causing the delays in releasing the Remote. Also see this thread on the smarthome message boards.

Update: I'm mistaken on how the return works. You don't get a refund on the cost of the access points. You simply get a $49.99 remotelinc for each pair of signalincs you send in. Not quite as good as I had thought.

• Spend $75 and receive a FREE lamplinc (2456D3) or appliancelinc (2456S3). Enter promo code EHIHABX (for your LampLinc) or code EHIHABX2 (for your ApplianceLinc) at checkout to receive your Free Gift. Offer Valid May 1-May 31st 2007
• Mother's Day Deals: Save 10% off your entire order when you spend $150 or more. Offer valid May 3rd-May 8th. Use EMOTHER at check-out
• Save up to 75% on Overstock items We over-bought and you save. Brand new products at slashed prices.

Indigo (Macintosh home automation software) has been updated and is available on MacUpdate. Here's what's new:

• Added support for INSTEON SocketLinc module.
• Added support for all EZIOxx Input/Output modules: EZIO8T, EZIO8SA, EZIO2X4.
• Added new Trigger Action options for EZIOxx and EZRain modules.
• Added Control Page elements for Device sub-states (ex: show sprinkler zone 3 on/off state).
• Added support to get all object AppleScript properties at once (ex: "get properties of devices").
• Added Karl Smith's background Weather NOAA sync script to periodically retrieve weather conditions.
• Removed script filename extensions from the Scripts menu.
• Fixed UI display problem caused by blank Variable names.
• Fixed PowerLinc 1132CU upload error caused by uninitialized Trigger Actions.

Smarthome is having a $4.95 (50% off) deal on shipping . Good till 1 May 2007. Not a huge discount, maybe they will have some other discounts before the end of April.

Smarthome is having a monthly sweepstake and giving away $500 worth of Insteon hardware. The sweepstake is from 1 April to 1 July and drawings are once a month.

Your giving up your email for their newsletter.

Popular Mechanics tests Compact Florescent bulbs..

The results surprised us. Even though the incandescent bulb measured slightly brighter than the equivalent CFLs, our subjects didn’t see any dramatic difference in brightness. And here was the real shocker: When it came to the overall quality of the light, all the CFLs scored higher than our incandescent control bulb. In other words, the new fluorescent bulbs aren’t just better for both your wallet and the environment, they produce better light.

Nothing specific about dimable CF bulbs. I'm still saying they are bad for Home Automation because of the noise potential and they don't seem to always last as long as it's claimed, at least from my testing.

Update: Here's a direct link to the 20% off coupon code: Hurry - Beat the Clock & Save at Smarthome! Up to 20% off entire order   3-23 to 3-31-07

Beat the Clock Sale:

• 20% off Friday 3/23- Monday 3/26/07. Use Promotion Code: EWBTC20
• 15% off Tuesday3/27-Thursday 3/29/07. Use Promotion Code: EWBTC15
• 10% off Friday 3/30-Saturday 3/31/07. Use Promotion Code: EWBTC10

• $8 off $80 purchase. Use Promotion Code: EAELITE8 Expires 3/27/07
• 10% off $40 minimum purchase. Use Promotion Code: EAFINAL4 Expires 4/3/07
• Free ICON Dimmer (2876DB) with $100 purchase. Use Promotion Code: EA200601C Expires 3/31/07.

Click here to go to the Smarthome Insteon page.

Gordon Meyer has a post entiteld Twittering Your Home, showing how to use a applescript to add events to your Twitter account. I haven't found a reason to use Twitter, but this may be enough for me to check it out.

Here’s the script, which borrows some code from Tilman for using curl to send a Twitter status message:

set theMessage to description of me
set TwitterID to "yourID"
set TwitterPassword to "yourPassword"
set TwitterLogin to TwitterID & ":" & TwitterPassword
set TwitterStatus to quoted form of ("status=" & theMessage)
set results to do shell script "curl --user " & TwitterLogin & " --data-binary " & TwitterStatus & " http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json"

You’ll need to enter the login and password for your home’s Twitter account, as noted in the script. Shortly after running this script, the message is delivered via Twitter, as illustrated earlier. It’s a simple as that.

If you use Indigo, another Mac-based home automation application, the above script will work just a few modifications. Instead of passing the message text using the Description field, use an Indigo global variable.

Another sale from Smarthome. 10% off stuff they have marked as "Hot Deals" . Use coupon code ESPRING07 on check out, good till 2 March. Also free shipping till on $150 or more till 1 March. Not all of the Insteon stuff is included. I'm buying a few things in this sale.

• Keypad Dimmer INSTEON Starter Kit. A KeypadLinc, two SwitchLincs and two SignalLincs. Price for this stuff separate would be $239.99, they have it listed for $159.99 before discounts.
• Icon Appliance On/Off Module. Listed at $24.99, normally $34.99.

