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[fubaya]

Hey everyone, I'm looking to set up some home automation stuff. I have a clue where to start, but I'm not sure if my clue is even close. Everything needs to be done from the Linux command line, and I'll be using ssh shortcuts from my phone and computer to trigger the commands or scripts. I'm guessing a CM15A is the only thing that will work?

Here are the things I am thinking about doing:

I want to be able to open and close my garage door. Looks like a universal module is used for this?

I'm not clear if you can get info into the computer or if it only sends commands to the x10 gear. Can I also get information about the state of the x10 gear into the computer? I don't need anything fancy, if the x10 gear can tell the computer it's in state 1 or state 0, that's plenty. The garage door is my main concern, I'd like to set up an alert if the door opens while I'm away or check to see if I forgot to close it when I'm at work or something. But if information can go in, I'd probably use it for all the x10 gear.

I also want to hook up my doorbell so the computer is notified when someone rings the bell. I'll use the computer to notify me from there, possibly sending a webcam image to my phone or something. I just need to make the computer aware that someone pushed the button. How is that done?

Turn on/off a couple of lights. Among others, I'd like to use it on a 4ft 4-bulb fluorescent in the garage. Do the normal lamp modules work for that?

Thanks for any help, I hope these questions aren't too dumb.

[Brandt]

CM11a with Heyu if you like shell scripting.

or

Misterhouse if you like Perl (they also support more controllers)

[fubaya]

Heyu would probably be best as I already have text to speech set up and a mental outline of how I would use it with x10 using the shell.

It looks like those CM11A's use serial ports. I have 4 computers here and only the oldest noisiest one that I don't use has a serial port. Do they work with a USB adapter?

[Brandt]

Yes but I only recommend FTDI based adapters not prolific or keyspan. I use the one from parallax with a sheevaplug running heyu.