Marc's Public Blog - Linux Home Automation

Instead of pasting the information here, here is the link with all the goods: https://web.archive.org/web/20120423061924/http://misterhouse.wikispaces.com/X10RFX10SecRFXCOM
or
https://github.com/hollie/misterhouse/wiki/X10RFX10SecRFXCOM (up to date, but formatting a bit broken).

I did also learn about RF and antenna design in the process. Here is the quarter wave antenna I built and that I'm now using on my MR26a:

And the simpler, but actually more effective dipole antenna I made and that I use for the W800RF32:

The serial W800RF32 is easier to extend with a long serial cable

One of my first applications was to read an X10Sec module in my mailbox to know when said mailbox was opened:

Although, after 6 years of usage, I got tired of replacing the batteries on that DS10A, and I also lost a couple to water damage (it's been hard to waterproof it without killing the radio signals coming out of it). Also, on occasion I would lose a state change due to RF loss. I ended up bringing power and ethernet to my mailbox for IP cams, so I ended up adding an insteon iolinc to read the mailbox open status and at the same time control a flood light to illuminate the mailbox if it gets opened at night:

iolinc has a 2nd relay in parallel with its own relay in put to act as an OR gate and leave the output on even if the input (mailbox) has gone back down

got a weather proof box this time, tight fit

lots of wires going to the mailbox now, but I've always prefered wired to wireless

The next one was to know when my garage doors were opened or closed.
The first thing was to move the door sensors to be at the bumper level, which included drilling holes in the gardrail, no small feat without diamond tip drills which I didn't have. After several hours of making new holes and adjusting the sensors, they are now set to detect the car's bumper as opposed to looking for the car's tires which made it easy to close the door on top of the hood ...

Next, I installed X10Sec sensors on each door so that I know when they get opened or closed.

Technical notes:

Here is the code I wrote for misterhouse:

#08/05/2010 11:34:22  State Garage2 is alertbattlowmin
#08/05/2010 11:34:22  State Garage2 is normalbattlowmin

my %x10rfstate; #noloop

foreach my $dev (["x10sec_garage1", "Main Garage Door"], ["x10sec_garage2", "Small Garage Door"], ["x10sec_mailbox", "Mailbox"])
{   
    my $obj = $dev->[0];
    my $name = $dev->[1];

    $obj = &::get_object_by_name($obj);
    $x10rfstate{$obj} = $obj->state if (not defined $x10rfstate{$obj});

    if ($obj->state_now)
    {   
        my $oldstate = $x10rfstate{$obj};
        my ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime();
        $year += 1900;
        $mon++;

        print_log "X10SEC: $name is ".$obj->state." (was $oldstate)";

        open(LOG, ">>/var/log/x10sec");
        printf LOG ("%.4d/%.2d/%.2d %.2d:%.2d:%.2d $name: ".$obj->state." (was $oldstate)\n", $year,$mon,$mday,$hour,$min,$sec);
        close(LOG);

        if ($obj->state ne $oldstate)
        {   
            if ($obj->state =~ /alert/)
            {   
                system('date | Mail -s "'.$name.' Just Opened" EMAIL');
            }
            elsif  ($obj->state =~ /normal/)
            {   
                system('date | Mail -s "'.$name.' Just Closed" EMAIL');
            }
            else
            {   
                system('date | Mail -s "'.$name.' UNKNOWN STATE" EMAIL');
            }
            $x10rfstate{$obj} = $obj->state;
        }
    }
}

# vim:sts=4:sw=4

Anyway, I wanted to have power a bit longer than 10mn when PG&E power went out, so I looked into UPS solutions while powering from a Marine or a AGM (Absorbed Glass Material) battery, both being better options than a car battery (car batteries are not meant to be deep cycled or use for extended periods of time and they do put out hydrogen when you charge them, which is undesireable inside a house).

Interesting bits I found out:

In the end, I got a couple of mostly matching AGM batteries and went ahead with those for my 24V APC 1400 SmartUPS. I know my runtime wouldn't be fantastic but good enough considering (at least until I can find another free marine battery :) ).

At 400W of actual use, that was 40% of the load for the APC 1400 inverter and a self test estimated that I would get about 1H of runtime, which gave 16Ah usable for my AGM batteries instead of about 55Ah at a lower draw (when new, and they were not new). It's a bit disappointing on one side, but on the other side, 1H of runtime for my computer gear ain't too bad, especially for AGM batteries that cost $20 a pieces (cheaper than the stock 7Ah batteries).

first I quadrupled the wire.

this is a big ass gauge jumper cable

what it looks like connected

Anyway, even if this isn't quite the runtime I was hoping for, and it seems hard to find any UPS with a good VA rating by using a single 12V battery (not too surprising due to the amp problem I pointed out), this is still pretty cool.

In my case, I picked up an 8 port ftdi usb to serial converter for only $15 on Ebay (woot!) but even its ports may not come up in sequence at boot time if other modules are loaded at the same time (a race condition can cause the pl2303 port to be in between one of the 8 ports from the ftdi hub).

Turns out there is a solution to this problem with udev, iff your usb to serial adapters have serial numbers (my ftdi ones did, but my pl2303 ones did not), or if you only have one serial adapter of each brand (like ftdi, pl2303, keyspan).

In my case, I have (don't laugh), 11 serial devices on my server:

This is what you do with udev:

gargamel:~# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/50-local-usb-serial.rules 
# /etc/udev/rules.d/50-local-usb-serial.rules

# http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html#udevinfo
# was udevinfo -a -p /class/tty/ttyUSB0
# now udevadm info --attribute-walk -p /class/tty/ttyUSB0

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="FT232R USB UART", ATTRS{serial}=="A7006gvN", SYMLINK+="usb-serial-ftdi-8_1"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="FT232R USB UART", ATTRS{serial}=="A7006gvO", SYMLINK+="usb-serial-ftdi-8_2"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="FT232R USB UART", ATTRS{serial}=="A7006gvP", SYMLINK+="usb-serial-ftdi-8_3"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="FT232R USB UART", ATTRS{serial}=="A7006gvR", SYMLINK+="usb-serial-ftdi-8_4"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="FT232R USB UART", ATTRS{serial}=="A7006gvQ", SYMLINK+="usb-serial-ftdi-8_5"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="FT232R USB UART", ATTRS{serial}=="A7006gvS", SYMLINK+="usb-serial-ftdi-8_6"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="FT232R USB UART", ATTRS{serial}=="A7006gvT", SYMLINK+="usb-serial-ftdi-8_7"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="FT232R USB UART", ATTRS{serial}=="A7006gvU", SYMLINK+="usb-serial-ftdi-8_8"

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="FT232R USB UART", ATTRS{serial}=="A800dMFk", SYMLINK+="rfxcom"

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="USB-Serial Controller", ATTRS{manufacturer}=="Prolific Technology Inc.", SYMLINK+="usb-serial-pl2303"

After making a change udevadm trigger will update symlinks.