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On Wed, 19 Feb 2014, Rob Beard wrote:
My other thought was if there is any such kit that will control a mains supply via a Raspberry Pi (but something off the shelf rather than anything I'd have to build myself... I don't trust my electronics skills enough and don't want to set the server room on fire!)Does anyone on here have experience of X10 kit or know of anything that might do the job?
I don't know much about X10 but I know a lot about the Pi...What I understand the X10 is good at is taking communication wirelessly (or via the mains - a-la powerline ethernet type technology?)
So you have a master node that connects to the internet of things then you talk to that and that talks to the light switches, etc.
The clever part is the light switches, etc. which are small enough to not looks like huge gert big blocks blu-tacked to the wall...
Which is what a Pi might look like...And that's the rub - you want to walk into a room and push the light switch. Would you trust a system to turn the lights on when you walked into a room (answer for me: yes). Would I then want a system to dim the lights? (yes, but how? ok google, dim the lights - one day)
Getting a Pi to run power on/off is utterly trivial - you buy a USB power switcher and control it via USB. (off the Pi, Laptop, PC, anything - they are USB serial devices) but wiring it in in a neat "wife friendly" manner is the issue (for me).
My ideal home would have all the lights, heating, etc. autonomously controlled, but talking back to one central point (of failure). But to do that would require an extensive house re-wire and that's not going to happen this year... (nor next!) Maybe in the next house I move to..
I think the X10 stuff avoids that because of the wireless stuff it uses and the physical size being the same as a light switch - so if you can fit a dimmer you ought to be able to fit an x10 light switch...
Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq