Programming Your Home

Book description

Take control of your home! Automate home appliances and lighting, and learn about Arduinos and Android smartphones. Create applications that leverage ideas from this and other exciting new platforms.

In Programming Your Home, technology enthusiast Mike Riley walks you through a variety of custom home automation projects, ranging from a phone application that alerts you to package deliveries at your front door to an electronic guard dog that will prevent unwanted visitors.

Open locked doors using your smartphone. Assemble a bird feeder that posts Twitter tweets to tell you when the birds are feeding or when bird seed runs low. Have your home speak to you when you receive email or tell you about important events such as the arrival of visitors, and much more!

You'll learn how to use Android smartphones, Arduinos, X10 controllers and a wide array of sensors, servos, programming languages, web frameworks and mobile SDKs. Programming Your Home is written for smartphone programmers, web developers, technology tinkerers, and anyone who enjoys building cutting-edge, Do-It-Yourself electronic projects.

This book will give you the inspiration and understanding to construct amazing automation capabilities that will transform your residence into the smartest home in your neighborhood!

What You Need:

To get the most out of Programming Your Home, you should have some familiarity with the Arduino hardware platform along with a passion for tinkering. You should enjoy innovative thinking and learning exercises as well as have some practical application development experience. The projects use a variety of hardware components including sensors and actuators, mobile devices, and wireless radios, and we'll even tell you where you can get them.

Table of contents

  1. Programming Your Home
    1. Copyright
    2. For the Best Reading Experience...
    3. Table of Contents
    4. Praise for Programming Your Home
    5. Acknowledgments
    6. Preface
      1. Who Should Read This Book
      2. What’s in This Book
      3. Arduinos, Androids, and iPhones, Oh My!
      4. Code Examples and Conventions
      5. Online Resources
    7. Part 1: Preparations
      1. Chapter 1: Getting Started
        1. What Is Home Automation?
        2. Commercial Solutions
        3. DIY Solutions
        4. Justifying the Investment
        5. Setting Up Your Workbench
        6. Sketching Out Your Ideas
        7. Writing, Wiring, and Testing
        8. Documenting Your Work
      2. Chapter 2: Requirements
        1. Knowing the Hardware
        2. Knowing the Software
        3. Be Safe, Have Fun!
    8. Part 2: Projects
      1. Chapter 3: Water Level Notifier
        1. What You Need
        2. Building the Solution
        3. Hooking It Up
        4. Sketching Things Out
        5. Writing the Web Mailer
        6. Adding an Ethernet Shield
        7. All Together Now
        8. Next Steps
      2. Chapter 4: Electric Guard Dog
        1. What You Need
        2. Building the Solution
        3. Dog Assembly
        4. Dog Training
        5. Testing It Out
        6. Unleashing the Dog
        7. Next Steps
      3. Chapter 5: Tweeting Bird Feeder
        1. What You Need
        2. Building the Solution
        3. The Perch Sensor
        4. The Seed Sensor
        5. Going Wireless
        6. Tweeting with Python
        7. Putting It All Together
        8. Next Steps
      4. Chapter 6: Package Delivery Detector
        1. What You Need
        2. Building the Solution
        3. Hardware Assembly
        4. Writing the Code
        5. The Package Delivery Sketch
        6. Testing the Delivery Sketch
        7. The Delivery Processor
        8. Creating the Delivery Database
        9. Installing the Package Dependencies
        10. Writing the Script
        11. Testing the Delivery Processor
        12. Setting It Up
        13. Next Steps
      5. Chapter 7: Web-Enabled Light Switch
        1. What You Need
        2. Building the Solution
        3. Hooking It Up
        4. Writing the Code for the Web Client
        5. Testing Out the Web Client
        6. Writing the Code for the Android Client
        7. Testing Out the Android Client
        8. Next Steps
      6. Chapter 8: Curtain Automation
        1. What You Need
        2. Building the Solution
        3. Using the Stepper Motor
        4. Programming the Stepper Motor
        5. Adding the Sensors
        6. Writing the Sketch
        7. Installing the Hardware
        8. Next Steps
      7. Chapter 9: Android Door Lock
        1. What You Need
        2. Building the Solution
        3. Controlling the Android Door Lock
        4. Writing the Android Server
        5. Writing the Android Client
        6. Test and Install
        7. Next Steps
      8. Chapter 10: Giving Your Home a Voice
        1. What You Need
        2. Speaker Setup
        3. Giving Lion a Voice
        4. Wireless Mic Calibration
        5. Programming a Talking Lion
        6. Conversing with Your Home
        7. Next Steps
    9. Part 3: Predictions
      1. Chapter 11: Future Designs
        1. Living in the Near
        2. The Long View
        3. The Home of the Future
      2. Chapter 12: More Project Ideas
        1. Clutter Detector
        2. Electricity Usage Monitor
        3. Electric Scarecrow
        4. Entertainment System Remote
        5. Home Sleep Timer
        6. Humidity Sensor-Driven Sprinkler System
        7. Networked Smoke Detectors
        8. Proximity Garage Door Opener
        9. Smart HVAC Controller
        10. Smart Mailbox
        11. Smart Lighting
        12. Solar and Wind Power Monitors
    10. Part 4: Appendices
      1. Appendix 1: Installing Arduino Libraries
        1. Apple OSX
        2. Linux
        3. Windows
      2. Appendix 2: Bibliography
    11. You May Be Interested In…

Product information

  • Title: Programming Your Home
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: February 2012
  • Publisher(s): Pragmatic Bookshelf
  • ISBN: 9781934356906