Today if you want to electronically control your home you have a lot of opportunities. But this book is different. It is not about X10, ZigBee, Z-wave or one of the many other leading or even bleeding edge systems, which can be acquired today. This book is about a do-it-your-self system made out of re-use. Why? - well, because you have just got to do something with your old technology gathering dust and you dont want to spend a fortune on equipment.
The main system described in this book re-uses an old PC, a wireless mains outlet - with 3 switches and one controller - and a USB web camera. All this is linked together by Linux - as it can be acquired free of charge.
This book brings you ALL the basics of how to set up a Linux environment - including a software development environment - so it can be used as a control center. It guides you through the necessary setup and configuration of a web server, which will be the interface to your control centre. New edition enhancements include details of extending the capabilities of your control center with ports for a mobile phone -for SMS messaging - and the Elektor "thermo snake" - for low-cost networked real-time thermal monitoring of your house and outbuildings. Now you can additionally also send all kinds of useful temperature and sensor warnings to a mobile phone.
Recommended prerequisite experience is just some small exposure to PC software and hardware, including ability to surf the Internet, burn a CD-rom and assemble a small PCB or two.
And of course, Yes! - I still kept a handle on your development costs - all custom software for the enhanced control centre is both listed in the book and is available for free download from Elektors homepage.