A while back I built a mobile-controllable home automation system, and promised to blog it. It’s taken a while, but here it it…
DIY Home Automation via WAP and the Web – How-to
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Background
This how-to will provide a detailed guide to implementing your own Web/WAP enabled home automation system. The home automation system allows you to control the on/off state of up to eight 3A appliances via either a web browser or a mobile phone. The system provided is fairly cheap and effective, but has a few prerequisites:
- An always-on internet connection (or at least on while you want to control things)
- An always-on computer (see above)
- PHP enabled Web space, or your own web server. (Of course if you are serving from home you already have the first two!)
- WAP/web enabled phone if you’d like to use the mobile control features of the system. All modern mobile phones are capable of controlling the system.
- Some beginner-level soldering skill. This project uses a PIC16F84, a cheap programmable chip.
Assuming the above, the total cost of building this system should be no more than about AU$50, plus AU$15 for each 240v switch. You can also extend the usefulness of the system by setting up an internet-viewable webcam, using a usb webcam and any freely publishing programs, providing some visual feedback.
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