Smart Home Hacks: Tips & Tools for Automating Your House (Hacks)

By Gordon Meyer

Book Overview

So much of what is commonplace today was once considered impossible, or at least wishful thinking. Laser beams in the operating room, cars with built-in guidance systems, cell phones with email access. There's just no getting around the fact that technology always has, and always will be, very cool. But technology isn't only cool; it's also very smart. That's why one of the hottest technological trends nowadays is the creation of smart homes. At an increasing rate, people are turning their homes into state-of-the-art machines, complete with more switches, sensors, and actuators than you can shake a stick at. Whether you want to equip your home with motion detectors for added security, install computer-controlled lights for optimum convenience, or even mount an in-home web cam or two purely for entertainment, the world is now your oyster. Ah, but like anything highly technical, creating a smart home is typically easier said than done. Thankfully, Smart Home Hacks takes the guesswork out of the process. Through a seemingly unending array of valuable tips, tools, and techniques, Smart Home Hacks explains in clear detail how to use Mac, Windows, or Linux to achieve the automated home of your dreams. In no time, you'll learn how to turn a loose collection of sensors and switches into a well-automated and well-functioning home no matter what your technical level may be. Smart Home Hacks covers a litany of stand-alone and integrated smart home solutions designed to enhance safety, comfort, and convenience in new and existing homes. Kitchens, bedrooms, home offices, living rooms, and even bathrooms are all candidates for smart automation and therefore are all addressed in Smart Home Hacks. Intelligently written by engineering guru and George Jetson wannabe, Gordon Meyer, Smart Home Hacks leaves no stone unturned. From what to purchase to how to use your remote control, it's the ultimate guide to understanding and implementing complete or partial home automation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596007221
• ISBN13: 9780596007225
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

X10 For Beginners

I'm a SW developer and I just got this book because I was curious about Home Automation, I had no idea about it and this book really cleared my mind easy reading and amazingly easy to implement If you're a beginner I totally recommend it!

SMART HOME HACKS: Tips & Tools for Automating Your House

SMART HOME HACKS: Tips & Tools for Automating Your House Gordon Meyer O'Reilly Media Inc. ISBN: 0-596-00722-1 For years we have heard of how computers can provide benefits around the house. Television news programs show research labs using computers in conjunction with special equipment for recording or controlling test. I have often wondered, "How is this accomplished?" Smart Home Hacks introduces you to previously hidden benefits our computers can provide. With software available for Macintosh and other operating systems we learn to control many items in and around our home from our computer's CPU. How is this done... using the existing 120 VAC wiring in our walls to transmit and receive signals via X10 transmitter and receivers around your house. Whether controlling 12 volt landscaping lights, the timing cycles for your pool pump, or simply turning lights and sound on and off for security reasons, from the ground up Gordon Meyer's Smart Home Hacks explains the process. Your computer can send messages to your cell phone, pager, or e-mail account. Driveway lights can be set to come on and remain on for a given period of time, and sprinkler systems can be controlled by your home computer. Meyer takes readers from the basics of X10 codes to starting your hot tub and having it ready when you get home. For those wanting a computer to work for them this book even shows you how to monitor and plot heating oil fuel consumption. With broadband Internet service you can monitor Fido's actions when you are away from the house by adding video camera(s) and a link to the Internet. To add cost effectiveness to a home, SMART HOME HACKS: Tips & Tools for Automating Your House is a great addition to a home library. Additionally, it should be considered as an ideal gift.

Use X10 Technology to Hack Home Devices

The essence of home automation is using specialized equipment that can control your lamps, appliances, heater, and air conditioning, and perhaps sense where in the house people are located. Every automation system is built upon these building blocks. Once these methods are in place, it's really not much of a stretch to have some actions performed automatically. For example, once you have the ability to detect when a person has left a room, turning off any lights that she might have left on is not much of a technical challenge. This book focuses almost exclusively on using X10-based home automation technology. Technically speaking, X10 is a power-line carrier (PLC) communications method. This means it sends signals using the electrical wiring in your home, not unlike Morse code. Your appliances, lights, and everything else you have plugged into your home's electrical system continue to work: X10 sneakily adds its signals onto the wires in a way that standard AC equipment does not notice. However, when you have equipment that is tuned to listen to X10 commands, that equipment can be controlled as if by magic, reacting to signals sent by you, your computer, or even other X10 devices.

This book isn't a step by step how to ... & that's good too.

The author covers HA from the prospective of the MAC, OSX, XTension HA software and mostly X10 but don't hold that against him as it's not the goal of the book. I treated this book as more of an idea book and almost all the ideas are portable to other scriptable/extendable software. It's for those of us who have a little imagination, some programming experience and the willingness to put a little effort into programming. It is in no way a recipe book where you follow the directions step by step to build a project. I really like the book and I really find it perfect for bathroom reading (you can read a section pretty quick to get your ideas). :-) And I forgive the author for not cover Linux better. :-)

Fantastic resource for X10

This is the first quality book that I have found on X10. It's invaluable. Both the hardware and software (for PC and Mac) are covered in depth here. There is coverage of the basics; turning on and off lights, using control boxes and timers, and using a PC as your control hub. But, as with the other Hacks books there are other more esoteric topics as well. Such as heating your toilet seat, managing your sprinkler system, and using X10 for security. An excellent book. A must buy for X10 users.