I wish they had some Icon On/Off Switches included, guess I will have to wait for anther sale. They have some other Insteon stuff like the Plug-In Dimmer INSTEON Starter Kit, Kitchen Lighting Starter Kit and the Icon Lamp Dimmer.

Indigo 2.0 has been officially released and is no longer beta! Version 2.0 can now be purchased at a special introductory price ($20 off retail). Although v2.0 has a higher retail price than v1.8, all existing 1.8 customers can receive a $90 discount towards their purchase of v2.0. 2.0 Download and Trial http://www.perceptiveautomation.com/indigo/download.html After you download Indigo 2.0 and register for the 30 day free trial, join us on our new 2.0 discussion forum. Important The location of Indigo settings and database files has changed. Read the ReadMe included in the download DMG for detailed information about migrating from Indigo 1.x to 2.0. Indigo Client/Server Design 2.0 has been redesigned as a client/server application to allow remote control and configuration from anywhere. The server can run headless (no UI) in the background on your Mac while consuming minimal CPU resources. The GUI client can be run on the same machine or on a remote machine while still providing the same level of control and configuration. Web Based Control Pages In addition to now having a built-in HTTP web server, Indigo now supports graphical Control Pages allowing quick and powerful creation of Web controllable home interfaces. These Control Pages update in real time as device and variable states change. Here is an example floor plan Control Page that is included with the 2.0 Sample House file: http://goprism.com:8000/controlpage?name=1st_floor (this is a live example -- try clicking on various devices and buttons) And here is an example of an iTunes controller that allows remote control of iTunes, as well as continuous updating to reflect changes to tracks, albums, artists, and volume: http://goprism.com:8000/controlpage?name=itunes_controller (this is a live example -- you are controlling what songs are being played on a Mac in a data center in Las Vegas) Both of these examples were quickly created in Indigo by using the graphical Control Page editor. Live WYSIWYG browser previewing of Control Page editing is also possible (try the Browser Preview button in the Control Page editor). And here are some example pages of text-only based web pages which can be viewed on lower end hardware (like mobile phones and some PDAs): http://goprism.com:8000/basicpage http://goprism.com:8000/basicpage?miniUI=1 Native Sprinkler Support Powerful new UI and actions for controlling irrigation via the EZRain, Rain8, and IrrMaster controllers. Universal Binary Indigo (client and server) run native on both PPC and Intel Macs. Indigo UI Makeover

• The entire UI (all windows, dialogs, panels) has been redone for 2.0. In addition to providing a better appearance (note the brushed metal appearance is a preference in case you are antagonistic towards brushed metal), several other improvements have been added:
• Live searching of Devices, Trigger Actions, Time/Date Actions, Action Groups, Control Pages, and Variables.
• Embedded AppleScript compiling, error reporting, and syntax coloring.
• Table column width adjustment via dragging.
• Live window resizing.
• Dialog window resizing.
• Main dialogs are no longer modal.
• Scroll wheel/ball support.
• Improved text rendering.
• Improved Upload Settings dialog.

Improved POP3 and SMTP Clients The POP3 and SMTP clients have been replaced. Authentication and SSL/TLS are now supported. You can even use a Google GMail account now for scanning Triggers and sending notification emails. New Time/Date Action Options

• Day-of-month.
• Start and end date limits.
• Sunset/sunrise limits.
• Repeating intervals (year, month, week).
• And more!

New INSTEON and X10 Trigger Types

• Trigger on "any" command.
• Trigger on command from "any device."
• Multiple Actions (without having to create Action Groups)
• Trigger Actions, Time/Date Actions, and Control Page element click actions can now have multiple actions without having to create a named Action Group.

AppleScript

• Added AppleScript device property type to correspond to the device type class: x10 or insteon. Previous type property has been renamed to model.
• Added AppleScript device properties: supports all lights on and off, supports all off, supports status request.
• Added AppleScript application properties: current time date action name, current trigger action name, current action group name.
• Added AppleScript verbs: status request.

Miscellaneous

• Added Trigger Action and Time/Date Action suppress logging option.
• Added Reset Interface Connections action. Use this to force Indigo to attempt a reconnect to the interfaces.
• Added log error message if system date/time becomes invalid.
• Changed log files to use UNIX friendly line endings.
• Increased Event Log window buffer size.
• Main Window progress area can now show if multiple interfaces (X10 and RF) are connected.
• Improved idle and busy CPU utilization.
• Improved infinite loop detection.
• Improved device sorting by type.
• Improved reliability of communication with CM11 interface when power is interrupted and restored to the CM11.
• Improved robustness when communication with interface fails (USB to serial adapter unplugged, PowerLinc USB unplugged, etc.).
• Improved robustness of preference changes (preference file is now periodically auto-saved).

