Hacking Together A Heating System
by Huntly on Oct.05, 2010, under House Electronics, House Software, House Updates
For the last while I've been busy coding our heating system, it has now been in production for a few days and it hasn't failed - yet! I figured that since it's running ok, I would write up the software side of things. Scott's written up the hardware side of things and how he created the graphs with PHP. There's a lot of content in this post so I've added in some navigation links.
.JPG "Deathtrap Anybody?")
.JPG "Fixed now - the heating relay box")
.JPG "El Creator Del Contoller")
.JPG "The Brains of the system....")
We Have Heating!
by Scott on Sep.27, 2010, under House Photos
After a fairly longish wait - we finally have heating - after taking something which *should* be incredibly simple... and overcomplicating it to the max.... using a metric crap-load of electronics too...
A quick peek at the upstairs…
by Scott on Sep.27, 2010, under House Photos
The upstairs is nearly completed now! Just a few finishing touches to go, and we are cookin' with gas - so to speak....
Woo!
by Scott on Sep.21, 2010, under House Updates
It's very nearly here! 100meg symmetric fibre! Get in!
www.getreadydundee.com
The new windows
by Scott on Aug.29, 2010, under House Updates
More work has begun - loud, messy and noisy is the best way to describe it... or maybe this video is...
Update 02/08/2010
by Scott on Aug.02, 2010, under House Photos
Righty, been a bit lax with the camera again - photos from over the weekend, hopefully gives an idea on what we've been up to over the last week!
Scott
House Git Repo
by Scott on Jul.22, 2010, under House Software
Just to let you all know, the git repo for the house is moved (is moving?) to git.dundeesmarthome.net (Cheers Huntly!)
We've also now setup an email server for this site, so emails now route correctly - yay!
Huntly has also put together an article explaining how to setup the git server for public cloning - see his site for details;
Whats on the list….
by Scott on Jul.20, 2010, under House Planning
Righty, so now we've gotten a few things working - but whats next?!?
Well, tonight I plan to floor the rest of the attic, and then we can move more crap outta the living room and tidy up a bit! (Id like to have the house done this side of doomsday, so ya'kno...)
Seriously though - you've no idea how tempting it is to hook up the DMX boards and have a play with the lights as well, should be pretty simple.
The only rule I'll be remembering is - ooh, I think I'll develop on the local system I've got rather than the server.
Also, it looks like we may start to use a distributed database and network fault aware applications - it became blindingly obvious that a seemingly simple oversight would cripple the network... I mean, come on.... how was I to know the house could just randomly crash....
First Success!
by Huntly on Jul.19, 2010, under House Software
Remote Blind Control, FTW!
It has been made publicly aware that I am a failure, and indeed I'll admit that I'm an idiot at the best of times. Kind of like a nerdy Frank Spencer. But I feel that I've redeemed myself by now having a fully working remote control blind that one can hook into using standard TCP Sockets from any programming language that supports such things. I'm quite proud, and as such have forced scott to take a short video on his iPhone to show its workings.
The Proof
The goings on
What's going on behind the scenes is described in my blog post as well as a discussion on how the client code works.
Update
The software can now be obtained from our own git server by doing the following:
For the blind control software:
git clone http://git.dundeesmarthome.net/blindcontrol.git
For the house control API (allowing remote blind control):
git clone http://git.dundeesmarthome.net/homecontrolapi.git
For my dead simple command line python app to control the blinds:
git clone http://git.dundeesmarthome.net/pyblindcontrol.git
Failure is always an option..
by Scott on Jul.19, 2010, under House Failures
..Especially when you decide it would be funny to code and debug on a live server....
Here's how my morning went..
"Oh its a lovey day, I'm off to work - so I suppose I'd better open my blinds... Hmm... this is odd? I cant seem to connect to the server.. oh well, I'll do it later"
*heads out*
"oh, huntly hasnt shut his blind - better do that, hmm... still cant connect... how very very odd..."
So I go to work anyway - you can really tell I was concerned....
But what had gone wrong you say - with the fool-proof system that we were developing...
Well, the issue was that nature had come up with a better fool, who had decided to code and debug on a production server - thats rule #1 of any dev handbook!
And cue some self-admissions....
I rest my case...