There are some options to have home automation, with open source software, with a decent price in the components. The decission of the platform depends of what type of hardware you are plan to use. There have a some protocols, that's the reason for that the mostly solutions support diferent protocols and technologies.
One of the most important events in the moon of the cheap electronic DIY is the arrive of the arduino boards. This boards are inexpensive ( the new model arduino leonardo cost 16€) and could comunicate with generic sensors that make the dream of home automation inexpensive. the sensors cost about 3€ from LM35 temp sensor, or a pir sensor to see the movement of the persons above the house.
Open Hardware solutions
Arduino
Arduino is Open Hardware, this means that you are free of download the schema's of the board and make yourself. The only that you have to specifically buy is the ATmega328 chip (all the components of the board cost +-9€)
Raspberry pi
The Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of stimulating the teaching of basic computer science in schools.
The Raspberry Pi has a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC), which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU,[9] and 256 megabytes of RAM. The Foundation's goal is to offer two versions, priced at US$ 25 and US$ 35.
The intention of have a raspberry pi it's to have a failsafe system in case of the home automation agent in amahi have a trouble.
Open Source Software solutions
OpenRemote
video to design in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXyzm61_eZE
Features:
- Control Panels: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Web, computer
- Protocol Integration: Infrared, X10, KNX, Lutron, Insteon, Z-Wave, 1-Wire, Russound, TCP/IP, UDP, HTTP, Telnet, UPnP, Denon AVR, DSC IT-100
- Sensors, Scenes/Macros, Rules and Scripting
- Fully Customizable User Interface via Drag and Drop Online Tools
- good comunity
- the raspberry pi compilation is in progress
- the personalization and interface
- support of infrared ( control remote TV's, air aconditioner ) with a infrared gate
the bad:
- Don't have a arduino driver*
dificult to integrate in amahi: "easy" --> is based in apache tomcat (java)
OpenDomo
Video to see the interface: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93tikai4ChA
Features:
- Control Panels: Web, moovida media center
- Protocol Integration:X10, TCP/IP, UDP, HTTP, Telnet, UPnP,
- Sensors, Scenes/Macros, Rules and Scripting
the good:
- arduino driver (domino)
- the raspberry pi compilation is in progress
- sell his own hardware (with profesional look, but a little expensive)
- there are receptive from integrate in amahi
the bad:
- little comunity
- simple interface ( there have a concourse in progress to have better interface from the final user)
- don't have mobile interface ( it's still in proyect for me)
dificult to integrate in amahi: hard (it's based in scrach, from debian)
MisterHouse
Features:
Protocols:1-wire, EIB, Insteon,Serial (RS 232),Universal Powerline Bus,X10 Infrared,X10 Powerline,X10 Radio Frequency (wireless),xAP,xPL,Z-Wave,Zigbee
dificult to integrate in amahi: medium (it's bassed in perl)
Features:
- It calculates and displays current moonphase, sunrise and sunset and populate global program variables with these values.
- Same for weekend, weekdays, time of day (evening, afternoon etc), season, dark/light based on sunset/sunrise.
- It switches my porch light on and off at preset scheduled times. (via Xanura CTX35)
- It displays current temperatures and humidity values measured by my 6 Oregon sensors placed around the house and in the garden. (via RFXcom receiver) as well as the sensors of neighbors
- It receives UV level from my Oregon UV138 sensor placed in the garden. (via RFXcom receiver)
- It monitors the temperature of the 4 harddrives placed in my server, and notifies me per e-mail if it reaches the - threshold I have set. (via hddtemp)
- It monitors the status of my AIBO 'Rakker' and set device value accordingly.
- It keeps an eye on the status of my APC UPS, and displays status (Online, On battery etc) and the voltage of the line input in Volt. (via nut/upsd)
- It shows if it detected motion/no motion reported by the MS13E sensors, it also displays dark or light status these devices reports. (via RFXcom receiver)
- It monitors server room temperature measured by the DS18S20 sensor mounted on the Midon TEMP08 interface. (via Midon TEMP08)
- It monitors Mailbox status detected by an DS90 sensor, same for door/window open/closed. (via RFXcom receiver)
- It stores temperature and humid values inside rrd databases, and create statistic graphs on the fly to be displayed. (via rrdtool)
- Same for RFXCom RFXPwr sensor to store power usage. (via RFXcom receiver)
- You can view, edit and store all program settings via the GUI inside database.
- Manage and view video capture images taken from IP9000 video server and stored inside the MySQL database.
- Add, delete, change list of products by EAN barcode. (it can generate a shoppinglist for example)
- Edit all devices via the GUI.
- Bluetooth Browser; shows which BT devices are around.
- If devices have reported battery status low, the program will sent you an e-mail.
- It knows when you or others are home, because it detected your/their Bluetooth device/phone is within reach, which is linked to user names.
the good:
- Personalization
- Works in the Raspberry pi
- There have a big number of options and functions. it's like 4x4 car
the bad:
- seems a little unfinished product. Requires to improve the interface ( is ugly)
dificult to integrate in amahi: "medium/hard" (it's based on gambas)
the good:
- seems a proyect that are a future promise
- Works in the Raspberry pi
the bad:
- a very little comunity. The proyect it's very active but the people is missing.
dificult to integrate in amahi: "easy" --> is based in apache tomcat (java)
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* PD: Seems that OpenRemote have a XPL protocol ( there have to verify). There are a XPL driver from arduino and boards with this interface http://code.google.com/p/xplduino/ and this solution http://www.panstamp.com/announcements/o ... spanstamps. The best solution to have a cheap and good start point to have arduino in openremote is investigate this shop and her wireless RF solution. It have a very good documentation and it's possible that could help http://jeelabs.com/