[NBLUG/talk] Re: X-10 control in Linux

jimbo jimbo at sonic.net
Sat Aug 20 12:54:27 PDT 2005


> From: Lincoln Peters <sampln at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: [NBLUG/talk] Setting up X-10 home automation
> 
> I'd like to use my Linux box to control a few appliances in my house, such
> as a lamp that I use as an alarm clock (my college schedule is too complex
> for an ordinary appliance timer to handle).  Of course, being a home

	Long ago, at a BALUG meeting, I heard a lecture by the author of
PERL (Larry Wall) detailing his PERL script for controlling his house. He'd
managed to interface an X-10 controller to his 'pooter and could use it to
control his outside lights, motion sensors (burglar alarms), interior
lights, heating and airconditioning, etc.

	He showed us his PERL script that handled all sending of commands at
set times -- it was quite elaborate. I b'lieve his one complaint about the
X-10 controller was that it communicated in one direction only -- you could
tell it what to do at the proper time, but it would (could) not give any
reply of form: 'it is done.' You had to infer that it was actually done. I
think he'd worked around this problem somehow, but I'm not sure exactly how.

	I've never done it, but try googling for Wall PERL Script X-10
controller or something like that. If you find the script, likely there
will also be some handy tips.


-- 
jimbo at sonic.net 

"My parents just came back from a planet where the dominant lifeform 
had no bilateral symmetry, and all I got was this stupid F-Shirt."



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