[sf-lug] controlling external electronics? for a little science project Digest, Vol 30, Issue 14

[Paul Ward]

You should check out linuxmce.org. It includes a lot of home  
automation stuff in addition to a media center, VOIP, etc. They don't  
sell hardware, but support a variety of home automation devices and  
have a huge wiki.


On May 14, 2008, at 8:01 AM, Sam Geffner wrote:

> From: Matt Price <matt.price at utoronto.ca>
> Subject: [sf-lug] controlling external electronics? for a little
>        science project
> To: sf-lug <sf-lug at linuxmafia.com>
> Message-ID: <1210734462.7367.22.camel at localhost>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> 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
>
>
>
> Matt,
>
> Smarthome.com has just what you need in an Insteon controller for  
> the lights and an Insteon PC-USB interface box.  Possibly not the  
> cheapest, but definitely off the shelf.  I haven't researched  
> whether the USB interface includes Linux drivers, but their tech  
> support [800-762-7846] is relatively knowledgable & exceptionally  
> helpful and could be a source to answer your further questions.
>
> -- 
> Sam Geffner
> sgeffner at gmail.com
> 415-648-7744
> 415-793-3562 cel
>
>
> "That which makes our task difficult is part of the task."  
> _______________________________________________
> sf-lug mailing list
> sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
> http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/sf-lug

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/attachments/20080514/4017ef9e/attachment.html>