And more!

Channel 7 in Southern California has a news report (from October 4th) with Ken Fairbanks of SmartLabs, who makes all the Insteon gear I write about. Along with the article is a video showing some of the stuff Home Automation can do. Its a short clip but shows some interesting things, like the control of blinds (which I haven't figure out how to do yet).

You don't need Insteon to do the stuff in the video.

I first got into Home Automation for one simple reason, because I always forgot to turn off the lights. Lighting makes up a large part of my system, and I want to optimize the efficiency of the lights as much as possible. I want to not only produce the right amount of light in the right color, but reduce their energy use at the same time.

At first, I used Compact Florescence all over the place. They are a obvious choice for reducing energy because they use a quarter of the wattage of incandescent bulbs for the same amount of light output. But as I have found out, they don't mix well with the PLC (power line communication) switches that I use. You have to find specific dimmer compatible switches (or don't buy dimmers). The CF bulbs produce noise, sometimes for no apparent reason, that interfere with the signals being sent by the switches. The dimable CF bulbs seems to make even more noise than non-dimmable bulbs!

So far my experience with dimmable CFs has been mixed. About 6 months ago I bought some LightWiz 75 watt equivalent dimmable CFs from ebay pretty cheap, around half as much as anywhere else (right now you can get them for about $7 a piece). I had put one in the garage upside down, one in the front porch vapor proof fixture upside down, one in the back porch simple fixture upside down and one in the halway on it's side. [Update] The lights I had outside were not the Lightwiz brand. 4 of the 6 I bought are still installed and working (Haven't installed the other two yet). Including the one mounted upside down in the garage.

One reason I wanted the outdoor fixtures to have CFs is because because I have all the outdoor lights on from sunset to sunrise. Birds tend to rest on the fixtures because they are warm in the winter. Initially they did not produce enough powerline noise to interfere with my Insteon switches. Last week I was unable to get any the status of any switch on one leg of my circuit. Turned out to be one CF bubls producing too much noise, because it was about to die. I would have expected the back porch light, which has the least amount of protection, to be the one to die. It was the one at the fount porch, which is in a vapor proof fixture.

The bulb in the front porch was replaced with a 60 watt halogen, because of the fixture, not much heat is making it out of the fixture. I also have a 100 watt equivalent GE CF dimmable bulb in vapor proof fixture above the garage and so far so good for that one. The CF bulb I have in the halway has since been replaced with a track lighting fixture that has 3 50 watt halogen spot lights.

Don Klipstein has a excellent website on everything you would want to know about bulbs and good advice on when to use bulbs. Based on my experiences and what I read there, I will probably not use CF bulbs as I did before.

[Update 01/08/07 2:21 PM] I forgot to mention some other bulbs. I bought three, pretty pricey, approx. 9 watt, dimmable florescence for a kitchen ceiling fan. These bulbs were incased in a glass bulb so they looked closer real bulbs instead of the spirall-y things. At the time they were hooked up to a X10 switch. 2 of the 3 burnt out within 2 months. I've since replaced these three bulbs with 60 incandescence bulbs. I've heard that X10 can actually kill CF bulbs so this might be more evidence to this fact.

[Update 02/23/07 8:24 PM] Two Westinghouse 20W "mini-twist dimmable" bulbs that I bought last year have died. A MaxLite 15W bulb that I bought several years ago died. This was 1 of 2 that I have, the other one still works fine.

You really can't beat this deal if you were planning on buying some Insteon gear. I just purchased the remaining switches I needed for my house, 3 Switchlincs and 1 Keypadlinc for about $150, which saved me about $40. They are not only offering a 12% discount, but free shipping over $150. Use coupon code EHSAVE12 between now and Dec 18th, use the link below to go to Smarthome's site and give me some affiliate love.

12 Days Of Holidays Deals at Smarthome.

Here's a picture of my equipment closet. Since I don't have a utility room and don't want to put this stuff, mostly Home Automation gear, in garage due to dirt and dust issues. There was enough room in the heater closet to fit all this stuff.

I've already been asked, is there a heat problem? Doesn't seem to be. The heater doesn't emit that much heat around itself, and since it doesn't constantly run there's not any build up from what little bit of heat that is generated. Also, the all the metal here is not interfering with the wireless stuff.

Keep in mind, all this stuff was strung around the house. Mostly in the living room. Since I access the Home Automation computer via VNC I don't really need direct access to it. It's nice not having wires all over the place anymore.

Once you get your Home Automation system up and working the way you want, you start to become dependant on many of it's features. In my living room, I don't have a wall switch to turn on the lights. I have a wireless palm pad, but I rarely use that because the motion detectors (also wireless) usually turn those lights on for me.

