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Robotic Cat Laser

Does your pet cat love chasing around a laser light? For the cost of a couple of servo motors, an Arduino and a laser light you can provide your cat with endless entertainment.  The automated cat laser uses servo motors to constantly move the laser and entertain the cat, with no effort on your behalf! To find out how you can build your own cat laser robot checkout the instructable from joe at the following link.
Cat Bot

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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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DIY TV Lift Cabinet

For many families the TV is an important part of the living area, however it can be very desirable to keep your TV hidden away when it is not in use. Not only does this keep your TV protected but it also prevents kids watching TV when they aren’t meant to! A great solution to this problem is to have a TV lift cabinet which keeps your TV hidden but at the push of a button you lifts your TV out of the cabinet so it can be used. To find out more about how you can build your own TV Lift Cabinet checkout the following link.    

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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MAC Addresses

A fundamental aspect of many home automation projects is the ability to connect an Arduino to the internet to allow easy control of  inputs and outputs from anywhere in the world.  A crucial part of achieving this connection is to set up a MAC address for your Ethernet connected Arduino. A MAC address is a unique identifying number that is needed in the data link layer of a TCP/IP network. To find out more about how to setup MAC addresses checkout the following link.

ethermega-300x214Want 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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Smart “Homer”

Are you a huge fan of The Simpsons or any other TV show? Thomas Amberg has created a humorous “Homer” puppet which automatically turns on the TV anytime The Simpsons is scheduled to be on.

Smart Homer

The project works using an Ethernet connected Arduino which automatically checks an online TV program and then uses IR LEDs to turn the TV on. You could very easily adapt this project to turn it into a less Simpsons centric smart TV remote. To find out how you can build your own smart Homer checkout the following link.

Smart Homer

Looking for an Ethernet connected Arduino compatible board? Then check out the Freetronics EtherDue:

EtherDue

It’s the Arduino Due-compatible board with Freetronics additions including Ethernet network connectivity, MAC address chip, microSD storage, optional PoE, upgraded power supply and more. For more information on this powerful board, check out the EtherDue 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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Water Detection System

A water leak can often be a warning of imminent catastrophic failure with many appliances such as a washing machine or dishwasher. With this simple water detection system not only could you quickly detect appliance faults, but you could also set the system up to notify you if it is raining and you have left washing on the line. The possibilities are endless. This project uses a Particle Photon, although it could work with any microcontroller, and exploits the conducting properties of water to easily detect when water is present somewhere it shouldn’t be! To get started with this project check out the following link.

Flood Detector

Thinking about making your own water detection system but don’t know where to get started with electronics? The Freetronics Experimenter’s Kit is a great way to learn.

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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Uploading an Arduino Sketch over Bluetooth

Have you ever stuck an Arduino in a hard to get place such as under the house and then realised that you want to upload a firmware revision? This can be a very frustrating situation, however, with the simple addition of a Bluetooth module it is possible to avoid this problem. Amazingly it is possible to program an Arduino over Bluetooth. For added flexibility there is even an Android app, “Bluino Loader” which allows you to upload a sketch to an Arduino from your smartphone. For step by step details of how this is possible, checkout the following link.

Bluetooth Sketch Upload

If you are looking for an easy way to add Bluetooth connectivity to your Arduino why not check out the Freetronics Bluetooth Shield?

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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Gesture Controlled Smart Home

It is already possible to easily control devices in your house using an app on your phone, but what if you could turn on the lights or open the blinds with a simple movement of your hands? This is exactly what Joaquim has done using an MYO gesture control armband.

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Joaquim has explained his project in great detail, but the results certainly have to been seen to be believed. To find out more check out the following link.

Fundamental to almost all home automation project is the ability to connect devices to Wifi. If you are wondering how to connect your Arduino to Wifi, why not checkout the Freetronics ESP-01 WiFi Module shield for ArduinoThe shield has a socket that’s perfect for the ESP-01 module (a very common and cheap wifi module), and addresses all the needs of the ESP8266 including supplying the correct power and connections to your Arduino. Don’t fiddle with jumper wires or sub-standard power supplies – order your Freetronics ESP-01 WiFi Module Shield today! They’re in stock right now for only $14.

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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Keiran’s Automation System

At SuperHouse we take great joy in seeing the amazing projects that our followers put together. We are starting a new “project showcase” blog segment, not only so we can see all the cool projects that our followers create but also so that we can share these awesome projects with the rest of the world, and use them to inspire others to make their own projects!

Our first showcase project is from Keiran who has started building his own home automation system. Keiran currently uses his system to control the fountains and lights in his pool and some of the lights in his house. He also has been working on using MQTT to interact between Arduino and Home Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi. Keiran has lots of ideas to keep adding to his system including motion activated lights and a power monitoring system.  If you want to find out more about Keiran’s project you can read about his progress on the Freetronics forum.

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Thanks to Keiran for sharing his awesome project with us. If you would like us to feature your project in our blog please get in contact with us on either Facebook or Twitter.

 

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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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Smart Home Dashboard

One difficulty facing hobbyists who undertake home automation projects, is finding a common platform to centrally control all aspects of their smart home. Justin Unterreiner has attempted to solve this problem with his smart home dashboard.

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The project uses a Raspberry Pi and a Touch screen to run a customizable interface to control different smart devices. To find out more about this project check out the following link.  

To learn about more cool projects like this, we’re on facebook and twitter – follow us for news and product updates.

Have you been reading about cool projects like this and would like to understand more? Checkout the Freetronics Experimenter’s Kit for Arduino.

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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Solar Charger Control Panel

With recent advancements in battery technology it is increasingly common for homeowners to go off the grid and power their homes using a solar and battery system. This is fantastic if you have a smarthome as it means you can avoid power outages and save money on your power bills! However, if your home is powered from a battery system it is important to be able to monitor the charging rates, battery percent and typical discharging times. Often there may be a small control panel in located with your batteries, however, it can be a real pain to have to go into your garage every time you want to check your battery status.  This is why Hannes has put together a great project which uses an internet connected Arduino to extend the control panel to a smartphone app so that you can access the information you need anywhere, anytime! To find out more checkout the following link.

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

Working on your own home automation projects? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.