Wow thank you guys so much for the help! I am learning a lot about what is required to do this the right way. I only want to do this once if you know what i mean. haha I obviously have a lot of research to do

Tameion: yes the original project i remember seeing was yours! thank you for the link

Rich... you are a man in demand.... Can you answer a couple of questions?

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 ...

I use HomeEasy outlets, they are just the bog standard, cheap, RF socket outlets. From what I have found out many unbranded ones are the same.

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)

// Send event to EventGhost
// Usage - SendEvent.php?event=MyEvent&REFERER=next.html

<?
function sendMsg($args)
{
    $fp = fsockopen($args["host"],$args["port"], $errno, $errstr, 10);
    
    if (!$fp)
    { //Something didn't work....
        echo "ERROR: $errno - $errstr\n";
        return FALSE;

    } else {

        fputs($fp, "quintessence\n\r");
        
        $cookie = fgets($fp, 400);      
        
        $cookie = trim($cookie);
        
        $token = $cookie . ":" . $args["password"];
        
        $digest = md5($token);
        
        $digest = $digest . "\n";
                
        fputs($fp, $digest );
        
        $res = fgets($fp, 400);
        
        if ( trim($res) != "accept" )
        {
             fclose($fp);
             return FALSE;
        }
        
        if (isset($args['payload']))
        {
            if (is_array($args['payload']))
            {
                foreach($args['payload'] as $key => $value)
                    fputs($fp, "payload " . $value . "\n");
            }else
            {
                if ( $args["payload"] <> "" )
                    fputs($fp, "payload ".$args["payload"]."\n");      
            }      
        }
        fputs($fp, $args["eventstring"]."\n");
        
        fputs($fp, "close\n");
        
        fclose($fp);
            
        return TRUE;
    }
}


if (isset($_GET))
{   
    if(isset($_GET['host']))
        $args['host'] = urldecode($_GET['host']);
    else
        $args['host'] = '192.168.0.100';
    $args['port'] = 8083;
    $args['password'] = '';
    $args['eventstring'] =  urldecode($_GET['event']);
    foreach($_GET as $key => $value)
        if(strcasecmp(substr($key, 0, 3), 'pld') == 0)
            $args['payload'][] = urldecode($value);
    sendMsg($args);
    if(!isset($_GET['REFERER']))
        $_GET['REFERER'] = "control.html";
    header("Location: http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']
           . dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])
           ."/".$_GET["REFERER"]);
}
?>

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)

Thanks RICH

This might interest you both...

https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/1835&page=3

do you guys think that this relay could get the job done for each outlet?

relay

They look as good as any... Just makesure they are optically isolated and you follow best practice if working with mains voltages...

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.

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!

Good advice. And by not modifying the mains equipment you don't invalidate the warranty either

hey rich (side note) Im really interested in Jarvis. have you created a showcase project? im really interested.

Back to the automated room topic.