controlloing " power sockets " via internet

[Mathew Newton]

On Thursday, August 30, 2012 2:42:35 PM UTC+1, Andy Dingley wrote: =20

It's people like me that have ruined it for everybody else - I ordered one = in June, got it in July, and still haven't got around to doing anything wit= h it! You know what it's like though given the current worldwide shortage o= f tuits.

My intention is to upgrade my catfeeder

to be 'Pi-powered'. This will dispense with the external server, the ne= cessity to hack a Cisco box (the bit that is seemingly being the most troub= lesome for others wanting to emulate the setup) and make the whole affair a= bit more self-contained and straightforward as I would be the first to adm= it it's a bit Heath Robinson currently.

Mathew

[Zapp Brannigan]

[Dave Liquorice]

switched or that it has simply energised the relay coil circuit?

[The Natural Philosopher]

if DIY is not your thing though.

well yes, and three days or more of your time and still not have it DIN rail mountable.

If it cost 500 id DIY, but at that price hell its plug an play.

[Andy Dingley]

DIN rail the Raspberry Pi. There are laser-cut box designs to do this (probably on Thingverse).

[Mathew Newton]

That three days for me would give the flexibility to custom build the user interface and implement feedback loops.

Not knocking that piece of kit mind; just correcting the assertion that you couldn't build one for the price.

Mathew

[The Natural Philosopher]

interface and implement feedback loops.

wanna bet its not running a version of linux whose flash you could easily reprogram :-)

couldn't build one for the price.

The relays and case alone probably make it worthwhile

[Mathew Newton]

You're probably right, but it'd take me at least that three days to reverse engineer the damn thing!

I'm not against putting in the hard work to achieve what I'm after, but I won't go out of my way to make it even harder for myself! ;-)

Mathew

[tony sayer]

Works like this...

Dial number.. Unit will respond in a number of rings to answer that you set.

It then goes beep beep beep and you enter the PIN number

PIN correct then Beeeep Beeeep or if wrong then it throws the call out.

It can be set to do that for a lockout time if the PIN number is wrong or not entered in sufficient time..

Assuming that PIN is correct then you can turn on relay 1 via;

*1# it then goes beep beep beep or if wrong woodle woodle woodle ..

Relay 2 the same *2# same sounds.

To open the relay concerned #1# then beep beep beep

Open all relays *0#

to hang up *0#

there are a few other things you can program for security if required..

[Dave Liquorice]

So what determines the "wrong" state? Have we got complete feedback that the contacts have actually moved or just that the relay has bee told to move?

[tony sayer]

Correction #0#

[tony sayer]

Well if the relay has closed i.e. accepted the command then you get the beep beep beep tone if it has Not accepted it then the woodle sound.

There is no way of actually checking that the relay has actually physically moved but I have never had this as a problem, they are integral to the unit and are powered off the same power supply as the phone side.. Course if you get it in a twist then open All relays and close the ones you need again.

What's really useful over net based systems is that you don't need a net connection, any mobile phone will do from most anywhere there is a 2G signal or phone handy;!...

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes, same with my home automation which I installed before ADSL, and used DTMF phone access. I could remotely tell it to dial up Demon at the time, so I could then get internet access if I needed it, after making a phone call. Now it's always available on the Internet and the Demon connection is gone, but I have also retained the DTMF phone access which is an easier access method in some circumstances.