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Smart Home Automation with Linux
Linux users can now control their homes remotely! Are you a Linux user who has ever wanted to turn on the lights in your house, or open and close the curtains, while away on holiday? Want to be able to play the same music in every room, controlled from your laptop or mobile phone? Do you want to do these things without an expensive off-the-shelf kit?
In Smart Home Automation with Linux, Steven Goodwin will show you how a house can be fully controlled by its occupants, all using open source software. From appliances to kettles to curtains, control your home remotely!
In Smart Home Automation with Linux, Steven Goodwin will show you how a house can be fully controlled by its occupants, all using open source software. From appliances to kettles to curtains, control your home remotely!
- GenresTechnical
Kindle Edition
First published March 29, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 7, 2014
Not very interesting book, it is mostly talk about creating a linux server and use bunch of software and scripts to control stuff than automation per se. Dedicated chapter specifically for home automation is fairly small and is based on X10 standard which is old and not cool. Sending x10 command from linux machine via ethernet connected x10 controller to turn of lights is not really an automation. Most of the book covers setting up HTPC, TV, NAS, routers and software for home network. This is not a home-automation as i understand it. Anyway book is very basic, if you don't know this stuff might worth check it out, but if you familiar with linux and looking for advanced stuff you probably won't get anything new out of this book.
April 29, 2017
Steve Goodwin’s Smart Home Automation with Linux describes the benefits of Goodwin’s Minerva. The manual develops an elementary foundation for home automatists and then justifies the application of Minerva as a simple solution. Home automation can become an expensive and complex task, so any simplification helps make the task of automation feasible. Goodwin’s cost free Minerva integrates several functions for the accomplishment of security, entertainment, process control, and data management tasks. Each task would else require vast amounts of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) code or commercial solutions for example from Microsoft or X10. Linux provides the best cost free PHP framework for web-supported automation from a standard Apache managed website with SQL database. Programmers can still benefit from first-hand knowledge of these languages for customization of the Minerva suite. Useful examples of code for customized applications appear throughout the text since Goodwin developed Minerva and has a sound knowledge of LAMP. A Minerva user may not have the exact same hardware as Goodwin, yet Minerva exhibits broad compatibility with the industry standards. If cost-competitive home automation presents an opportunity, then Goodwin’s instructions define the recommended software, hardware, and automation processes for a range of basic to integrated solutions.
Minerva is Goodwin’s free software suite for home automation on Linux operated systems. The capability of Minerva includes security, data management, entertainment, and process control in one integrated software suite. Commercial software packages may offer parts of this functionality, and those that offer the entire function of Minerva do so for a compulsory profit. Goodwin’s manual develops Minerva’s premise from bits of automation programs for coalescence into one Minerva software suite. Each different task calls on functionality from LAMP and shares hardware in common, so the continued separation of automation programs would exacerbate computational resource scarcity. A single software suite, like Minerva, optimizes that resource utilization and smooths the software integration of disparate tasks like security and entertainment. DIY home automation then becomes a task based on one software suite instead of many, and thus, the expected learning curve shrinks. LAMP software works not only for free but also pervades big data and web development applications, so the resultant large user base can help troubleshoot most scenarios at a moment’s notice. Users can customize their individual software since Minerva remains a licensed GNU openware! Free, robust, and open software meets the demands of the common home automatist like Goodwin once was.
Goodwin developed Minerva with compatibility amongst popular hardware. Home automatists build security systems from cameras, lights, and motion detectors while other common hardware include TV’s, video and audio players, game consoles, and appliances. Minerva can manage the X10, Ethernet, and coaxial signal data as well as the less prevalent C-bus for the automation of said hardware and appliances. X10 alone for example is not compatible with C-bus and, as Goodwin explains, would not exhibit the same versatility from a pure X10 user’s server as a Minerva user’s server would exhibit. Server management flexibility becomes influential in home automatists’ decisions and strategy for the purchase of hardware because users can only install hardware compatible with their server’s software. The diversity in hardware such as camera technology exemplifies this case in point for users who would like a camera per se since these users can now buy any camera and still integrate it with Minerva. Smart Home Automation with Linux contains three chapters dedicated to diverse hardware, appliance, and device automation. Information therein still holds relevance even with systems of increased complexity. Simple examples with common hardware introduce basic hardware network concepts. Superposition thereafter works for development of more complex networks.
A network can execute menial to sophisticated processes via Minerva. The suite has Voice recognition and synthesis as well as the basic timers. Processes can enhance security, entertainment, or other household tasks. Security for example can involve $100 X10 motion sensing cameras and power sockets with Minerva and a $200 server rack for an automated lighting system that lights each time the camera detects a motion. Custom hardware kits and Minerva scripts can scrape TV guide information and execute Tivo style recordings and storage for the cost of a $20 infrared transmitter, $50 of RAM, and the internet. Even more sophistication is possible with the automation of show or music selection based on the people within a given room for no more than $500. Coffee pot timers have become common, but Minerva doesn’t stop there. Minerva can coordinate the coffee pot after a $40 optical sensor detects the first rays of dawn as well as turn on the lights from the bedroom to the kitchen or even the morning news. Additions, subtractions, and modifications of the automated processes incur no subscription costs or contracts. Automation processes within Minerva can change the landscape of common homesteads and even assisted living complexes.
