Gordon Meyer
1 All about X10
Technical people are always looking for ways that technology can improve and enrich their lives. Smart homes-or home automation-has always seemed like something more from science fiction than science fact. However, after reading this book, the truth is that creating a smart home is easier and far less technical than most people think. This book provides the reader with 100 tips or things that can be done (some quite easy, some might take longer to complete) to automate your home.
Contrary to what you might think, much of what you can do with home automation doesn't require your home to be re-wired. Instead, much of what you might want to accomplish (like having your computer automatically turning on or off lights in the house while you're on vacation) can be done very easily through X10 modules. X10 modules are relatively inexpensive components which can send signals over power lines. Once you understand X10, many of the more straightforward hacks in this book make a lot of sense.
Other projects you'll find in this book include a home monitoring system, a smart sprinkling system, sending messages of what's happening at home to a cell phone or pager, and even controlling your home from a web browser. While some of these projects may sound a bit Orwellian, they are actually very interesting and can make your home a safer place to live. Instead of becoming a victim when a toilet or washing machine overflows, you can put preemptive measures in place to be alerted before a problem occurs.
This is a very interesting book and a must read if you've ever considered home automation. Not only will this book step you through some projects, but it will give you some excellent ideas for the future. I enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend it.
2 Use X10 Technology to Hack Home Devices
The essence of home automation is using specialized equipment that can control your lamps, appliances, heater, and air conditioning, and perhaps sense where in the house people are located. Every automation system is built upon these building blocks. Once these methods are in place, it's really not much of a stretch to have some actions performed automatically. For example, once you have the ability to detect when a person has left a room, turning off any lights that she might have left on is not much of a technical challenge.
This book focuses almost exclusively on using X10-based home automation technology. Technically speaking, X10 is a power-line carrier (PLC) communications method. This means it sends signals using the electrical wiring in your home, not unlike Morse code. Your appliances, lights, and everything else you have plugged into your home's electrical system continue to work: X10 sneakily adds its signals onto the wires in a way that standard AC equipment does not notice. However, when you have equipment that is tuned to listen to X10 commands, that equipment can be controlled as if by magic, reacting to signals sent by you, your computer, or even other X10 devices.
3 This book isn't a step by step how to ... & that's good too.
The author covers HA from the prospective of the MAC, OSX, XTension HA software and mostly X10 but don't hold that against him as it's not the goal of the book. I treated this book as more of an idea book and almost all the ideas are portable to other scriptable/extendable software. It's for those of us who have a little imagination, some programming experience and the willingness to put a little effort into programming. It is in no way a recipe book where you follow the directions step by step to build a project. I really like the book and I really find it perfect for bathroom reading (you can read a section pretty quick to get your ideas). :-)
And I forgive the author for not cover Linux better. :-)
4 Not Smart, not hacks, just basic X-10 for the Home
If you have ever installed an X-10 module then this book is a waste of your money. I purchased this book based on the reputation of O'Reilly as a publisher. But after reading this book I will not make that mistake again.
This book contains very basic X-10 information, so if you are intrested in exploring the use of X-10 for the first time this book might be interesting, but I think there are far better places to start.
Examples... Hack #1 discribes basic X-10 addressing, hack #2 tells you how to turn on a light.... What a joke. Hack #88 "Streamline your Apple scripts" Well, like 95% of the world this has no use to me... I use a PC. Anothe Mac only hack is #91 which is using the mac iCAL program. There is no PC version. Hack #92 is for Charting... And you guessed it... It is for the MAC AGAIN! #93, MAC again...
So keep lookng this book not worth the money.
5 Fantastic resource for X10
This is the first quality book that I have found on X10. It's invaluable. Both the hardware and software (for PC and Mac) are covered in depth here. There is coverage of the basics; turning on and off lights, using control boxes and timers, and using a PC as your control hub. But, as with the other Hacks books there are other more esoteric topics as well. Such as heating your toilet seat, managing your sprinkler system, and using X10 for security. An excellent book. A must buy for X10 users.
6 wide range of hardware
In yesterday's visions of tomorrow, a seductive scenario was the automated home. Meyer discusses how this is increasingly an affordable reality. The common factor between many of his hacks is the X10 standard for communicating with a device that is plugged into the electric grid, via that grid. Low bandwidth. But pervasive connectivity. On a related note, recently a government decision enabled electric utilities to offer Internet access via their power lines.
Unlike many other O'Reilly books on hacks, this one covers a wide range of hardware. Because the possible home automation topics are very diverse. From security (via motion detectors for example) to motorising window blinds to mowing the lawn to forwarding phone calls. The appliances for these come from many vendors. And some of the hacks are really low tech, though they are not bad because of that, mind you.
Meyer restricts himself to hacks that are achievable now. For maximum utility to you. He could also have added some speculation about future trends. Like IPv6, the next generation of the Internet. This will enable appliances, all the way down to light bulbs, to have their own internet addresses, and be remotely controlled. If you look carefully at many of the hacks that use X10, you can see the potential. The biggest impediment may be cost. Thus, many appliances don't implement X10. Imagine though that the cost became negligible. And X10 merged into IPv6, at perhaps the physical/data link levels. The scope of the hacks would be greatly enhanced. Ah well, we'll just have to wait for the future.