Last week I came home from work and none of the lights came on. After a few hours of troubleshooting I find I'm getting errors in Indigo, "undefined byte from w800rf interface." The" w800rf interface" is the W800RF32A, a wireless receiver that connects to the computer via serial port, or in my case a Keyspan USB to Serial Adapter and it receives wireless X10 signals.

Is the W800RF32A bad? Is it a issue with the serial adapter? Is it a driver issue? I used a terminal program and can see that I'm getting data from the W800RF32A, I just don't know if it's the correct data. I don't want to spend $70 on a new W800RF32A only to find out it's some other component. For now I've got a plugin device that will send wireless X10 commands to the powerline, but it only works on one house code and doesn't work with security devices.

That's not the only problem with my system. I moved a lot of my switches to Insteon several month ago, but I still have several X10 devices in the house. For some reason I was not able to change or get their status via the computer. This happens with X10 sometimes but the signal issues go away after a while (one of the reasons I'm getting away from X10). After a month it became clear that there was something else going on. Thanks to a hint from the Indigo message boards, I determined that the X10 part of the PowerLinc V2 interface's had died. Smarthome sent me a replacement this week and sure enough X10 is functional again.

The Home Automation system works good, when it works. Right now it's not working like I want and it's annoying.

I've made some changes to Karl Smith's NOAA Weather Script (revving to 1.1) for use in Indigo. Karl's script is nice because it uses free NOAA weather data that they make available via XML. Since I don't have my own weather station, this will get me close enough to getting the weather data needed for my Home Automation system to make decision.

My changes include:

• Changing the observation time to be a applescript friendly format.
• It's now an attachment and can be run using the function GetNOAAData().
• It auto generates the trigger to run the function every 15 minutes. Just create startup action with the GetNOAAData function and that's all that should be needed.

In my next revision I would like to make the data pull a little more intelligent by having it keep track of the average time between observation time so it's not overtasking the NOAA servers.

You can download this script here: NOAA Weather Script.scpt.zip

Other attempts at downloading weather data:

• Weather Data From Weather Underground
• Another way to get weather from the internet (Original NOAA download)
• Getting weather data from the internet (Using WeathermanX)
• AccuWeather Script (via Perceptive Automation's Forum's)

It's been a while since I wrote about my Home Automation system. Since moving in to this house I've been focused on other things than HA, but I have managed to get it working at a minimum level. The use of Insteon devices has also helped things along.

X10 is, of course, the 20+ year old power line networking protocol.For me, X10 is pretty much dead. I've almost completely switched out all my X10 devices for Insteon devices. Primarily due to the fact that X10 is slower and more prone to signal loss. This week I switched out the bathroom light switch and the front porch light switch because the computer wasn't able to reliably change their status, where as they were working just fine weeks before. For no apparent reason X10 devices seem to do this despite the fact that I have filter on nearly everything. The Insteon website says the following:

INSTEON is a robust, redundant dual-mesh network that combines wireless radio frequency (RF) with the home's existing electrical wiring. INSTEON is less susceptible than other single band networks to the kind of interference and noise commonly encountered within the home. INSTEON leverages the latest digital technology to create a true peer-to-peer mesh network. Because all INSTEON devices are peers, they do not require network supervision, so complex network controllers and routing tables are not required.

Insteon devices are also cheap, compared to their X10 counterparts. I recall a original X10 Switchlinc dimmer cost nearly $50 (seem to be cheaper now), where as a Insteon SwitchLinc V2 lists for $39.99. I've been able to find them for nearly $10 a piece. Smarthome also has ICON products, they are cheaper alternaitves to the SwitchLincs. An ICON Dimmer Switch has less features but costs $24.99. If you can live without the features its a good deal.

I know there are other protocol out there that try to do the same, I've not tried them because the software I use, Indigo, doesn't support them. I suspect one day it will support all the alternatives. For now I'm quite happy with Insteon.

(This is a paper I wrote for my Advanced Composition class. The assignment was a "Definition Paper", I received a "A".)

When you put together the words “home'' and “automation,'' it often doesn't mean anything to people. However, having a light switch can technically be a form of automation, since it allows one to turn on a light without having to get into the electrical connections or having to screw in a light bulb every time the light needs to come on. Therefore, home automation means reducing the number of tasks to perform some action in your home.

An automated home can be very simple. Some forms of simple automation include the light switch, garage door opener, dishwasher, and microwave oven. A dishwasher saves the user from having to wash dishes by hand. A wireless remote control in use with a motorized garage door opener saves the user from having to get out of the car to manually open the garage. A microwave is as common as a conventional oven, and in some cases replaces it. Even the Clapper, a device that lets you turn something on by clapping your hands, is a form of home automation. Today we consider these necessities of living and may even take them for granted. Who washes their clothes or even their dishes by hand today? A 100 years ago dishwashers were people you hired, there was no need for a garage door openers since people didn't have cars (or garages).

