The Beginning...........

Why in the world.............You wanna automate...that?

So why reinvent the wheel........well in reality the wheel has been invented, and as far as I am concerned the improvements have been great...but when it comes to home automation, and programming, and electronics, though invented, there is a world yet to discover.

Im a huge fan of +Jonathan Oxer , the author of many great books, the first I read was Ubuntu Hacks. Several months ago I stumbled on his video series, Superhouse. Loved it! But as he stated in one of his popular "Walktime Blogs" there is no standardization for home automation, and he is right there is none. Oh sure there are software packages you can purchase, that operate lights and audio equipment, but I am a Open Source guy at heart, why buy when you can invent.........

Jonathan showed in his series for Superhouse, the basic principles he used to acquire the level of control that he has over nearly everything in his home. Got me to thinking......I have to tools, I can learn the code, there is no standard, really to follow, why not take on the challenge......if I succeed, great, if I fail I learned something....I fail often, but I take what I learned and turn that around....so why not.

Im approaching retirement in a few years. My goal is to have a hobby farm where I can grow my own food, enjoy the time building and working outside, but Im a tech guy at heart. It would be a lot of fun if I can take a low tech home, and bring it to the 21st century. I also thought that since I have the time, why not take the opportunity, now, while Im not doing anything building-wise, and spend the time and the research to write what I want, how I want, revising and upgrading as I wish.....I have a blank slate, why not try....

People call me nuts, I think its simplicity and practical. The cob home is  not only ecologically sound, but fun to build. This is what I have decided to build. Materials are cheap, the labor rough and the rewards great. 

So I have the plans, and soon the land, but in the meantime I thought why not make this house, something more, hence my idea, born out of so many other ideas, all rolled up into one.

The Basic building block.......Meet the Arduino

Aww the arduino, the basic building block of everything fantastic, the brains to do what you want, the ability to do it, with the right code, that is. I purchased my first UnoR3 back in March of 2013, currently I have 8, several I built myself. I have added the MEGA and recently built one based on the 644 MCU, and plans to go full scale with a 1280 and a 1281MCU boards. I cant say enough that with the right libraries, these guys preform hands down, far better than anything I have used in the past, including the BASICStamp and PICs. I love these guys, and have yet to stumble across anything they cant be programmed to do. But can they run a house, I decided to find out.

The Direction:

As I mentioned before, Im a huge fan of Jonathan Oxer. I learned from his series what his direction was for automating his house. I decided that I would use his ideas, and tweak them for myself. After all the OPEN SOURCE community shares ideas just for that purpose,so I took notes.

Jonathan's working version used nodes around the house, and a central controlling point. You can watch his series on YOUTUBE, and if you are thinking about doing this I highly suggest you do so. He explains things in detail without over explaining them. His system was based on a webserver, and using HTML "POSTS" to send messages back to a central server to process. My problem with that, is while Im an engineer at heart, HTML and I dont get along real well, in fact I am doing well to cut and paste code, and then wade through the endless tags to figure out what someone is trying to do. If you watch his first video in the series, he mentions MQTT, a messaging protocol thats super light weight and really cool. While I knew absolutely NOTHING about MQTT, I figured I could try, after all HTML loomed on the horizon carrying a big stick, waiting to pounce on me.....I chose MQTT.

SO..........
Thats the basis of this blog. While I have worked now for 9 months, learning and studying the code and the techniques, If you want to follow, perhaps you have such a plan too, you will see where I went wrong, and how I corrected the mistakes, and trust me there were many mistakes. But I look at it as this.....if you dont find it fun ...why bother.....My goal is to walk up to my house, have it recognize Im here, unlock the door, announce my welcome, turn on the lights for me, and ask me if Id like to hear some music, and that just after a long day working outside......Sound kinda fun? It did to me....so off I go