LexfordPARC

xAP to Idratek - Home Automation (Part1)

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:40:03 +0000

As I have posted before I am in the early stages of automating my home to make it smarter and interact better with the people (and dog) that live within it. My system is based on the Idratek system, which is a UK company that is very supportive.

The following "How-to..." guide was written by "Kevin" in response to a question I asked on the Automated Home forum pages (http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2108). I have just reformatted it for easier reading and added screenshots to make it easier to follow.

In summary the guide explains how to take temperature readings from a laptop using Speedfan (http://www.almico.com/) and over the xAP protocol have these mapped into the Idratek Cortex software and output to a new Idratek DFP02 display panel. It is relatively simple example which doesn't require any additional hardware to demonstrate the capabilities of both xAP and Idratek.

The guide assumes the following have already been installed and configured:

- xAP software, xFx Hub, running on same computer as Cortex
- xAP software, xFx Viewer, running on the same computer as Cortex
- Speedfan with xAP protocol enabled, can be on the same machine as Cortex or any other machine on the same network subnet
- Licensed version of Cortex from Idratek with the additional Home-Automation module.

The xFx Express Hub must always be the first application to start in the Cortex / xAP stack so that it can handle subsequent requests from additional xAP applications (including Cortex). All additional xAP enabled applications will then start successfully and register against the hub rather than one application starting successfully and the remaining failing (the first app hogs the port, UDP 3639)

The xfx Viewer shows the xAP messages that are broadcasting around the network. It makes it much easier to see what is going on as well as diagrammatically list the various xAP applications and devices. You can also resend xAP messages, which can prove very useful when testing, rather than wait for messages to be resent.

Speedfan is a utility that mainly reports temperature and fan speeds on a computer, it can control the fans and clock speeds if you feel adventurous. It is simple at what it does but advanced in its implementation. It has been chosen in this exercise because of its xAP enablement and it is readily available.

Finally, in this first part it is necessary to ensure the Cortex software from Idratek is enabled for the Home-Automation module. The HA activation is an additional fee and requires a new license code.

NEW YEAR 2009

Fri, 2 Jan 2009 20:29:43 +0000

Hey,

Before I get onto anything check out this link. My uncle's photos are absolutely amazing. Seriously they rock my socks =]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71492355@N00/

So Far its been Paul's nonsense thats been put up on this website. As soon as I can make a page that will be changed. But at the moment I will have to make do with annoying him over these blog things. (Which are quite boring too.)

Anyway, first off. Happy New Year. Hope everyone has a good 2009.

And second, hope you all had a great Christmas.

(I'm an angel really!) Besides this place needs jazzing up a bit! =]

BECKY

xXxXxXx

From bin to plate

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:46:51 +0100

For a few years now we have been inspired to grow a few simple things ourselves. Although we have a moderate garden for a modern house it is not ready to grow a full assortment of vegetables. However, after seeing Gardener's World (I must be getting really old) we have tried growing potatoes in a plastic dustbin. We just drilled a few holes in the bottom to make sure the water can escape then filled the inside bottom 2" with stones and broken pots to act as drainage.

The soil this year was a mix of the garden soil which is Weald Clay and our own compost from a couple of bins that have been on the go for about a year. The seed potatoes came from Thompson & Morgan (sorry can't remember the variety) and were planted by Christopher in March.

As you can see the 4 seed potatoes have produced quite a good yield with minimal maintenance. It is hugely satisfying to grow your own vegetables, nuture the plants and then expectantly tip them out to see what you have produced. It is still a wonderful surprise to see golden yellow objects in the soil and to dig around to see how many have been produced.

Ultimately we want to grow more food for ourselves from a couple of beds. But I have to slightly terrace the back of the garden and also add space for a swing chair for the late summer evenings (glad I didn't get round to it this year!). But it does show that you can grow just about anything yourself with a minimum amount of space. The children still get very excited at planting and then seeing the results. The crops also tested good and it is very rewarding to know what you are eating is what you have grown.

Restarting an old hobby

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:29:45 +0100

A long time ago when I was a youthful teenager I was quite into photography and had a 35mm SLR Praktica camera that I learnt to use. Manual exposure with the in-built light meter, varying the depth of field and shutter speed to get effects. I even dabbled at devloping the film.

That was quite some time ago now and since then I have tended to use compact digital cameras. My last camera was an improvement and was a Fuji S5000 which allowed control of exposure, shutter speed, etc. However, it still had a non-changeable lens but took some pretty good pictures. The picture on the top of the family web page was taken with it and is a shot of Eastbourne from Beachy Head. With the arrival of Lucy both Ali, Becky and I have been snapping pictures and I decided to revitalise the old hobby.

After a bit of research and a few forum posts it was obvious that the two manufacturers of choice for DSLR cameras are Nikon and Canon. In the end I went for the Canon EOS 450D as it came highly recommended and slightly lighter than the equivalent Nikon. I placed an order with WarehouseExpress and received the camera and 18-55mm lens the following day. Must say I am very impressed and it has all the functions I was looking for, it will take a good few months to understand all of them. However, even leaving everything as auto produces some good pictures. I have signed up for a Flickr Pro account which allows more flexibility than a normal account.

Today came a second parcel, this time a lens, Canon EF-S 55-250mm. Not had a chance to use it in the field as of yet but just playing indoors suggests it is going to be very useful.