When people speak of home automation they are most likely talking about capabilities beyond what is standard in a home today. To the enthusiast, home automation means reducing tasks to performing some action in the home far more that what is common. It often goes beyond reducing beyond reducing tasks to anticipating what tasks will need to be performed in the future.

To do this, one needs more than just a light switch: one needs a computer with the proper software and the ability to inter face the computer with the light switch. Not just one light switch but all the light switches, the stereo, the ceiling fans, the appliances, etc. The computer will need to know if it's dark out, if it's raining, what the internal temperature of the house is, etc. The more data the house can collect, the better.

Let&risqué;s say it is very early in the morning or late at night and dark. You need to get up to go to the bathroom or get ready for work. In doing so you have to fumble around in the dark to find the light switch. When you turn on the light it wakes your spouse. Having the light come on instantly at full brightness isn't the most pleasant experience after being asleep for several hours. An advanced automated home solves this problem. First, motion detectors or proximity detectors detect that someone is getting up to go somewhere in the house. Since the computer knows it's dark out and all the lights are off, it can turn on some very low boor lighting. As the detectors follow you through the house they can turn on lighting as you walk and turn off lighting behind you. A very smart system could predict where you're going and turn on lighting ahead of you. When you arrive in the bathroom there's no need to look for the light switch; the computer will turn it on for you based on motion detector data. But it will not turn the lights all the way on, it will calculate the time between sunset and sunrise and determine what percentage to turn the light on (30% for example). Once you have left the bathroom and gone back to bed the computer would know this and turn off the lighting behind you.

Another use of advanced home automation is controlling other systems in the house and eliminating the human element all together (so the human element can go do more interesting things). By gathering weather information,temperature, rainfall data, and forecasts, the computer could manage the watering of the grass and plants. lf it knows what the watering requirements of the plants are and how much water they have received historically, it can calculate how much water they will need in the future. lf it knows the weather forecast-' can give the plants water or back because rain is expected. A very advanced system could have cameras that look at the color of the grass and determine that it needs fertilizer. It also has the advantage of “saving the environment” by giving the landscape only the amount of water it needs and not over watering.

Much of the systems described are very advanced and not in widespread use today. The hobbyists and home automation industry developing these systems are much like the same people who experimented with electric light over one hundred years ago. What we consider standard today would be considered magic to some back A century from now home automation will probably still not be a common term, yet many of the systems that are considered advanced today will be common place or even considered a necessity.

Another home automation related book has come out from O'Reilly, called Home Hacking Projects for Geeks. This isn't as X10/HA related as the book I contributed to but it is still very much related. They take more of a DIY approach to completing these projects and use less off the shelf equipment.

There are thirteen projects and include projects such as: Remotely Monitor Your Pet, Make Your House Talk, Remotely Control Your Computer's MP3 player, Create Time-Shifted FM Radio, Watch Your House Across the Network, Build a Home Security System.

Gorden Meyers, the author of Smart Home Hacks will be presenting at the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference. Looks like my iCal script will be up on the big screen!

Hello --

Just a quick note to let you know that "sample hacks" from the book have been posted at: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/smarthomehks/. Many of them are contributions from ya'll. :-)

Also, tomorrow morning I'll be presenting a session at the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference, covering five of the hacks from the book. You can get a sneak preview at: <http://www.g2meyer.com/osxcon/>


Best Regards,

--Gordon

I'm very happy to announce a new O'Reilly book is coming out. "Smart Home Hacks" is a book on using Mac, Windows or Linux to automate your house. What's exciting for me is that I got to contribute several of my Indigo scripts to the book!

You an pre order it now from Amazon (an in the process I get a kick back).

Read Gorden Meyers (the author) official announcement on his blog or go visit the the O'Reilly Home Automation blog.

I have been trying to find a way to get more accurate weather data from the internet. The main problem with WeatherMaxX is it pulls it's data from the NOAA website. The NOAA only reports data every hour. So data can be out of data especially if you need current storm information. The other problem is I need to know how much rain has fallen for use with my irrigation script. Just knowing that it did rain isn't enough, I need to know how much wand how long ago. The obvious answer is to get my own weather station. But they are expensive and can be problematic to wire up (at least for me).

WeatherUnderground offers data from "personal weather stations"! That's almost like having my own weather station if there's someone close to me. And they offer CSV (comma separated values) data from these weather stations. So let's put Applescript to work here. The script isn't complete, expect some updates as I continue to flush things out.

To get this running, put in the attachements folder of Indigo and reload attachments. Then create a startup trigger called that runs a script called getWUPWSdata(). This should start up the script and it should auto generate triggers.

[Updated 11/2/06] This script doesn't work properly due to changes in the format of the PWS data (I think).

