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Asked — Edited

Turning On And Off Outlets

I know there is a lot of talk about this.

Could someone point me toward a thread that could help me turn on/.off outlets with ez-builder?

Also if there is and hardware like a switch or wireless outlet trigger could someone tell me.?.


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United Kingdom
#1  
It depends how deep you want to go to the solutions available to you.

The easiest way, and I am making the assumption that you aren't planning to control an entire house but just one area/room, is to use transistors and relays to switch groups of outlets, or individual outlets. Josh's Smart Saltwater Tank project uses this method. I highly suggest that you look up as much information as you can about mains voltage before doing anything and then contacting a registered electrician. Mains voltage is dangerous, having received many shocks including one which threw me across a room (luckily - it could have held me and killed me) I wouldn't suggest touching mains voltage if you are not 100% sure you know what you are doing.

Another way, the way I do it is by using a USB RF tranceiver (RFXCOM RFXTRX), RF controlled outlets (home easy - although these are UK spec, google it), EventGhost with the RF plugin to send/receive the debug info for triggers. A small web server running PHP and some custom PHP code I've posted in another topic about this recently (search for home automation and I'm sure it'll come up), HTTPGet() scripts... It's a lot of work but saves touching any live mains voltages.

X10 may be a different route to go down.

Google home automation for ideas, generally they can be converted over to ARC without too many problems.
#3  
so I could just buy a RF transceiver and power outlet and I can control the power outlet with ARC.
United Kingdom
#5  
You'll need to check whatever RF tranceiver you use since some work with some products and others don't. If you use the RFXCOM RFXTRX USB RF tranceiver it supports a range of plugs, I use Home Easy but these are UK and European outlets, you will need to find a suitable alternative for your side of the pond. Look on Home Automation websites, they have all of the information you will need.

Or you could go for X10. It's more expensive and personally I think it's too expensive for what it is but there is a lot more support for it, including native integration with many HA software apps, EventGhost, VoxCommando etc. which would make it easy to control via ARC via the PHP server/HTTPGet method I use (this is not a simple method) - until I find time to move it to telnet.

I guess you may be able to find a serial RF module which could connect direct to the EZ-B digital port and use the SendSerial command for control, if you can find one then that would be the cleanest method, you'll need to look though.
#6  
Like Rich said the X10 units are a little more expensive but they do work well. In my house I have the HAL2000 system running my house. Although I never thought of using the EZ-B this system is great. I can access the internet just by telling my house for example "Computer, what is the traffic on route 210 now" the system then replies back telling me the traffic report. If I want to know the temperture inside my house I just ask it for example "Computer, What is the temperature" she then replies "the temperature is 70 degrees" I can then tell her to lower it to 60, she will then reply "I have lowered it to 60 degrees"

Here is the site


HAL2000
#7  
Compared to the much more reliable Z-wave, X-10 is cheap. You get what you pay for though. I ripped out all my X10 stuff because it just wasn't reliable enough.

There is a wireless serial device that can control their wireless transceivers which could probably be adapted easily for EZ-B use directly, or most home control systems (like HAL2000, Homeseer or others) have web page controls which can be accessed from EZ-B scripts.

Alan
United Arab Emr
#8  
Well, it is possible to use 2,4 channel arduino relays board with encoder/decoder 315mhz/433mhz transmitter / receiver set.
It will cost around 10$ which is cheaper than any X10 or other commercial remote controlled power module.

One drawback is that it will use one port per channel from ez-b unless you use more intelligent serial controller with the transmitter or additional hardware .

Simple Example :

You can use any available outlet or power extension With The items below And You will end up by having 4 wireless outlets controlled by ez-b, up to 100m distance.


1. 4 ch relays board

2. 4 ch receiver with remote control

3. You may use available power adapter or Mini Power module 5 or 12v depending on the selected models

You will need to use the built in circuit of the remote control by connecting the ground to the required channel / key simulating a key press.
I suggested this model since the cost of the set is much lower than others as separate items. However, the functionality is the same.

Note: This model can be expanded by using different codes for different receiver and also increase the number of channels if necessary.


Hope this will help you out.
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