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Part III: Home Security
You can configure your script to run whenever Windows starts by placing
a shortcut to it in your Start Up folder in Windows, or adding it to your
/etc/rc.local file in Linux.
Wrapping Up
In this project we tackled some extreme hardware hacking by inserting new
circuitry into an off-the-shelf keyless remote entry door. In my house, this
project garnered some funny looks from my family when I was first working
on it—they found it to be a bit frivolous. Now that it’s installed, though, it
has become essential to all who live here.
In fact, we used the lock for about a month before I tried adding X10. While
hacking the lock I managed to break it, which meant that we had to go back
to using keys. We really felt its absence during the time we waited for its
replacement.
Remember to periodically change the batteries. About once every three
months is probably good, or more often if you find your batteries are dying
quickly. If the batteries completely die while you’re out of the house, you’ll
need to use the old-fashioned key to get back in—so don’t throw your keys
away just yet!
Extensions
My originally planned version of this project was vetoed by my family on
account of being too elaborate. I’ll describe the things that I would have
done, though, just in case your family is a bit more adventurous!
By combining this project with Chapter 4, Make Your House Talk, you
could have your house make some greeting announcement when you
unlock your door. It could simply say “Hello,” or you could get really crazy
and have it provide status information like the current indoor temperature,
the number of emails waiting, or the number of missed calls with name
resolution using caller ID.
By combining this project with the whole-house audio system found in
Chapter 9, Create Time-Shifted FM Radio, you can have the music of your
choice start playing for you when you arrive home.
You could also create a log of each event that gets detected. You may dis-
cover some interesting things about your family’s behavior!
Wrapping Up
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11/24/2004 1:56:22 PM
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