Voice Recognition on the Raspberry Pi - Reality Check
My recent experience with voice control on the Pi got me to thinking. Why wasn't this a rising star and constantly being talked about? The idea of talking to your house is so compelling that there...
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Smoking Meat and Power Usage
I have an electric smoker. Why electric? Well, I got tired of running out of fuel during long smokes and decided to just break with tradition and increase the technology. But, I've wondered for a...
View ArticleApple's Big Home Automation Announcement
A couple of days ago I ran across an article that said Apple was going to announce a movement into home automation. Every time Apple coughs, the news services go orgasmic and start showing everything...
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Just for Fun
I just answered an email from a nice person out there that was curious about my avatar that shows up in various places I post and my little home web site. It's a squirrel:Let me introduce you to...
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My Freezer and the Iris Smart Switch, Measuring Power
I went to Lowe's Home Improvement the other day to get supplies for jobs around the house that need to be done, you know caulk needing replacement, some spray foam, wire brush, the things we all have...
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I Got My Smart Meter - North of Phoenix, AZ
Yep, today I got my smart meter. I called the power company yesterday and asked them the questions I had and guess what ... they didn't have the answers. Are you surprised (not!)? No, I'm not a...
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Taking apart the Iris Smart Switch
I decided to take the plunge and finish off the 120V appliances I want to monitor right now. There will probably be others in the future, but for now the two freezers and refrigerator will be the...
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Cell Phone Charging and Power Usage.
One of the comments on this blog made me start wondering about the little parasitic devices we have all over the house. I've always assumed that they drew so little power they wouldn't matter when...
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I'll try to explain XBee API Mode and How to Set it Up
I've gotten hundreds of questions on XBee API mode. API mode is necessary for setting up an XBee network of more than three devices because AT mode (also called transparent) will cause fragmentation...
View ArticlePerils of Using Cloud Services
So far, I've been a fan of cloud services. I say, "so far," because it's a great idea on the surface. For free, or a small fee, web businesses provide storage, blogging, graphs, and many specialized...
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Playing with the HLK-RM04 Serial to Ethernet Convertor
I went on ebay and got me one of these:This is a HLK-RM04 serial to ethernet device. When I got it, I thought, why does it have two ethernet plugs? Why does it have a wireless antenna plug there too?...
View ArticleOpenWrt on the HLK-RM04, Reality Check
There's a ton of pixels out there about OpenWrt. It's open source router software that can do an excellent job of expanding the capabilities of some routers way beyond what the manufacturers provide....
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Arduino, XBee, and a Freezer Defroster
I have an upright freezer. Living a ways from town and the climate make this necessary. I load a cooler in the car, go to the store get my frozen goods and some ice, pack the food in the cooler with...
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Controlling the Hayward Ecostar Pump
Quite some time ago I got fed up with the huge amount of power a pool pump uses and got one of those cool permanent magnet, variable speed pumps. It's really cool, it can run from a few RPM up to way...
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Interaction of Appliances
One of my readers (thanks Andreas) commented about how controlling the appliances could help me. For example, not letting the compressors of the refrigerator and freezer go on at the same time could...
View ArticleControlling Wemo Light Switches, Another Look
No, I'm not dead, and yes, I still work on electronic projects. I've been busy with projects that are much more mundane and normal. Things like trying to build a pad for my motorcycle trailer,...
View ArticleMy Tiny Timer Class
Just yesterday I posted about creating a new way of controlling and monitoring my Wemo light switches. In the post I talked about having to develop a way of timing operations. It was pretty simple...
View ArticleUsing an 'rc' File in My System
First though, I've been away from my house control system for a while because of other projects, and I decided to do some major updates to portions of it. Over the months, I've learned a lot and some...
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OK, Back to the ZigBee protocol and XBees ... AGAIN
I managed to hack into the Iris Smart Switch from Lowe's and they've been working fine, but there's always been this nagging little annoyance bothering me. The Alertme Switch that Lowe's sells is NOT...
View ArticleZIgBee Protocol, XBee, but this time an Arduino !
A couple of days ago I posted how to get a switch using the ZigBee protocol running with an XBee <link>; I'm pretty proud of that, but there's lots of folk out there with an Arduino already....
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