Tag Archives: HomeZone

Home Cinema part 4 – custom controls.

Posted by Humpa on 24/10/2012 1 comment

I have not had a chance to build my screen yet, so for the moment I am just using the wall… I have to say I am really happy with my custom mount … I did some cable management and now I am just waiting for my HDMI extender to arrive from www.goodluckbuy.com which will hook up my Projector to my Onkyo AMP, dreambox, PS3, xbox 360 and Wii etc..

So while waiting for the HDMI extender to arrive I started working on a solution to switch everything on and off from my phone… so I got to work on extending my Arduino DomoticHome Transmitter to include Infra Red support.

I pulled apart an old IR helicopter and salvaged the IR LEDS and the IR receiver, I then hooked this up to my Arduino and used the IRremote library to capture and retransmit the signals from my remotes with DomoticHome using my Samsung Galaxy S2. The 315HMZ transmiter is from the previous project but here is the link if you are interested.

Here is the updated code, Schematics and a video of it in action

Please remember if you find anything on my site useful… please click on one of the ads to help with the hosting

HumpA

RaspberryPi, MQTT, Mosquitto & Arduino

Posted by Humpa on 10/06/2012 4 comments

Here is some examples / sample code for the RaspberryPI / MQTT / Mosquitto / Ardunio.

SSH to your RaspberryPi, with mosquitto installed, if not already running execute the command “sudo mosquitto” to start the broker.

Now your mosquitto server is running, run the command “mosquitto_sub -d -t HomeZoneCH“, what does this do? it subscribes the RaspberriPi to the topic HomeZoneCH

Open a second ssh session to your Pi and run the command “mosquitto_pub -d -t HomeZoneCH -m “CellarLightOff”” you should see the message below.

On the first SSH session you have open you should see the message below appear!

Now with the code runnning on my Arduino after a reset I receive the following message on the first SSH session.

Now I know this is super simple and your asking yourself what value does this have? it’s just a simple demo of the messaging system… I will be sharing all my final code with Webserver, mosquitto interface etc… as soon as I feel it’s ready. I am moving house soon and will not have much time to focus but I hope to have a good update next month regarding my progress

Have a look at some useful links here, here and here

HumpA

HomeZone Update: Now controls my DomoticHome 315mhz Transmitter!

Posted by Humpa on 17/05/2012 2 comments

So I wanted to remove the 315mhz transmitter from the HomeZone screen without losing the ability to switch my lights on and off with DomoticHome / 315mhz wireless…

So I got to work on a DomoticHome listener… an Arduino Ethernet with 315MHZ transmitter + a DS18B20 Digital Thermometer…

So I updated the code on the HomeZone, removed the DomoticHome support directly from the HomeZone screen… I then built in support to trigger a the DomoticHome Listener when I tocuh a button on the HomeZone screen…

PS: I now power most of my arduino’s with the Freetronics POE injector which means less cables!!!

Yes it all works … here is the code for the HomeZone Screen.. and the code for the DomoticHome Listener

HumpA

HomeZone Hardware / code Update – Domotic Home

Posted by Humpa on 09/05/2012 No comments

I was recently asked some questions regarding the pins used by the touch/LCD.. if there were any conflicts…. in short No.. The EtherMega 2560 from Freetronics and the Tocuh Screen / LCD from boxtec.ch worked without any pin modification…

The only issue that I had was the Ethernet port hitting the LCD shield and not sitting correctly… so I did some filing / sanding and it all worked out! Check out the pictures below.

I also added a small heat sink which I ripped off a voltage regulator to put on the ATmega as it was getting a little warm… unfortunately this LCD doesn’t have sleep mode so it’s always on … but for the price one can’t complain.

A close up of the board from the back.

Shot of the shield and the Ethermega together.

The wires are from the additional 315MHZ transmitter i added from boxtec.ch

Updated code which supports DomoticHome

HumpA

Updated Arduino Home Automation Remote (now with webserver!)

Posted by Humpa on 06/04/2012 3 comments

Hello!

So I have been working on some updates to my home automation remote, I now have a webserver running on the arduino!….What does this mean you say?

This means I can now control the home automation remote directly from the Tocuh screen or from my phone / computer!

Have a look the the original video in action… or check out the pic’s below or the updated video of the Webserver in action here!

The updated source with Webserver can be found here, remember the code could be cleaner but until i have more time it will have to do!

HumpA

Above you see the transmitter from the 315Mhz Link Kit, EtherMega 2560 & 3.2″ TFT TouchScreen

Above you see the simple webserver used to control the lights and motion detection on my Foscam cameras.

Arduino Home Automation Remote!

Posted by Humpa on 25/03/2012 4 comments

My Home Automation Remote!

Below you will find my latest invention! (Photos below) It’s a touch screen remote for my house!

So the parts I have used are the Ethermega 2560 from Freetronics, 315Mhz RF link kit,3.2″ TFT LCD Touch Shield & the Codec-Adaptive Wireless Relay 315MHz which I picked up from Boxtec.ch

So what does it do and how does it work?

What:

It controls the motion detection settings on my 4 Foscam IP cameras … so when I leave the house I can quickly enable motion detection on all my cameras without having to connect to each individual camera over my iPhone or computer!… what else does it do? it Switches on my lights using 315MHz and the VirtualWire Library!

How:

I use ethernet on the Ethermega with the Webclient to send HTTP GET commands to the Foscam IP cameras depending on the buttons pressed in the menu! As for the lights… I have used the learning feature of the Codec-Adaptive Wireless Relay with the VirtualWire Library.

I have already started to work on the Infrared part to control my cinema system in the living room… which I will update and share the code once I have it working! In the meantime feel free to check out the code below & a video of it in action!

Check out the vid here and source code here… schematics coming soon!

Cheers
HumpA