[sf-lug] controlling external electronics? for a little science project

[Nathan Hoover]

Hi Matt,

I think X10 devices would be easy to set up and suit your needs pretty well.
Most of the distros have X10 support in their package repositories.

You can get a starter kit from
X10.com<http://www.dpbolvw.net/email-2636457-10373742?url=http%3A%2F%2Faffiliates.x10.com%2F%3FbGxwZGNqY2F0YWxvZy5kYXQ%3DRND%3E%25za-%25zp-%25zs%26HREF%3Dhref%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.x10.com%2Fautomation%2Ffirecracker.htm&cjsku=CK18A>for
$40. (disclosure: this is an affiliate link and I will get paid if you
buy from it).

Regards,
Nathan

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 8:07 PM, Matt Price <matt.price at utoronto.ca> wrote:

> hi folks,
>
> my 9-year-old has an idea for an invention..
>
> maybe she's not the first one to have invented it exactly, but i'd like
> to encourage her.  she wants a reverse alarm clock, that does the
> following:
> -turn out her light at bed time
> - play from a selection of boring speeches after lights out, to lull her
> to sleep
> - wake her in the morning with a less boring speech.
>
> now, it strikes me that most of this could be done pretty easily with a
> simple python script on her xo-1.  but to turn the light out she needs
> to open a circuit external to the computer.  now i imagine even this is
> pretty easy to do; that there exist generic usb connected electronics
> kits, that let you perform arbitrary simple actions (like flipping a
> switch) with signals from the computer.  but if this is so i have no
> idea how to do it.  anyone know anything about this sort of thing?
>
> as usual i appreciate al the help...
>
> matt
>
>
>
> --
> Matt Price
> matt.price at utoronto.ca
>
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