home automation

It's still not home automation.

Yeah, because he probably installed one of the existing "system". That is bound to fail.

No, I just wanted the offered systems to live up to what they were advertised for. They didn't.

For example, it is really nice to be able to have safety lights outside turn on and off at times varying with the seasons so you don't waste electricity. It basically works here (when it works). But that's not what is so important. It is important to have a functioning comms system inside a house in place before any of this smart grid stuff has a real chance. Else it'll remain a buzz word, just like ambient assisted living.

If it does its job without human intervention, it's automated.

It was an entire new system. The manufacturer couldn't fix the problems, so the homeowner sued both of them.

Nothing seems to work for you. Hardware or software.

The 'grid' in this subdivision was built in '64. They won't upgrade it in spite of frequent outages from blow fuses in the primaries. Why would they add another layer of crap on top of that?

Ok, then the palm tree outside my office window is an automated system. It grows and functions as birds nest carrier without us doing anything.

See? It takes some real engineering to design a system that actually works and, while I don't remember the one Bob Vila picked, the ones I've seen just aren't reliable enough.

Huh? Plenty of it in production right now.

My designs work :-)

Beats me. Smart grid is the latest talk of the town but I've stopped going to meetings until someone is willing to tackle the most important part of it: The infrastructure all the way into homes.

Our toll road uses a dual system-- transponder with some kind of long-life lithium batteries for frequent users and if they don't get a transponder signal they read an optical ID tag at the back of the car (the licence plate) using automated cameras, lights etc. mounted on a gantry at the exits and entrances. The car owner then gets a bill in the mail (with some extra fees tacked on).

They do the same thing here. BTW, some of those toll road systems were developed by Lockheed-Martin which has a large complex in Orlando, and several others scattered around the state of Florida. I used to work across the street from one that built missle parts.

You're really being an ass. There are varying degrees of automation. Apparently you won't be satisfied until your home automation system wipes your ass for you.

He didn't 'pick it'. It was donated for one of his rehab projects.

Yet you can't get e-mail or news reader software to work.

I don't think the "smart grid" makes much sense even with PLC. It's just a massively complicated way for big brother to adjust your thermostat on your behalf because they figure you're too dumb.

(No really, that's what it is--a remote-controlled dimmer. It lets the power company shed / reshuffle load when demand's too high.)

Maybe they'll extend that brilliant mission to include chewing up electric vehicles' batteries faster: storing grid power in your EV overnight, sucking it out during the day. (Although that is great way to reduce the range of EVs that already don't go far enough, making them even less useful.)

It's a waste.

Al Gore might disagree--he's its biggest investor and promoter. Here's his pitch:

-- Cheers, James Arthur

No, I believe I described what I wanted from it and I don't think that's asking too much in this day and age. Or to say it arrogantly, why is it that I can get the front end of a catheter ultrasound machine to work reliably when the PLC guys can't get PLC reliable? It ain't rocket science.

Oh, and there's no automation in the loo here ;-)

Still, one _should_ look into a gift horse's mouth when it's meant to serve others. At our church I don't put in any electronics just because they were donated, needs to be checked first. Just as you probably wouldn't use anything unchecked on the PCs you assemble for veterans.

Huh? It all works.

JT_mode" ??? ...Jim Thompson

Well, you always say that your stuff is the ultimate cat's meouw and most of it probably is. Except the crowbars :-)

And then you called yourself "the master". Remember? Hint: Book.

Well, incredibly, it's going to be like this:

One of these will be wired to my PC

which will be on all the time. I'll write a program in PowerBasic that will talk to this and ping my FTP site. It will periodically look for command files with text commands like HEAT ON 3.5 to turn the heat on for 3.5 hours. It will also regularly dump a status file with indoor and outdoor temps and whatever.

I plan to use a couple of Honeywell thermistor sensors to nab indoor and outdoor temps, which I'll have to linearize and calibrate somehow.

A relay will connect a cheap mechanical thermostat, set to 70F, across the regular thermostat to preheat the place before we get there.

All this is cheap enough that I can buy some spares.

John

Wow, that's a blast from the past. A PIC in DIP package and thru-hole parts. Does it come with a coupon for the latest Beatles album?

Why not use the LM50? Ok, only goes down to -40F so if we have more cooling ...

If you need USB some day the LabJack might work. But it's $108.

I thought it looked kind of cute.

I considered that, but I'd have to add some parts (to buffer the output) and pot them or something, and run three wires or a shielded pair out to them. May as well gain it up if I do that. But then I wouldn't need to deal with the ugly thermistor curve.

Why in the world did they do that resistive output thing? All of National's LM35 type parts are weird, and most are flakey. TMP36 looks better.

We have some 1K thinfilm platinum RTDs in stock, 1206s. Maybe I'll use them.

If it enumerates as a serial port, I could talk to it from PowerBasic (assuming I can *find*) it. If not, I'd have to deal with their drivers. Direct RS232 ascii is awfully easy. And I need a 40 foot run anyhow, which USB wouldn't like.

All this will amuse me on cold nights between Christmas and New Years. I am learning stuff about FTP.

John

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0... There are very

That system years ago was all low voltage. Sensors were hidden in the baseboard in the halls, so the lights would go on just far enough as you walked. Really overkill.

A light that turn on when it "sees" you and further knows you are still in the room is home automation in my book. After all, the light goes on and off automatically. Further, it is actually useful technology. Turning the closest light on and off from a smart phone is stupid technology.

Why don't you like my crowbar ?:-( ...Jim Thompson

The way it vaporizes a fuse without using secondary resistive paths to muffle the blow. IIRC we had a discussion in this here club in 2008 ;-)

It is stupid. What is not stupid is stuff like this: Home automation system senses that a smoke detector has gone off and turns off the hot plate that grandma Miller had forgotten because she experienced a wee dizzy spell. Meaning the house did not burn down. It can save lives and allow people to live independently for a while longer.

Yeah, like a 1965 Mustang :-)

Why buffer? You can just hang a cap across it at the location as well as at the other end of the cable where the ADC function is. Telephone wire should do, or whatever happens to be flying around in the garage.

So you don't get stability issues from a loaded opamp output I guess. Also to provide a cheap lowpass filter by essentially just hanging a cap across it.

Should work, but with any such scheme the cable resistance factors into the game.

They supply lots of drivers and you can even drive it via VBA from Excel. I've tried it out once. I don't know PowerBasic though.

Yep, even us old bucks learn new stuff all the time :-)

Today I'll be learning about valves at a client. Not valves as in tubes, the real ones.

"Muffle the blow"? Why? ...Jim Thompson

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