new technologies, new ideas, a new kind of home
In my last post (HERE), I showed how to grab data from RFLink but also determined that because of issues I had with arrays (and with some exceptions that shouldn’t have happened), I wouldn’t include RFLink in the final version of Project Mercury.
Continue reading “Project Mercury Part III: Putting Everything Together”
In my last entry (HERE), I put together a quick little VB app to read 432 MHz RF data captured through an RFLink Gateway. I called it Viduus, after the minor deity from Roman mythology that divided the body from the soul. This time, I’m hoping to make sense of the name as I split the strings returned by RFLink.
Continue reading “Project Viduus Part II – Changing Direction on RFLink”
RFlink is an amazing tool. It allows you to import data from RF devices into your home automation ecosystem. I purchased two different units from a seller on eBay (now retired), both targeting the 433 MHz range. RF Link also supports 315, 868, and 915 MHz, as well as 2.4 GHz with the required receivers. Further, RFLink is supported by a number of platforms, such as Domoticz, Jeedom, Pimatic, Domotiga, OpenHAB, and HoMIDoM.
Continue reading “Project Viduus Part I – Importing Data From RFLink”
Moneta is a slight diversion from the Mercury project. Just as the Mercury project is named for the messenger of the gods in Roman mythology, Project Moneta is named for the Roman goddess of memory. The project goal is to give a very simple introduction to saving data from VB to a SQL Server.
Continue reading “Project Moneta – How to Save Data in a Database from Visual Basic”
My last post on the Arlo Pro 2 camera system covered solar panels (panel entry HERE – original camera setup is HERE). After the install, I found that the batteries required recharging every 5 or 6 days. With one camera out of reach, that meant climbing a ladder while I try to pop the camera off its magnetic mount. The solution was to add solar panels. The Wasserstein brand cost 25% less than the Arlo brand, but, unfortunately, the performance was more like 50% less…
Continue reading “Re-Going Solar With Arlo Pro 2 and Arlo Solar Panels”
In last week’s Part I of Project Mercury, I covered reading MQTT messages in VB.Net using the MQTTnet Nuget package. There aren’t any VB examples for an MQTT client floating around, so I put together a quick and dirty illustration. I completed the next section on the following day, but was promptly sidetracked with a trip into the wonderful world of SQL – one of the future parts of the program will be saving data to a database, which significantly enhances the value of the data! In any case, here’s an example of how to publish MQTT messages from your VB.Net app!
Continue reading “Project Mercury Part II – Publishing MQTT Messages”
MQTT is a wonderful tool for the smart home enthusiast. Many different products and applications support it, allowing you to tie a lot of different technologies together in one cohesive home automation system. It is even more useful when you’ve got devices that do not support MQTT directly but do allow programmatic access through an SDK or API, which allows you to put together a custom app that combines MQTT with that other product. An interesting challenge I’ve come across, though, is that while most of the examples for SDKs that I use are written in VB.Net and there are NO examples of using MQTT in VB.Net….
Continue reading “Project Mercury Part I – Subscribing to an MQTT Topic”
Paul Taylor from The Smarter Home Club discusses the home automation setup he installed for his parents, in order to help his father more effectively handle some significant mobility challenges.
Continue reading “Thoughts on Home Accessibility systems for the Differently Abled”
When you get started on your home automation journey, it is REALLY easy to go down a rabbit-hole. If you’re not careful and disciplined, you can end up making a lot of extra work for yourself that could be avoided with good planning. That’s in addition to the extra work you can cause by changing technologies in the middle of your project!
In this second installment on X10, I want to show you how easy it is to send signals on the CM15a. In PART I, I showed you how to use the SDK to log messages (build a viewer, basically), so the logical next step is to have the ability to send instructions to switches, plugs, and outlets, right?
Continue reading “Integrating X10 into your Home Automation System II”