A few days ago, I started a process that involves very heavy file processing operations that take anywhere from 10 minutes on the low side to 30 minutes on the high side. Wanting to be as efficient as possible and not let the computer sit idle for any meaningful length of time, and since the …
One of my ongoing home automation frustrations is the interface between my Ademco Alarm Panel and the Raspberry Pi I use to monitor the panel’s bus traffic. The problem that I have is a termination of the USB connection between the AD2USB (AlarmDecoder) that taps into the Ademco panel and the Pi itself. This always …
Detecting Failed AD2USB to Raspberry Pi Connections Read More »
I recently bought a couple of Dayton Audio MA1240a Twelve Channel Multi-Zone Amplifiers to power the speakers I have throughout my home. What drew me to this particular amp was its fair price and the fact that it has an “Auto” setting that senses a signal on the RCA line-level inputs that is supposed to …
Back in February 2013 I wrote an article entitled “Hacking a Fireplace”. In that article I wrote about how I used an Arduino to create an interface that would allow me to directly control my fireplaces from my home automation system. That solution worked great and I was successful in running two fireplaces from the …
My regular readers know that I have implemented an extensive home automation system that allows full control and automation of everything from doors to lights to fireplaces to full multi-zone temperature management and includes various tracking and reporting functionality. One of the items that I’ve been tracking for years is the level of ink in …
UPDATE – Read Hacking a Fireplace – Revisited for an alternative approach to this hack. I’ve been building my home automation system for years and have achieved extensive lighting, climate, entertainment, security and entry control. Never satisfied, I’m forever pondering potential refinements that would enhance the overall effectiveness and capability of my system. I recently …
When we receive a first-time visitor to our home they ALWAYS ask about the whole-home control panel mounted in our family room. This panel allows us to control and obtain status on just about every aspect of our house from a single location. This, invariably, leads to questions about what my Home Automation (HA) system …
If you tinker with technology then chances are you already know what the “Internet of Things” is all about. If you don’t know, then my question to you is, where have you been!? For those of you not in the know, here’s a quick primer. “The Internet of Things is a network of Internet-enabled objects, …
In my first post, in this three-part series, I wrote about how I physically interfaced my Ademco Alarm Panel to my Home Automation computer. In this article, I will show you how to capture the data stream that comes through that interface, how to parse it and then how to make use of it in …
In my last post I wrote about interfacing my Ademco alarm panel into my Home Automation (HA) network. Since I completed the installation I have had an on again and off again problem with the Mac receiving output from the AD2USB unit. The problem manifested itself via the Serial Bridge software (more on that later) …
