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kevin wrote: > Look at the X10 website > > http://www.intellihome.be/english/home_automation > > Also an article in the Linux Mag > http://www.linux-magazine.com/issues/2007/77/don_t_blame_the_gardener/(kategorie)/0 > > gives example in perl X10 seems ok for telling things to do stuff, but not great when you want feedback. I keep playing with it and thinking "there has to be a better way". For data collection I have a load of 1-wire stuff plugged into a PC for weather monitoring with more to add (rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, solar intensity...) and there are other sensors too. 1-wire does seem to be dying out a bit thanks to Dallas's indifference to the hobbyist part of the market, but the kit is still available for the moment and you can get things like "soil moisture sensors" as well. The biggest niggle with 1-wire though is the cable length. Ideally you want to drive the PC end of the line at higher voltages and currents than USB ports (and most modern RS232 ports, it seems) want to go, so you have to use power-injection devices and even then in less than perfect situations the systems works, well, less than perfectly. I think a mixture of the two would probably work ok as long as you're not trying to push the limits of the technology. The Arduino is also allegedly good for control work, but you still have to decide how to do the actual hardware control bit. For 1-wire, I'd recommend a look at http://www.homechip.co.uk/ which is run by an aquaintance from my ISP days way back when (you must remember Nigel Titley, Gordon?), or http://www.hobby-boards.com/ which is in the US, but ships to the UK. James -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html