Category Archives: Home Automation

Home page speedup

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Jim

This has been annoying me for years, and is finally very much improved. My home page would parse through the several megabytes of ascii sensor data to find the last typically 5 days’ data and generate the 5 graphs – … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | 1 Comment

Rain gauge repair

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Jim

The rain gauge hardware out on the garage roof feeding info to my home automation system is pretty old.  It’s been in service I dunno – six years?, and on a shelf waiting to be installed for maybe 10 years … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation, Home Repair | Leave a comment

Optical interface to water meter

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Jim

I’ve wanted to be able to monitor household water flow for a long time.  A primary driver is to be able to spot unexpected use while we’re away, probably involving lots of water going where it shouldn’t – like from … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation, Water meter reader | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Notes on DSL problem

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Jim

My DSL internet connectivity via SBC/Yahoo/AT&T has been pretty good.  I’ve finally got some intelligence in the script that pings my ISP so it can power cycle the modem and router when it detects loss of connection, and I think … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation, Home Repair | Leave a comment

Rebuilding my Pogoplug house monitor server

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Jim

Ya know, you’d think there would never be a situation when anybody would accidentally enter the following 2 commands in order: # cd / # rm -rf * That’s what I thought, too, until I just did it today.  Below … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | 2 Comments

Sump pump current sensor

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Jim

This sensor has been part of the home automation system for several years.  It’s mounted to the wall, and the main AC sump pump is plugged into it.  It senses current to the pump, converting it to a logic level … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | 4 Comments

UPS battery monitor started!

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Jim

My UPS is a big old sine wave clunker retired from work many years ago.  It works fine, but the only “management” info it provides is a dry contact closure when it’s on battery – not very useful to know … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | Leave a comment

Home automation reporting system

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Jim

This is a work in progress! Overview The system starts with several small “sensor nodes” that monitor things (like temperature) or control things (like sprinklers).  They’re connected via an RS-485 network at 56Kb/sec on Cat 5 cable.  That cable also … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | Leave a comment

House monitor on Linux!

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Jim

I’ve been trying to migrate the main server program for the home automation system off the main PC for a couple of years.  It’s a hassle to shut everything down gracefully when Microsoft pushes down yet another must-reboot update, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | 11 Comments

Router resetter works!

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Jim

The router resetter seems to have caught an outage this morning, power cycled the router and modem, and gotten things working again – all without my even knowing there had been a problem – just like it’s supposed to! The … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | Leave a comment