HouseBot

This topic has been discussed before but it's been quite some time. And since I'm building a new house I'm looking for ideas of what functions to implement in my HouseBot configuration.

I currently control all of my AV equipment using the USB-UIRT and a Xantech ZPR68 (for the switching and IR distribution).

Lighting is mostly UPB (controlled by my HAI OmniPro II using my HB plugin for the Omni). I also have a few X-10 switches controlled using the PowerLinc.

I get weather information via a serial device and script that reads and processes information from my Davis Weather Monitor II weather station.

I also have caller ID screen pops using an internal modem.

I'm always looking for cool new things to do with HouseBot but for the installation in my new house I have a couple of specific things I want to do and I'm looking for suggestions.

First is that I will be installing at least three security cameras. I haven't yet figured out a brand or model although I'm leaning towards something that uses CAT5e to make the installation easy. I also haven't figured out if there is a good way to interface the cameras into HouseBot and what kinds of things I might do with them if they were.

I think at least one or two of the "Power Users" have cameras in their installations and I'd love to hear what people are doing. Also if people have a recommended camera brand/model let me know.

The other item is that I would love to somehow be able to integrate my phone system and/or voicemail in HouseBot. My current phone system is a Panasonic KX-TD816. It has an RS-232 port but I haven't gone searching to see if I can get a protocol definition document.

I'm not against using some other type of voicemail system (PC-based, separate hardware, etc) if it provided a nice method for integration with HouseBot. I know that Richard Nanick does something with phone integration - is anyone else doing anything like this?

I'm also toying around with the idea of controlling my sprinkler system via HouseBot. I would also include a moisture sensor in the installation. I could also do this using my OmniPro II but doing it with HouseBot would provide much greater programming possibilities. Has anyone done this? I know there is an RS-232 irrigation controller that might work quite well (http://www.wgldesigns.com/rain8pc.html)

Other than the above items I would be very interested to hear the kinds of things that other users are doing with their HouseBot systems - especially anything unique or "over-the-top" (as Richard likes to say ).

-- Dave

You may want to be able to control your house by phone. I developed a phone plugin that allows remote control by phone. It can also announce through the speaker who is calling. It can also initiate phone calles.
I will probably share it when the sharing forum will be available.

Adding sensors is relatively easy. You can think of several tasks that can be performed when sensors are activated. Examples: When the wind is too strong (wind detector), fold the umbrella. When it is rainning (rain detector), bring the shutters down. When it is too dark (photocell detector), turn on some lights. You can have temperature sensors, smoke detectors, movement detectors (PIR), door magnet sensors etc...

One thing that I plan to have is a pandora plugin. http://www.pandora.com gives free music of your choice.

I got one or two for you.

Buy an ELK M1 Gold (like I did last week) and sensor up your whole house. Create floorplan panels and see which doors and windows are open or closed.
This alarm system is really an over the top item if it comes to home automation and integration of different systems. I am writing an interface script as we speak for this alarm and it starts to look really good. It has keypads with textlines, spoken voice messages and temperature sensors. All of which are programmable via rs232. You can come home, disarm your alarm, run my email script and see how many emails you have on your keypad right on your doorstep (or have the count spoken via a speaker by the alarm itself). the keypad also contains function keys. Via HouseBot you could open your garagedoor using an F key, or even start your sprinkler installation. For me, this is just the beginning. The more functions I script away, the bigger the ideas section grows.
Use your alarm sensors (PIR's) as motion sensors for controlling your lights in the house when the sun is set and the alarm is not armed. Create automatic / manual buttons for these functions and script it so that it turns to manual when you light up your beamer to watch a movie.

Buy yourself a fireplace that runs on gas and have it remote controlled.

I can control HouseBot via the phone using my integrated phone system, but I never find myself using it because the internet is just everywhere these days. I once had to phone my garage door open because I locked myself out and obviously I was not carrying my IPaq to internet my garage door open.

Buy the new FS20 wireless radiator switches to control the heating part of your house. That is if you have radiators. FS20 will be the next thing for me after I finish the ELK alarm.

As for camera's, that is my greatest desire. I would love to have streaming video in a theme. Having transparent theme panels with native camera software behind them is not good enough since it will only work on the server and not on remote panels. Unreal Media could be the key here. Let's just wait and see what happens in next releases of HouseBot. One thing is for sure, HouseBot is alive again so we can hope for the best!

I guess I could go on here but it is late here now.......

I will be buying another HAI OmniPro II (similar to the Elk) and doing the same things. In my current house I have motion detectors in every room and switches on every window and door. I have HB devices created for all of them and I use them to trigger events. I even have a relay connected to the garage door opener button and a switch on the door itself. If I arm the alarm and the garage door is still open I close it automatically.

I also have a zoned heating system and I have programming that shuts off the zone thermostat if any of the windows for that zone are open (this is so I can open the windows to cool off the house early in the morning without the heater coming on only to activate the air conditioner later because it got very warm).

My new house will have a gas fireplace and I never thought about automating it - nice idea.

I really like your ideas about email integration but I'm not sure how that works. I assume that you would need to be running HouseBot on whatever PC you use to read your email. For example I use Outlook on my main PC and I leave it running all the time. Given that I don't see how a plugin could open and read the PST file since Outlook on my desktop will always have it open. Am I missing something?

I am going to be getting speaker/voice modules for my keypads in the new house. I like the idea of reading the number of new emails when the alarm is disarmed.

As you can see I will have plenty of infrastructure - now I just need ideas for what I can do with it . It appears that things are getting more active on the forum now so hopefully that will generate more ideas.

Wow, seems to me you missed some info in your first post. You pretty much got it all covered. Nice idea to combine window states with temperature control.

About the email: HouseBot runs a continuous running script that checks every two minutes if I have email on one of my 4 email accounts. It will display the Sender, Subject, DateTime and Attachment names in an alpha list. By selecting a line in the alpha list, the email text will be displayed in another alpha list. Deleteing emails is also an option. It keeps total counters and pops up a panel when new mail has arrived. It does NOT delete emails from the server provider. This obviously only works if outlook is not running unless the emails are preserved at the server provider by outlook and HouseBot deletes them at your provider. So my email script does not interface outlook.pst, but reads from the provider directly using (third party) Ostrosofts dll for handling pop3 objects.

Yes - I am doing a whole bunch of stuff but I figure there is always more that I can do . Hopefully discussions like this will give more ideas to lots of us.

For email I should be able to implement your method. I host my own email (I am the provider). I leave Outlook running on my main machine but when I download to Outlook using POP3 I have it leave the emails on the server for 10 days. This allows me to use IMAP from work (or my laptop) to check the email as well. I should be able to use your POP3 code and just leave the emails on the server. I don't necessarily need this function but it would be fun to play with. Would you mind sending me an export of the device/script/task?

yaccri: you mentioned that your phone plugin can announce the caller over a speaker. I've actually wanted to implement voice output for HB for a while but I'm not sure how best to do it. Are you just using the sound card in your HB server? If so are you just using the local speakers or did you run something to a more central location?

dlmorgan999:
I have the sound card connected to an old amplifier. The amplifier is driving a 6.5" in-wall speaker that is located in the living-room.