hey ez-builders! I was looking to automate my room using the ez-board. I planned on being able to turn things on and off, weather reports, checking rss feeds, etc. I have a desktop computer in my room that i never use but would be perfect to run the software 24/7. To control outlet power/power strip for each individual plug Im assuming i would need some type of relay in line with the plug? The programming would be the easy part. However Im not sure what i would need so that the digital port on the board can interact with the plugs. Does anyone have a safe and reliable way of going about controlling outlet plugs so i don't electrocute myself or burn my house down?
I feel like I remember someone doing this a long time ago with their workshop. But i was unable to find the thread again. Any help or suggestions would be great! I just saw the new iron man/stark industries piece that disneyland put in the innovations building and want to build my own Jarvis-like system using a dedicated ez-board and desktop
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Relay cards are widely available on eBay to be used with arduino and many other boards that can simply be connected to ezb to do the job. Safe and easy to plug in.
Just use 5v input signal to control
Example:
Two channel relays
More options:
Other options is to have easybulb led bulbs that can be controlled wirelessly thru ARC on your laptop or your mobile that activate any lamp or light intensity depending on room normal light or demand.
Air conditioner or fans can be controlled using thermometer sensors connected to your computer and EZB.
You can use IR transmitter with EZB o control your TV and home surrounding systems.
Automated door lock for your room.
Simply look for arduino sensors and should do the job with EZB.
Just ideas that , where you can find sensors easily on eBay. with your programming skills you can reach your target easily.
More on it in this thread too
I did hack a couple of multi boards and put a 6-way relay unit into them. See:
http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/posts.aspx?threadId=1835&page=1
I made sure to keep things safe by using the first two relays as a power breaker where one had to be on and the other off in order for the unit to receive power. This way if the data line was dropped or the system went mad and all lines went high then the power would not go to the board.
I have continued to script in and around home automation. I'ill post something in the next few days as school holidays approach here in New Zealand.
@Tameion
PHK05 this is what i did. Just wired remote to ezb and now i can have robot turn on/off any light or what ever i have pluged in. It is nice because i can turn on lights on second floor and did not have to run wires
But since it's not exactly EZ-B driven I've not posted much info on it. Once Melvin is talking to it properly, and it talking to Melvin I may expand on it all.
An old demo of the voice guided system, it's been improved since.
All of that can be done via HTTPGet()
Lighting control first test (again, it's been greatly improved since then)
It's all still work in progress. Jarvis has no physical presence which will change once Melvin is finished. It also does so much more than I've recorded (mainly based around media playback but lights, outlets, energy usage, temperature etc. are all running through him) but lack of time has stopped me from doing any more demos... heck I still have no proper interface for it!..
To add, something I have recently discovered (well I knew it was there but didn't look at it) is the command line controls through telnet. Those are easy to interface.
More will come on that all once Melvin is finished and Jarvis becomes a physical entity rather than just a voice.
I plan to use some EZ-Bs on it too for some fancy lighting effects, curtain motors and a few other things.
Tameion: yes the original project i remember seeing was yours! thank you for the link
Q1: What were the, " RF outlets and modules (very cheap), an RF tranceiver," you mentioned? Do you have a web address?
You have already introduced me to EventGhost and it is doing some of the leg work for me too...
But I am loving calling Exec directly from ARC... especially to open a web page or play a music file at a set time.
Q2: Can you give me an example of the "very basic PHP code to broadcast over the network" and the HTTPGet function to operate anything connected to the system." that you used....
It would save me a lot of time ...
It uses a USB RF Transceiver from RFXCom. The RFXtrx433
Also, it picks up OWL energy meters and a bunch more so it can log electric usage.
Temperature, humidity, external temp etc. all work differently through some custom python scripts, web pages, but requires linux so another PC. It's specific to my controls so will be useless here so wont post the full details yet.
The php code (never looked at tidying it up)
Code:
REFERER is the page that should be displayed after the link
Hopefully the forum formatting hasn't done much damage to the above.
Then just httpget("SendEvent.php?event=MyEvent&REFERER=next.html") and event is broadcast to EG.
Voice controls are done through VoxCommando however ARC could take it's place easily (mine is just all set up now so I haven't moved it over)
This might interest you both...
http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/posts.aspx?threadId=1835&page=3
relay
Ie. Check, recheck and then check again. And find a sparkie to check it one last time for you.
Anything I am doing at the moment has two relays turning on the device power... see pic.
This way I have to turn one off and the other on even before the device receives power.... A bit old school but I feel safer... as well as that if the EZRobot pins high or all pins low for some reason my project will not power up by mistake.
I tend not to mod the actual mains device and only mod tthe multi board it plugs into... maintaining device integrity.
Most importantly... keep safe!
Back to the automated room topic.
also, what windows voice are you using for JARVIS
The page continues down covering energy cost for daily, days of week, week total, month, previous month, year etc. and controls and status for lights, windows, doors, media players... it's only the alpha code, I need to get on and build a better looking UI for it all.
Any of this information is also available to Melvin through some clever HTTPGet scripting and PHP code. With it Melvin will know what temperature it is, if the doors or windows are open, if I'm home... he can know more than I do.
It also stores and lists all of my media (TV shows, Movies, Music) and synchronizes all media players libraries, updating watched status and even remembering where it was paused or stopped so it can be resumed in a different room. Automatically downloads TV shows if my PVR misses them for any reason (and more which I wont divulge)
Just added a few security cameras to it too, which I plan to use so Melvin will be directed to where ever an alert is triggered, using his camera will give me a better view.
He even posts on facebook and twitter by himself, scrobbles watched TV and movies to trakt and music to last.fm...
Can make images on the fly, if this works these should be dynamically updated when refreshed...
I could go on but I'm hijacking a topic with something not yet EZ-B related (it will be though) I'll let you know the url for the website I'll be making detailing it all once I find time to make it.
And the voice is cereproc's William. Melvin will probably be given a cereproc voice too since they are pretty realistic and accurate but aren't free.
Anyway, back on to the topic before I get into trouble... although hopefully this has given people some ideas for their own Jarvis
www.cepstral.com/en/demos
Very similar... very nice!