So the hobby of old has been rekindled and to some respect it is cheaper than the old days because you no longer have to pay for film and then have it developed only to discover most of the pictures are rubbish.

At this point I must mention my brother-in-law, Phil, he also has a Flickr account but is a far superior photographer to me and has taken some absolutely stunning pictures. Highly recommend you keep an eye on his collection. He has an amazing eye for capturing truly exquisite pictures.

As for Lucy, well here she is looking innocent after chasing the water hose and digging up various plants....

One last pic before I sleep

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:05:59 +0100

Here is the new addition to the family, Lucy.

Lucy is a Golden Retriever that has joined our household and is now 10 weeks old. She is settling in pretty well to her new surroundings and we in turn are getting used to her.

She has only had her first vaccination so walkies haven't started. She has a lot of energy and quite confident. Only real issue we are dealing with at the moment is biting during play. Hopefully, we'll have that sorted out shortly.

Puppy classes start in a few weeks but I am not sure who is being taught Lucy or Alison and I.

One small change

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:08:39 +0100

If anyone is currently viewing the webpage you may have noticed the addition of weather information for where we live in the top right-hand corner of the header?

It is a small addition that was working on my home server but not on my hosted website. Basically I use a web hosting package from Zen Internet, they also provide our broadband connection. The Linux based web hosting server was running PHP version 4.x and the Nucleus plugin needed libaraies only included in PHP 5.xFortunately Zen have started upgrading the underlying servers and cPanel interface, Zen Linux Upgrade, the new platform allows PHP 5.0 as well as many other benefits over the previous version. I raised a support ticket to have my domain moved to a new serer rather than wait for my existing cPanel server to be upgraded. I requested this on Tuesday and by Thursday I was being hosted on the new platform. Nice one Zen.

So why did I need PHP 5.x? Well the weather information as I said comes from a Nucleus plugin, NP_WeatherReport, which pulls an XML feed from The Weather Channel. It uses the SimpleXML library that is part of the core php 5.0 release. Really didn't fancy re-writing the plugin to do a page scrape especially as I am new to PHP.

One problem I did have to resolve was the original plugin used the call, file_get_content which is considered a security risk by Zen Webhosting, they aren't the only ones judging by the number of hits on Google. So I had to find another call that was supported, thankfully this was in the form of the CURL library. I also found a nice blog entry explaining the basic use of CURL to grab an XML feed.

So then it was just a case of updating the plugin to use CURL instead of Get_Content.

A small addition to the site but quite a lot of changes to implement!

All Change

Sun, 6 Jul 2008 22:59:41 +0100

Once again the website has had a makeover and this is mainly because the old one was too difficult to maintain with a short amount of freetime. The new version is based around Blog software called Nucleus. I am hoping it will be easier to maintain and add content.
So far it has been pretty easy to setup and customise and the support forums seem pretty well frequented with useful feedback. I have kept most things as default to again make it easier to administer. The additional functionallity comes in plugins which are easy to upload and manage. Apart from the anti-SPAM plugins I have also used the following:
- NP_Calendar by Admun
- NP_WeatherReport by Edelpils (which I have then customised)

The widget showing the current music that we are playing is from Last.fm and is fed directly from our home when we are playing music from our Squeezebox 3 and running Slimdevices Squeezecenter software.

I have a to do list which is currently:
- Add a photo section and link through the blog
- Add a counter, probably going to use NP_DBUCounter but can't get it to work at the moment

Embarrasing

Sun, 6 Jul 2008 22:58:11 +0100

Hmm August seems such a long time ago! Updating the website unfortunately takes a low priority over other things mainly work and household projects. But now we are in the depths of winter just maybe I�ll get back to sorting out the website. Well we live in hope!
Last night Alison and I were at the Brighton Centre to see Crowded House in concert. We were not disappointed it was a great gig with plenty of songs from the extensive collection of singles. The band were very interactive with the audience with the usual sing-alongs (some might say cheesy, but it didn�t seem so) and banter between the band members. Set was about 1 hour 45 minutes with 2 encores with the band band playing the classics �Weather with You� in the first and �Four Seasons in One Day�(both from Woodface) in the second. The main set had a mixture of the old favourites, new songs from the current album, Time on Earth, and even some more obscure songs that possibly only die-hard Crowded House fans recognised.

Final mention must go to the support band, Duke Special, who were very good and had a unique sound that started the evening off well. I�ll be listening to some more of their music on Last.fm.

I�m hoping to Blog more on our home-automation system soon as it has moved away from testing and experimenting to control appliances in the house.

Long time without an update

Sun, 6 Jul 2008 22:55:08 +0100

As with all the best laid plans my statement in May about updating the website has taken a little longer than first planned. I have been spending a lot of time at work which has been even more hectic than usual. When I do have time at home I have been trying to finish off the refurbishment of the kitchen which has dragged on for far too long. More details to follow once I have completely finished.
I have also been spending more time on my home-automation setup which is from Idratek (www.idratek.com), it is moving from a lab/bench environment and into a fully deployed HA system. Again more to follow shortly and why I find this hobby so interesting and how it is saving me energy.

Finally, we are trying to find our fourth au-pair for the coming year. We have really enjoyed sharing our home with our previous three au-pairs, all of whom have been from the Czech Republic. It has been a very rewarding experience learning about another country and culture with a young person. Hopefully, they have also enjoyed their time in the UK and learnt more about the language, culture and day to day life of living in the South of England.