Home Automation with a Pogoplug

[radengr]

Hi! I just picked up two pink v2 Pogoplugs on the Buy.com sale. I also now have a used dockstar ordered off of ebay which will bring me to three computers running Arch. I'm just started working on these the night before last, but I have had pretty good luck. My goal is to use these to integrate into my home automation setup. I am looking for some new ideas if anyone else has them! I might try bluetooth proximity sensing or 1-wire sensors next?

Right now I have the following on my plug:

1. X10 Support. I built mochad, which is a linux driver for the cm15a/cm19a x10 usb interfaces without a problem. The cm15a is a powerline / rf controller and with mochad supports normal x10 and x10 security commands. This is a cheap way to get motion sensor input on your plug, you can get a refurb cm15a for $16 and a new cm19a for $8, the little motion sensors are about $6 and work great! It is x10 so you have to be willing to tweak it a bit (maybe modify and antenna or two ). But for about $15 if you catch a sale + a webcam you can capture images on motion!

2. Webcam / IP Cam Monitoring. I installed the xawtv package and the cherokee web browser and have a Logitech c120 webcam running. Today I am going to install motion and see if I can set up image capture when something changes, plus hopefully have motion monitor a few IP cams I have lying around.

3. IR (for A/V control). Now I'm messing around with LIRC. It installed fine I just haven't gotten around to configuring it yet. I'm using a Manta TR1 from Twisted Melon Windows MCE IR Receiver/Blaster. I really like my Manta, it is about $22, and has been working well for me on Windows, Mac, and Linux for 4 years. If you are cheap you can find MCE blasters for about half that on ebay.

I know some people have tried misterhouse with these plug computers, and Perl xPL too. Is anyone else working on home automation with their plugs?

[kmihelich]

I've always had home automation on a very far back burner. I remember looking around at X10 stuff and just feeling depressed at how it all looked like RadioShack garbage. Then on the other side is the Insteon stuff, which is just prohibitively expensive.

If you can come up with a solid list of packages, I'll get them into our AUR repo for others to use. Since this is also a pretty hot topic in general, I think it would be a good thing to add a section to the main site with how-to's and bills of materials for getting systems set up. If you want to take the lead on this, we'll be happy to give it an up-front position.

[radengr]

I would be very happy to put together a list of packages and maybe a how-to or two. I will probably be a while before I have it figured out myself though!

[kmihelich]

Take your time, we'll still be here.

[ZzyzxOh]

Somewhat anxious to hear about progress in the Home Automation space. I would like to interface the PogoPlug with the HAI Omni IIe system, most likely through a USB-Serial adapter, and also to a Lutron RadioRa controller, also via USB-serial. This would allow me to migrate some of my control off the HAI while I figured out the best way to deal with wired security sensors without the proprietary system.