[Updated 8/30/04] I found that the script would occasionally error trying to get data from Weather Underground (not sure why yet) and would not adjust the time/date for the next update. I've fixed that so it will try again in 15 minutes.

[Updated 11/28/04] Made various changes to it here and there to make it more reliable. There's an issue with the WU data not being complete and it will cause the script to fail. Need to fix it so it can fail gracefully and try again in 15 minutes or so. You will need to check on it from time to time to make sure it's still scheduled.

You can download this script (and other scripts) here.

[Updated 11/2/06] This script used CURL to download data.

I was looking for a way to get weather from the internet without using 3rd party programs like Weatherman for use with Indigo. There's nothing wrong with them but they don't always provide the information I need. I started playing around with the experimental feeds that the NOAA website provides and was able to parse that data with Applescript. The script requires XML Tools, a free scripting addition that provides the XML parsing. From there you need to get the correct NOAA XML URL for your state (note, use XML NOT RSS.).

The XML feed does not contain as much information as Weatherman provides. But if you don't want to pay for Weatherman at the moment this is a good alternative. Also note that this is an experimental service by the NOAA, it could go away.

Recently Slashdot had a article about the availability of free data by the NOAA. Software providers don't want you to have free data since that hurts their revenue stream. If you think free data from the NOAA is important then please send them feedback.

I've been using iCal to log various things related to my Home Automation stuff. I've since written a few more use full scripts to do something useful with them. I'm using a much updates iCal script then the one I originally posted, so I don't know how well it works with that. You may need to make some modification depending on your set up.

Getting info on devices:

• AllDeviceStats: This is just a general purpose script that gets the count of events and the average duration and puts them in a variable. It can take several seconds to run so I have this set to run every night when there is no activity in the house.
• GetDeviceStats(DeviceName): This gets the average duration of events for a particular device logged in iCal. You would use it like this: set x to GetDeviceStatus("My Device"). I use this in conjunction with a auto on/auto off script to determine how long to leave a device on.
• GetNonDeviceStats(CalName, EventName): This works the same as GetDeviceStats but works for non device items. For example I have my garage door opening and closing logged in iCal but it's set up via a security device (DS10A) which doesn't have a device type.

Calculating average event time is not really good enough for accurate determination of how long to leave something on. Future versions will be more targeted to time of day, day of week along with other statistical calculations.

Maintenance Scripts:

These scripts can take up a lot of CPU and many seconds to run. So I suggest running them when you think there will be very little activity in the house.

• AdjustDeviceTypes: This goes through each and every event and makes sure they belong to the right "device type" calendar. This is handy to have if you change the type of device your using. For example I recently changed a lamp on a regular Lamp Module to a LM14 2-way Lamp Module. This ensures I get accurate readings from my "get" scripts.
• AdjustCalEvents: This goes through each device logged in iCal and checks the events before and after. If they are within 2 minutes (adjustable) then I consider them the same event and adjust one and delete the other. This way the actual calculated on time is more reflective of how long the light needs to be on.

You can download this script here.

This script will schedule watering based on:

1. This number of days the user specifies. (future versions will calculate this automatically) Will auto calculate watering times based on ave temps for last number of days.
2. Will run in either a "new grass" mode or a "established" mode.
3. Supports watering for drip and spray irrigation and grass and vegetables.
4. Adjusts watering based on weather data. You< >need to use my WeathermanX script for weather information. Since I cannot get rain fall data the script only guesses. As future versions of Weatherman add this feature I will update this script. This script has some basic support to determine what the forecast for precipitation is and will make adjustments based (still needs some work, haven't had any rain here in over a month so hard for me to test).
5. Since you likely only want to run 1 zone at a time it will check for scheduled triggers and adjust the time date of the watering time so there are no conflicts.

Set up your devices. My devices are set up like this:

• Name: Irrigation Zone 1 Disc: Rain8 grass sprinkler irrigation
• Name: Irrigation Zone 2 Disc: Rain8 grass sprinkler irrigation
• Name: Irrigation Zone 3 Disc: Rain8 vegetable drip irrigation
• Name: Irrigation Zone 4 Disc: Rain8 tree drip irrigation
• Name: Irrigation Zone 5 Disc: Rain8 shrub drip irrigation

You can call the name of the zones whatever you want. In the description you need to say what your watering (grass, vegetable, etc) and watering means (sprinkler, drip, etc).

DaysBetweenWatering: User set days between watering. I use 3 days in New Mexico, depending on where you live you can adjust this. I found I had to ramp up to 3 days when I first started my watering.

zonekind: You use your descriptions here. My zonekinds are "grass sprinkler irrigation", "vegetable drip irrigation". Right now this script only supports specialized watering modes for vegetables and grass and sprinkler and drip irrigation methods. If you want another type added let me know, I'm still researching watering methods for other types of plants.