Science fiction shall come one step closer to reality with the affordable implementation of home automation systems. Popular expectations of talking homes and hands free living shall not be unrealistic. A majority of the devices required for automation shall cost less than they do today which is between $20-$200 for basic to moderate control. The GNU openware class of software shall evolve the obtainability of home automation functionality for the home automatist because profiteers must incorporate more intuitive and abundant controls. Costs saved in software shall result in new resources for hardware, and the improved hardware shall in turn require better software. Time saving automation functionality shall present opportunities for improved family time and other tasks with the security of zero to no computational error for essential yet repetitive housework. Families shall enjoy transparent integration with their houses since the activation of the lights, tv, stereo, and other appliances can be preset for 90% of common household scenarios. Goodwin’s Smart Home Automation with Linux shall remain a helpful landmark and reference for instructions, examples, and descriptions of various home automation architectures. Minerva shall set the standard for comprehensive cost-effectiveness and versatility. Home automation shall gain increased feasibility, popularity, and sophistication.
Minerva is Goodwin’s free software suite for home automation on Linux operated systems. The capability of Minerva includes security, data management, entertainment, and process control in one integrated software suite. Commercial software packages may offer parts of this functionality, and those that offer the entire function of Minerva do so for a compulsory profit. Goodwin’s manual develops Minerva’s premise from bits of automation programs for coalescence into one Minerva software suite. Each different task calls on functionality from LAMP and shares hardware in common, so the continued separation of automation programs would exacerbate computational resource scarcity. A single software suite, like Minerva, optimizes that resource utilization and smooths the software integration of disparate tasks like security and entertainment. DIY home automation then becomes a task based on one software suite instead of many, and thus, the expected learning curve shrinks. LAMP software works not only for free but also pervades big data and web development applications, so the resultant large user base can help troubleshoot most scenarios at a moment’s notice. Users can customize their individual software since Minerva remains a licensed GNU openware! Free, robust, and open software meets the demands of the common home automatist like Goodwin once was.
Goodwin developed Minerva with compatibility amongst popular hardware. Home automatists build security systems from cameras, lights, and motion detectors while other common hardware include TV’s, video and audio players, game consoles, and appliances. Minerva can manage the X10, Ethernet, and coaxial signal data as well as the less prevalent C-bus for the automation of said hardware and appliances. X10 alone for example is not compatible with C-bus and, as Goodwin explains, would not exhibit the same versatility from a pure X10 user’s server as a Minerva user’s server would exhibit. Server management flexibility becomes influential in home automatists’ decisions and strategy for the purchase of hardware because users can only install hardware compatible with their server’s software. The diversity in hardware such as camera technology exemplifies this case in point for users who would like a camera per se since these users can now buy any camera and still integrate it with Minerva. Smart Home Automation with Linux contains three chapters dedicated to diverse hardware, appliance, and device automation. Information therein still holds relevance even with systems of increased complexity. Simple examples with common hardware introduce basic hardware network concepts. Superposition thereafter works for development of more complex networks.
A network can execute menial to sophisticated processes via Minerva. The suite has Voice recognition and synthesis as well as the basic timers. Processes can enhance security, entertainment, or other household tasks. Security for example can involve $100 X10 motion sensing cameras and power sockets with Minerva and a $200 server rack for an automated lighting system that lights each time the camera detects a motion. Custom hardware kits and Minerva scripts can scrape TV guide information and execute Tivo style recordings and storage for the cost of a $20 infrared transmitter, $50 of RAM, and the internet. Even more sophistication is possible with the automation of show or music selection based on the people within a given room for no more than $500. Coffee pot timers have become common, but Minerva doesn’t stop there. Minerva can coordinate the coffee pot after a $40 optical sensor detects the first rays of dawn as well as turn on the lights from the bedroom to the kitchen or even the morning news. Additions, subtractions, and modifications of the automated processes incur no subscription costs or contracts. Automation processes within Minerva can change the landscape of common homesteads and even assisted living complexes.
Science fiction shall come one step closer to reality with the affordable implementation of home automation systems. Popular expectations of talking homes and hands free living shall not be unrealistic. A majority of the devices required for automation shall cost less than they do today which is between $20-$200 for basic to moderate control. The GNU openware class of software shall evolve the obtainability of home automation functionality for the home automatist because profiteers must incorporate more intuitive and abundant controls. Costs saved in software shall result in new resources for hardware, and the improved hardware shall in turn require better software. Time saving automation functionality shall present opportunities for improved family time and other tasks with the security of zero to no computational error for essential yet repetitive housework. Families shall enjoy transparent integration with their houses since the activation of the lights, tv, stereo, and other appliances can be preset for 90% of common household scenarios. Goodwin’s Smart Home Automation with Linux shall remain a helpful landmark and reference for instructions, examples, and descriptions of various home automation architectures. Minerva shall set the standard for comprehensive cost-effectiveness and versatility. Home automation shall gain increased feasibility, popularity, and sophistication.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews