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Power Monitoring with Arduino

Using a Clipsal Cent-A-Meter you can effectively monitor the power usage of different appliances. This is great, however the built in functionality can be rather limiting. You can not, for example track the power consumption of a device over time. Thankfully, combining this meter with Arduino can allow you to reach the power meter’s full potential!  Specifically, a 433MHz receiver can provide a communication bridge between the power monitoring system and an Ethernet connected Arduino allowing the power meter’s data to be sent into a SQL database for analysis and tracking. To find out more about this hack checkout the following link.

Power Meter

If you’re looking to work with your own RF wireless hardware, but don’t want to make your own receiver circuit – check out the Freetronics range of  315/433 MHz receiver shields:

Receiver

Apart from being idea for working with the various low-cost data links on the market, the shield can also be used to capture wireless weather station data, as described in the book “Practical Arduino“. For more information and ideas, check out the product page.

Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Inspired to start work on this project? Are you working on a project you would like us to feature in this blog? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

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SuperHouse Vlog #50: The future of SuperHouse

I have a lot of fun making SuperHouse videos, but recently I’ve been thinking about ways that I can make them better. I have many ideas for different types of videos and a list of about 50 episodes I want to make in the future. Please have your say in the future of SuperHouse!

The Patreon page is at www.patreon.com/superhouse

Below is the original episode plan from the early concept for SuperHouse as a high-tech home renovation TV show. There were still some holes in it, but it gave us a rough outline for what we thought could be structured as a show something like a high-tech version of “This Old House”.

Season 1

#1: Welcome to the SuperHouse

  • SuperHouse introduction
  • Montage of future topics
  • Demo of RFID door
  • Demo of mobile phone control of blinds
  • Field trip: Clipsal training house, Clifton Hill
  • SMS letterbox notification project
  • Tour of the website highlighting detailed instructions for letterbox hack

#2: Wiring Your World

  • Introduction to smart wiring: X10/A10, CeBUS, Dynalite
  • Internet access options: DSL, cable, 3G, wireless
  • Setting up a router / firewall
  • Field trip: Tasmanian house fitted with CeBUS cabling
  • Building a stud wall
  • Installing a LAN/WLAN
  • Community wireless

#3: The Ultimate Garage

  • Building a steel-frame garage
  • Driveway detectors: magnetic and infra-red
  • Painting interior walls and trim
  • Field trip: Dad’s place to talk about building envelope etc
  • Recharge station for EV
  • Extraction fan for exhaust (auto-start car)
  • Hanging plasterboard
  • Wall insulation
  • Low power / efficient lighting options

#4: Front Door and Access Control

  • Hanging a front door
  • Fitting electric striker plates
  • RFID access control
  • Keypad access control
  • Fingerprint scanner access control
  • Facial recognition access control
  • Field trip: Brisbane airport access control system?
  • Doorbell notification / video surveillance

#5: Pets, Sensors, and Storage

  • Building a built-in cupboard
  • Installing an intelligent cat/dog door
  • Field trip: R&D: robotic fish, other robot pets?
  • Using temperature, humidity, smoke, CO, and gas sensors
  • Humidity-controlled bathroom and fans

#6: Walls (this ep is very weak, need to find more)

  • Plasterboard: hanging, finishing, painting
  • Cornices, corners, architraves, skirting boards
  • Field trip: South Korea: grass house and Ubiquitous Dream Hall
  • Introduction to Arduino

#7: The Ultimate Home Office

  • Door, desk, drawers, storage
  • Connecting up your computer and printer
  • Field trip: multi-location, maybe Jason Smith’s home office + another
  • Sharing peripherals (printer, scanner, etc)
  • Multi-line phone, VoIP
  • Video conferencing
  • Home server
  • Online apps: Google docs, etc
  • Mobile devices: smartphones and synchronization

#8: Roofs, Water, and Solar

  • Replacing a tile roof with steel
  • Installing a water tank
  • Connecting tank depth sensors to the HA system
  • Connecting hot water system to the HA system
  • Field trip: R&D: solar cells
  • Installing solar panels and a reverse-reading meter
  • Installing solar hot water boosting
  • Roof insulation options

Season 2

#1: Floors

  • Floor and wall tiling
  • Fixing a squeeky floor
  • Floor polishing
  • ?
  • ?

#2: Fencing

  • Building a picket fence
  • ?
  • ?
  • ?

#3: Saving Water

  • Installing a water tank and rainwater collection system
  • Connecting depth sensors and pumps to the computer
  • Greywater: collection, purification, storage, use (legislation)

#4: Garden irrigation and lighting

  • Computer controlled sprinkler system
  • Installing garden lighting

#5: Video from everywhere

  • CCTV systems
  • Building a deck or verandah
  • Doorbell notification

#6: High-tech driveway

  • Installing electric driveway gates
  • Fitting a car sensor
  • CCTV feed to your car

#7: External walls

  • Replacing weatherboards
  • Rendering a brick wall
  • Exterior painting

#8: Heating and cooling

  • Installing central evaporative cooling
  • Installing central heating
  • Smart thermostat

Season 3

#1: Fireplace

  • Installing a gas fireplace
  • Connecting a gas fireplace to the computer

#2: Security

  • Using the house computer as a security system
  • Installing external security lighting
  • SMS notification
  • Dialler
  • Connecting motion detectors
  • Connecting smoke detectors

#3: Home entertainment

  • Installing a wall-mount flat-screen TV
  • Building a home media PC with MythTV
  • CCTV feeds to MythTV

#4: Control from anywhere

  • Building a house-wide audio system
  • Setting up a web interface for the house computer
  • Using a phone / iPod as a house controller
  • Connecting your house to virtual reality (Second Life?)

#5: Phones

  • Setting up a VoIP phone system with Asterisk
  • Connecting Asterisk to MythTV

#6: Curtains and blinds

  • Installing electric curtains and blinds
  • Linking curtains / blinds to the computer

#7: (Topic to be determined)

  • Linking an endless hot water system to the computer
  • Computer controlled water feature
  • The ultimate cubby house: VoIP
  • Voice control
  • Swimming pool management

#8: Grand Finale

  • “Live” show from the SuperHouse
  • House tour showing everything in place
  • Giveaway / prize draw for the crowd
  • Auction the house live on TV? Mmm, tempting!
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DIY Bubble Machine

There is something highly satisfying about watching the awesome bubble machine belliedroot has created in action. The machine utilizes a number of servos to give the bubble “wand” panning and tilting capabilities so it can be dipped in bubble mixture and then moved in front of a fan which blows the bubbles out!

Bubble Machine

This project is a great way to learn about how servo motors work with Arduino, and make something cool in the process. To find out more about how you can build your own bubble machine checkout the following link or the video below.

Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Inspired to start work on this project? Are you working on a project you would like us to feature in this blog? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

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Guitar Hero: Flamethrower Edition!

Although the popular Guitar Hero console game is already pretty cool, instructables member oswaldonfire has stayed true to his name by modifying his Guitar Hero game so that a set of flamethrowers is triggered with each in game button press. The result is nothing short of spectacular!

Flamethrower

The project is entirely controlled by an Arduino Uno and a number of relays which trigger the flamethrowers. If you want to find out more about how you can build this awesome project yourself checkout the following link or the video of the setup in action!

 Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Inspired to start work on this project? Are you working on a project you would like us to feature in this blog? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.