WateringMode: Specify "new" or something else. "new" is intended for new laws and will water the grass every day for X minutes 3 times a day. You still need to specify the number of days in the "new" mode for weather related calculations.

The script is set to run grass starting at sundown. That works fine in New Mexico where it's pretty dry but in wetter parts of the world nighttime watering can lead to disease. Future versions will look at min temps and adjust the watering time. In the meantime you may need to make changes to the script.

[Updated: 7/7/04] Updated the script with a more stable version.

A final version of Indigo 1.5 has been released included with it are several bug fixes. I now look forward to the 2.0 release which should have some significant features added. Hopefully it will include some changes to the UI that I have requested.

From the MacUpdate description:

What's New:
Version 1.5:

• Added support to upload Trigger and Time/Date Actions to PowerLinc Controller (1132CU). Now you can have basic home control without leaving your Mac running 24/7.
• Added shortcut key navigation (cursor keys) of all list views.
• Added AppleScript classes time date action and trigger action.
• Added RF handling to prevent DM10A RoboDog commands from being reported as undefined signals.
• Improved communication performance between Indigo and PowerLinc USB.
• Improved reliability of establishing connections with the CM-11 interface.
• Fixed AppleScript terminology conflict between device property type and action step property action type. AppleScripts that use the device property type may need to be recompiled.
• Fixed bug that sometimes caused received status response commands to be repeated several times, resulting in multiple Trigger Actions for a single response.
• Fixed bug that caused Time/Date Actions to not trigger at the correct time after daylight savings time spring-forward.
• Fixed bug that caused the device brightness state to be incorrect when Trigger Actions try to modify the brightness of the same device that caused the trigger.
• Fixed bug that allowed scripts to create variable names that contain spaces.

The motion detectors in my house have some specific jobs. Primarily they determine if people are in the house and if it's active. Secondarily they turn lights on.

This script uses function called mslogging() that goes in a trigger for a motion detectors on event. If it's daytime and someone leaves through a main entrance (as defined in the motion detectors description) it will create a trigger that will put the house into "away mode" in X minutes (30 in my case). Once it's in away mode it can notify me if there's activity in the house, etc. When it's nighttime it will put the house into sleep mode when activity in the house has stopped. It then can go through and turn off all the lights, turn down the thermostat and perform any maintenance routines it needs to the HA computer.

This script expect certian variables and other things to be defined. Be sure to read through it and understand it's requirements.

The script also counts an average number of seconds between detected motions. I use this number in another script to determine how long to leave the lights on in the room the motion detector is in.

You can download this script (and other scripts) here.

To get weather data into my home automation set up I use a Applescriptable program called WeathermanX. It gets all avaialbe data including forecasts and puts them into Indigo variables. WeathermanX has the option to run a script based on certain situations, however there's I could just as easily set up a time date trigger to fire this off ever so often.

The only missing last observation time which I hope the developer will add to weatherman in the future. There is another script I use which runs at midnight that tracks the min and max temps for the last x days. I'll post that later.

[Update:] I was wrong, observation time is in the WeathermanX applescript dictionary. I've added that and set it so it creates variables for every possible data point that Weatherman allows. It also puts min/max temps in a list rather than individual days.

A beta of Indigo 1.5 is on MacUpdate. It ads a few significant upgrades.

1. The ability to download macros into the PowerLincCU. The Powerlinc is the wall wart that allows the computer to send signals over the powerlinc and connects via a USB cable. The "CU" model has a memory and can run limited macros so you can download the macros and turn off the computer.
2. You can now create date time triggers from applescript

From the MacUpdate Description:
What's New:
Version 1.5b3 adds the following:

• Added support to upload Trigger and Time/Date Actions to PowerLinc Controller (1132CU). Now you can have basic home control without leaving your Mac running 24/7.
• Added shortcut key navigation (cursor keys) of all list views.
• Added AppleScript classes time date action and trigger action.
• Added RF handling to prevent DM10A RoboDog commands from being reported as undefined signals.
• Improved communication performance between Indigo and PowerLinc USB.
• Fixed AppleScript terminology conflict between device property type and action step property action type. AppleScripts that use the device property type may need to be recompiled.
• Fixed bug that caused Time/Date Actions to not trigger at the correct time after daylight savings time spring-forward.
• Fixed bug that caused the device brightness state to be incorrect when Trigger Actions try to modify the brightness of the same device that caused the trigger.

A cool little application popped up on MacUpdated today. From it's description: OSD is for "On Screen Display", basically, it's what appears temporarily in your TV when you switch channel or change the volume. It's a way if displaying "passive" information that doesn't necessarily require all of your attention, doesn't need a specific log, but which is nice to know anyway if you happen to look in that direction.

