This is pretty much a recreation of the content from http://automation.highearthorbit.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page and should probably be considered a backup, or perhaps a secondary cache. Either way, HEO is the authoritative source; I've written a bunch of stuff on there and just wanted a "local" copy too. This means that you're likely to find missing pages here, at least until I sort out the import.

• [[Hardware]]
• [[Software]]
• [[Scripts]]

'''Read the [[UserStory]] to get an idea of where I'm going with this, or check out the [[WorkInProgress]].'''

== Overview ==

I am trying to get into home automation as I'm fascinated by the possibilities: an intelligent home which recognizes and adapts to its occupants, modifying the environment to best use the resources at hand; non-intrusive, pervasive technologies and a self-configuring, secure and ubiquitous information-mesh with auto-discovery of services. In "plainspeak", the kind of thing you learn to use very quickly and soon take for granted.

I also want ecologically sensible and planet-friendly solutions and experiments - wiring up your home (and subsequently your life) should use ''less'' energy because the intelligent home is smart enough to take advantage of environmental efficiency-tuning.

I'm renting, which means anything rigged up has to be just as easily removed without permanent damage, but the technology these days allows exactly that. It also means I'm unlikely to be able to run fibre-optics inside the walls, embed an LCD in the kitchen bench or behind the bathroom mirror, or rewire the electricity grid to take a feed from a solar-panel or/and wind turbine array. Perhaps when (if?) I buy my own place ...

=== Self-configuring, self-healing, secure, pervasive, ubiquitous information-mesh ===
(The longest heading ever.) I have a particular requirement for my network of intelligent (PCs), semi-intelligent (embedded controllers) and simple devices (remote switches and sensors) -- they should work seamlessly together, be able to automatically reconfigure quite quickly, and provide discoverable services to one another in a secure, non-intrusive way.

"Ubiquity" in this context refers to the services being discoverable and available via a number of different mechanisms -- i.e. remote control/reporting interfaces via web/HTTP, IM bots, VOIP, voice-activation and other interfaces.

In practice this means a number of things:

• The wireless (802.11g) computer network should be secure (WPA with PSK) and self-configuring ([[Zeroconf]])
• Services should be published via [[Avahi]]/[[DNS-SD]] (printers, music libraries, fileshares, web-interfaces)
• * Service-monitoring and self-repair should be running whenever possible

=== Eco considerations ===
There are a couple of reasons to try to be as energy efficient as possible when it comes to electronics and electrical goods: fiscal and ecological responsibility.

Electricity, for now at least, ''costs money'' and a few devices left on or on standby can quickly add up. In the past I've tended to have at least a couple of PCs on at any one time, and subsequently our power bill was always quite large -- that is money I could be spending on other things!

As for the impact we're having on poor Starship Earth, we ''need'' to increase efficiency just to continue life-support for our growing global population. Yup, I'm a fan of R. Buckminster Fuller's ephemeralization and intelligent designs -- always "doing more with less" and taking the full system into consideration "holistically".