Hey Carlos sorry I'm chiming in late , you absolutely can do some home automation with ezb. Things like temp control can be done using a analog input to read your temp and a couple digital pins to trigger relays in your thermostat/heating and ac controller. Most household appliances are pretty simple in the way that they work. Most jobs can be done with a simple automotive grade 30a 12v relay. Lights can be powered on and off easily because a relay can pass through 110v current regardless of the tiny ezb controlling it. I use 5 to control a saltwater fishtank lighting and pump system.

Here's a low budget drawing for your enjoyment I did using pics of things you want to control. You need the ezb v4 , relays, wire , connectors , solder and iron and tip120 switching transistors to trip the relays. Oh and ofcourse a pc to run it all. the acer netbooks and the acer w3 tablet has become a very popular low power choice

Sorry apparently I am excessively using the smiley today lol

Thanks for the alternative suggestions Alan. It's more a case that I want to learn the EZ-B software for future actual robot projects. Instead of learning how to program a thousand different products.

Wow Jstarne1, 'A' for effort. I'm not worried about the switch gear side of things. I'm a domestic and commercial heating, ventilation and mechanical engineer by day. It's the programming side of things that'll slow me down if anything. The door locks and actuator will be air driven. I'm putting an atmosphere controlled 3D printing cabinet in too. Humidity and temperature controlled filtered air. I was going to run the controls from an arduino but tapping into the EZ-B seems easier.

I suppose at this point I'm running out of ports, perhaps the robotic assist arm attached to the ceiling will have to wait (for the jobs when you need three hands, one to hold something, one to hold something else and one to apply glue).

I'll make a list.

1. MP3 trigger (unless voice commands as DJ suggested earlier can be generated on the attached PC and played through 2. that)
2. Extract fan
3. Heater
4. Room thermistor
5. A/C
6. Compressor
7. Door actuator
8. Door open/close microswitches (figure I'd do two on one channel with different resistor values)
9. Security cam Pan (doubt ill need tilt)
10. Lighting
11. Door locks
12. Printing cabinet dehumidifier
13. Printing cabinet heater
14. Printing cabinet air circulation
15. Printing cabinet thermistor
16. Printing cabinet humidistat

As for the robotic assist arm, I guess it would have at a minimum; 2 axis shoulder 1 axis elbow 3 axis claw (grip, rotate & tilt) And possibly a rail along the top of the shed to traverse the space.

So there's another 7 outputs and that's an arm with no sensors.

Anyone know of a relay board that takes a PWM input to control several relays, one at a time or all together.

CJ

Dude , EZ Robot makes it easy , honestly with ez robot the hard part is physically building your setup , wiring your garage and all those relays ect. Once you have everything connected correctly it's only a matter of assigning a voice command to the actions you want. Most of your setup will be digital pins on or off. I would recommend using a different ezboard for your robot arm project because that will take some tweeking. You will understand what I mean later because we all constantly improve our pet projects and I imagine that will be one of yours. The other items are very straight forward however. All the lights , heater , air conditioning , door lock trigger ect I would have on a single ezboard. The things like temp sensors and door sensors or even motion detection you can utilize the ADC inputs which are for sensors. That way you keep as many digital ports open as possible. You will need to make a project box big enough to house all the relays ect for ezb to connect too and a benchtop power supply. Personally with you doing this much automation you will need a big case and a power supply that is reliable. A computer case with power supply could be a very good choice for you.

I'm not too worried about the switch gear. I have a 12V 20A power supply for the LED's and my lipo charger. I'll get a 5v 10A supply to feed the robot arm, servos and solinoid valves for the air system. I have a wall mounted panel to house it all in which will have manual override switches in case something goes south. I'll have the laptop keyboard & mouse on a pullout tray and the screen mounted in the panel.

Am I right in thinking there is a good stepper motor control board available that works well with the EZ-B? Something that works on a PWM signal (for the robot arm). Thinking getting a second EZ-B might be a wise idea. That way I could do magnetic induction position sensors for the robot arm.

Of all the hairbrained ideas I've come up with over the years I feel this one is genuinely feasible.

CJ