You know those little alerts your receive when you change your volume or brightness, LanOSD basicly does the same thing with any message or any icon. So what does this have to do with Home Automation? Well LanOSD is fully applescriptable which means I can program it to display what ever message I want. But here's what so cool about it: it can find other computers on your network and can broadcast those message to other computers.

I've integrated it with my iCal script (along with some other updates).There's a demo applescript with the program that demonstrates what it does if my description isn't good enough.

[Update:] The original code had some issues. Here's a simpler version without the iCal stuff

--Open the AppleScript "LanOSD.scpt" in a new Script Editor window.

using terms from application "Indigo"
    on LanOSD(DeviceName)
        tell application "Indigo"
            set MessageKind to type of device DeviceName
            set PostText to ""
            if supports dimming of device DeviceName is true then set PostText to brightness of device " (" & DeviceName & ")"
            set theText to DeviceName & " is " & (on state of device DeviceName) & PostText
        end tell
        tell application "LanOSD"
            message kind MessageKind text theText icon "tv" quadrant 4 fade delay 4
            delay 4
        end tell
    end LanOSD
end using terms from

XTension 5.0.1 was released in late march. XTension is the grand daddy of Mac home automation programs. I've used it in the past and although I now use Indigo I still recommend it. Although pricey at $150 it can do just about anything and has extensive Applescript support.

From the MacUpdate description:

What's New:
Version 5.0.1:

• Added PowerFail/Restore logic to all controller types. All of the LynX controllers now behave well. The LynX-10 legacy models are best since they can be separately powered from a UPS while their TW-523 helpers can be connected to the 'mains'. BR>Basically, the events are announced in the Log, and if the user has created a Global Script named "Power Fail", it will be called at both the power down and again at the power up events. At Power Fail, the variable 'future value' is set to ZERO. At Power Restore, the variable is set to ONE.
• Added support for the LynX-Port analog inputs, as well as the ability to set the base house code. For the few who have these, you should now be able to sample the analog ports as well as command the relay ports.
• Added support for the TB134 6-in-one PowerFlash from ACT. X4X will now automatically respond to a 'status request' with a 'status response' and the current status of the addressed unit.
• Added verb : "Initialize Interface" which works differently for the different X10 interfaces. For the CM11 it does a 'clear EEPROM memory' ; for the LynX-PLC it tries to do a "LINE BREAK" which should force the the device into 'default mode'; and for the legacy LynX-10 models, sets the mode register.
• Added handling of the Controller Error type packets. Previously, these controller detected errors were causing strange entries in the Log.
• Added back the old "Controller Ping" logic which periodically checks on the health of the X10 controller. If it does not respond, the fact is logged, and the 'ping period' is shortened to watch more closely for its recovery. Also greatly improved the reliability of the detection of the CM11. In the Classic app, this was often a red herring.
• Fixed (improved) the behavior of the service functions when the USB port is disrupted. ( cable pulled etc ) Previously the log would show excessive numbers of error lines. Now, all service functions with the exception of the MR26 do recover very quickly. The MR26 will 'run on' for a bit before finally getting ahold of itself.
• Increased the ACK timeout for all controllers. Just hadn't done enough testing to see that some functions can take over 10 seconds. Euro customers should find this helpful.
• The old 'set params' verb has been completed. It now behaves just like it did in the Classic app.
• Added a "Stop Speaking" verb. This will help some of you who have trouble making XTension stop speaking so many messages. With the new high-power Macs, it is easy to spin off dozens of 'speak' commands, so this new verb will let you 'flush the queue'. You can test it easily by creating a loop 'speak'ing "something horribly wrong", and then just Do a 'stop speaking' verb in the command line.

It's 3AM. My Girlfriend has to get up for work but I don't get up for several more hours. The motion detectors for the bathroom should turn on the light for her automatically but there's nothing worse then have a light turn on full blast, for her and me. The script attempts to address this issue by calculating the time between sunset and sunrise and adjusting dim level of the light based on what the current time is. So if it's 12:00AM the dim is set to about 50%, the closer to sunrise the less the light dims. This is an attachment script for use with Indigo.

[Updated:] Some slight changes to the script so you can use it with non dimming devices. It will just turn them on.

You can download it here.

I couldn't take it any longer. My PowerBook G3 "Lombard" has crashed for the last time. I went to turn on the lights last night with the Palm Pad only to not have them turn on. The Powerbook had crashed again. There's no rhyme or reason to it, it will works for days, even weeks before it will crash. Since I have the screen set to black out I can never see what has caused it to crash. This time after rebooting the machine it crashed almost immediately, the cursor stopped responding it just wouldn't do anything.

The iBook is now the HA server. It is also my file and print server so I'm a little concerned about it. It has however run months without a reboot. At least I will know for sure if it was the computer or some piece of software or hardware I had to support the HA machine.