is anyone here a linux person also doing/had experience with home automation stuff?

I used x10 back... 20 years ago, it was alright and I could do some things fine, but I'd like to get a better idea of what the go-to hardware choice is these days.
yeah, I can google too. I'm just hoping some real-world pointer info might make it easier to sort wheat from chaff on the topic before I start reading random web pages.

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Northwest · M

I redid my entire house with X10, in 1994. A lot has happened since X10.

The big players, have taken (almost) all the fun out of automation. Lights, sprinklers, security systems, sensors, cameras, oven, fridge, garage door, Audio, Video, etc. are all off the shelf, and can all be controlled via smart phone apps.

You can buy all that stuff at HomeDepot. If you still want to experiment on your own, I would recommend a Raspberry Pi kit. You can buy it off Amazon if you want. It comes with its own Linux distribution, called Raspbian. It's about $35. There's a whole marketplace for accessories...

Within 3-5 years, if you live in the US, just about every telco/cableco, and a few others, will be able to offer you all these services, and some already do. Good luck.

SW-User

Do you want recommendations for Linux hardware? Because it'll run on nearly anything. All the hardware I have is supported and it ranges from 1 to 20 years old. If you want your installation to go [i]really[/i] smooth I recommend anything that has Intel graphics, a 64-bit CPU, and 2GB RAM (1GB for headless use). Almost all Ethernet hardware is supported. The only WLAN cards you should avoid are the Broadcom ones.

stound

@SW-User erm. the home automation hardware. hopefully with something that has modules that will let linux send control codes out to the automation modules.

e.g. back in the day there was an eight-pin serial port adapter that could plug into a wall socket, and software I've long since forgotten that could listen for the x10 traffic going around and send out commands like.. device 10, power up. device 15 dim by 50% (x10 has a very limited command set, basically on/off/dim. but the really shitty part was if you had a very large house, or things were wired correctly and spread out, you'd need to have something like your oven turned on to get the signals to cross from one leg of 120 to the other side of the 120 in your house)

I'm hoping there's been a great deal of improvement in the automation hardware (and I'm pretty sure there has been, some sort of meshconnect now is the standard, I -think-)

SW-User

@stound Hmmmm... I'm not sure about that. I don't use any home automation stuff but if I did I would use a Pi Zero W with a high endurance SD card and just use the GPIO for that stuff. Everything could be managed wirelessly.

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