I should really ask this question via alt.home.automation but its just full of spam so though i would ask here in case any anyone has came across such a product
Essentially i want to remotely turn off and on particular power sockets ( of the 240v type ) , think of a 4 or 6 socket extention though rather than power sockets all around a house
when i say remotely , i mean 60 miles away so i guess this application is an internet based one
any ideas or starting points for investigation appreciated
Used in IT for rebooting servers remotely.
Owain
You might also look at switching by text message
Tim
It is an ancient protocol and not quite watertight in a an electrically noisy environment but X10 is usable and fairly cheapish.
I was looking at this:
Rob
APC masterswitch is the standard for remote control of server room power, plenty always on ebay at reasonable prices:
Guys , many thanks for such swift responses , and the ideas contained within
Im particulary interested in the GSM text message operated stuff , this would suit my needs better , a search around web for "gsm remote control switch " brought up a pretty cool item on fleabay - Item number: 200532765028
I cant quite get my head around the connections though , looking at the product it has seven text activated relays capable of handling
250v so i guess you would just run the neutral wire through the switch system and when you text it would simply open or close the circuitThanks for responses , certainly offered some good ideas
Thanks for input , looks like an interesting and great product as does raspberry PI
looks like a steep learning curve to get arduino or raspberry Pi to do what i wish but could be an interesting curve though
but i cant quite get my head around how it would be implemented , how would implement , give me a starting point to investigate further !
The problem with stuff like this is knowing "is it on?" Unless there is a back channel indicating status it's very easy to get out of step - you think you're turning something one, when in fact you're turning it off.
Also, beware that if you put a PAYG SIM in something like this, it will make no chargeable calls so the phone company will deactivate the SIM and take back the number after a number of months (typically 3). You need to make at least one chargeable call a month to maintain such a SIM.
Personally, I'd ignore the Raspberry Pi/Arduino and this stuff unless you're a real techie and buy something properly designed for what you want.
Paul DS.
Surely you mean you switch the live
NT
Oh. here is what you want
All done for you. Plug into ethernet, set it up, add pass through globally and hope it has password protection..yep it has!
Golly at that price its a snip.
I fancy stuffing that in my heating control centre to control my heating from my desktop!
All YOU have to do is piss around with your router to put it 'on the net' and ensure you either have a static IP address, or set up dynamic DNS so record what IP address you are on. And arrange an ethernet cable to your router.
here's the manual:
Golly. I fancy this bit of kit meself...
A range of suitable devices here:
control and very good it is too;)...
Also we've used equipment from this company who do a rather versatile switching range that you can do simple switch on's and off's from a mobile phone and it does confirm when it has done the switching..
Use on a normal phone line PIN number protected etc or on a VoIP line..
You can also get SIMs specifically for this type of task. However last time I looked, they cost more and it was easier to simply swap SIMs every month or so and make some calls with it. If you have a truly remote device, you can also program it to make a few calls of its own, which also solves the status query problem.
Raspberry Pis still aren't easily available and it's hard work to do this on the Arduino. However doing it by internet (not SMS) is pretty easy on the Pi. You don't need to be a techie beforehand, if you have a basic familiarity with programming and you're willing to put some time in. If you do want SMS, then try your nearest Hackspace, because this is a fairly common task.
IMHE, X10 is unreliable crap, built too far down to a price. Maybe someone makes something usable, but all of mine broke in no time at all.
I've just bought a couple of USB operated relays for this. You can get singles, or boards with up to eight relays. One byte to select (0-7) then one byte to set state (0 or 1).
CPC say that they are expecting raspberryPi stock on 31st August.
It's easy to do the 'local' bit on an Arduino, the hard part is the remote internet bit. It's not *that* bad though, I'm currently working with an Arduino clone (Nanode) doing something very similar where the Nanode 'does things' on commands received via an ethernet interface.
Not half. You couldn't make it from the one off parts for that price. I suppose it depends hwo well it behaves in practice.
You could with a Raspberry Pi at about half the cost. Worth the extra expense if DIY is not your thing though.
Mathew
All allocated though, and none of it allocated to me 8-(
Yes. The trouble is that "Arduino" doesn't do this, so you're off into adding shields to it (or a 'duino clone with it on-board). Now there are a dozen different choices and you're off the mainstream for snaffling code from others - the big advantage of using a popular board like the 'duino or Pi.
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