New Wireless Handheld Touchpad!

Okay, not really... While my in-laws were here over the weekend, my father-in-law bought a Nokia 770 Internet Appliance (http://www.nokiausa.com/770/). From what I can tell, it doesn't do much but access the internet in wi-fi hotspots and do instant messenger. I thought it would be a pretty useful handheld touchscreen device to use as a remote in our house. Since the house has a wi-fi network setup, it could just connect to MisterHouse in the palm of our hand.

But then I got to thinking... it's not really necessary to buy one of those. My wife used to have a Sony Clie PEG NX70V, a PDA with Palm OS on it. And with it, she had a wireless network adapter, enabling this PDA to surf the internet at wi-fi hotspots... eureka! With the hardware that we already had, we have a remote touchscreen interface to MisterHouse (you know, once I found the appropriate software... damn Sony).

I set it up and it seems to work okay, but it could really use a specialized interface. Fortunately, MisterHouse provides the capability of customizing interfaces depending on what type of device is connecting, so I'll have to find out how to do that.

In other news, I'm still in conversations on the MisterHouse mailing list about how to get Jabber working (although, it's been a couple of days since the last reply). With the finding of the Clie, I'm not sure that it's as high a priority immediately as I had originally thought, but it would still be nice to have for notification purposes while I am away from the house and on the computer (i.e., at work). I'd also like it to be able to send SMS to my cell phone, and I'd like to get telephony working so I can talk to it over the phone line... but for now, those are things for my to-do list, and can't be considered realistic for the immediate future.

What the immediate future does hold is installation of a few more switches, this time in the entry-way, the kitchen, and the breakfast room... I'll give another update when that finally happens.

Well, wouldn't you know it, the day after I found mrhousefromscrach.tk, I went back to it and it was gone... fortunately, through appropriate channels, I was able to contact the author and he pointed me at the new location http://wiki.cyberjunky.nl/doku.php

After several tries, I got my computer updated with CentOS and misterhouse installed properly. Over the past couple of days, I have been in touch with the guy that wrote the UPB module for misterhouse. I must say I very much appreciate his help... from the initial support of the UPBPIM just a couple weeks ago, and UPB devices last week, he added UPB links just this weekend. Plus, he's been sending me new versions of the libraries as he updates them, so I can help him stress test.

One complaint that I currently have right now is that the states of devices and links can very easily get out of sync. If you activate a link, it doesn't update the local (MH) status of the device. There are many little things like that that need to be fixed, but for 3 weeks of development, it's actually quite good!

My plan is, once I get MH in a state where I like the way it works and I can leave it on for more than a day at a time without messing with the code myself, then I can invest in the X10 RF stuff and destabilize MH again :-)

Thinking of Misterhouse...

Well, it's been a little over a month since my last post. In the interim, I have taken a 2 week trip to Italy and not much else (except recover from my 2 week trip to Italy).

Although I haven't made any changes on the home automation front, I certainly haven't stopped thinking about it. I've decided that my previous solution of using wired motion detectors and a UPB I/O module isn't really the way I want to go... it's a little ponderous (with the wires) and expensive.

My next thought was to have a wireless receiver which receives wireless signals from the motion detectors, and the receiver would send the contact closures to the UPB I/O module. This again gets expensive as you have to buy special wireless PIR motion sensors for a specific model of wireless receiver. For the Visonic brand, this uses prices like:
200 series 4-channel receiver: $72.99 from Smarthome
200 series 2-channel receiver: $54.99 from Smarthome
200 series wireless PIR: $109.99 from Smarthome
UPB UMI: $94.95 from Automated Outlet

This is certainly more than I wanted to spend. A fuller explanation of how I came to this idea is detailed in this thread: http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?act=ST&f=7&t=5483

In the same thread, Martin from Automated Outlet mentioned that WGL (http://www.wgldesigns.com/) is designing a whole house transceiver that would take signals from wireless X10 RF transmitters and send out resulting UPB signals. He indicated the product was currently in beta testing. Since there is a meeting of the North Texas Home Automation Users Group this weekend at Automated Outlet, I will certainly be sure to ask about this module and his experiences with it. However, I'm also pretty sure I don't want to wait around for it.

So, my conclusion is I have to do something that I wanted to save until later, and that is add a PC to my home automation setup. I have an old computer that was given to me by my friend Kelly (who has since moved to New York City). I plan to set this computer up with Linux and the free home automation software Misterhouse (http://misterhouse.wikispaces.com/) based on the instructions on (http://mrhousefromscratch.tk/), straight down to the version of Linux he used. Misterhouse is written in Perl, a language with which I am familiar, but the learning curve on this particular product appears steep, so I'll go with the tutorial and learn a bunch on the way.

This software also has an external web access which would be immediately available over my wireless network for local clients (like our two laptops), but which can also be setup for external access (password protected of course) so I can check on the status from my cell phone or an external computer (assuming I have my dynamic IP setup through a dynamic DNS website).

But how does this relate to Project #2, you may ask? Well, Misterhouse recently updated to have UPB interface (and I have an extra computer interface from a recent Simply Automated KPE-06 purchase from a fellow cocooner), it also handles WGL's (http://www.wgldesigns.com/) W800RF32 module, which is described on their website as:
"The W800 receives all X10 RF commands from key chain remotes, palm pad remotes, motion sensors, and even X10 security modules. Unlike the transceivers, this receiver sends X10 RF signals directly to a computer..."

This means that Misterhouse will be able to take the X10 RF signals and perform UPB actions based on what it receives. This makes the addition of not only motion detectors easy (particularly the cheaper X10 ones, around $10-12 instead of $100+), but also door and window sensors and wireless remotes (great for the living room or keychains). And the only part of the setup I have to purchase (besides the motion sensors and such) is the W800RF32, which makes it a cheaper solution than the one cited above, and as a bonus, I can set up Misterhouse for free now with the web access, and add the W800RF32 and wireless parts when I'm ready.

As always, I'll update the blog with my progress.... I'll also make an attempt to take notes at the NTHAUG meeting this weekend and post them here as well as on cocoontech.