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| By Nathan Chantrell, on August 26th, 2011  I’ve had my front door bell sending me text messages since 2004 using a combination of a hacked X10 wireless remote control and Misterhouse, initially through an email to SMS gateway (not ideal as it cost me every time someone pressed the door bell) and more recently using TTYtter. It worked well enough most of the time but the X10 (both the radio and mains components) was always the weak link in the chain. I first had the idea of changing this over to an Arduino based system some time ago when I bought a Duemilanove clone and ethernet shield but it seemed like a lot of money to have tied up in a doorbell, that all changed with the Nanode of course, £22 seems like a much more reasonable figure.
So here is the first Nanode version working, it’s very simple, just a few small changes to the ethershield Twitter demo code that sends a tweet using Supertweet.net’s API proxy when a pin is grounded. I have set it up to send a message via another Twitter account which I have told Twitter to send me a text message for, the tweet from the Nanode includes a link to the web feed for my front door camera so I am just one link away from seeing who is there. Twitter won’t send two identical messages in succession so I’ve added a changing number to the URL for the camera so that each message is always different from the last, it’s a bit hacky at the moment but it works. I’m now thinking of other things I can connect to in the vicinity of the front door, a snail mail alert is an obvious next step. The picture above shows the message coming into the Twitter client with the web interface in the background. There are another couple of pictures below, one showing the text message coming in and one showing the result of clicking on the link (yes my path needs weeding but where’s the fun in that?). I need another Nanode now.  
By Nathan Chantrell, on August 21st, 2011  The Nanode is a new low cost open source Arduino compatible controller with built in ethernet developed by Ken Boak and members of the London Hackspace which aims to be a platform for creative development of network or internet connected projects, aka The Internet of Things.
Supplied as a complete kit of parts to build yourself the Nanode is powered by the familiar ATmega328 microcontroller running at 16MHz and like the Arduino it has up to 14 digital I/O lines and 6 analogue inputs. All pretty standard stuff, but what really sets the Nanode aside from other Arduino clones is the built in 10BASE-T Ethernet, giving you an internet connected Arduino platform for at least half the cost of an Arduino and ethernet shield or even the new Arduino Ethernet. To keep the cost down the Nanode uses the ENC28J60 ethernet controller instead of the Wiznet controller used by most Arduino shields which does mean changes may need to be made to some existing code. In addition to the built in ethernet there is also a 2 wire serial interface allowing a 4 core cable to link and power multiple Nanodes plus a USB-B socket, support for SPI expansion memory (SRAM, FRAM, Flash or SDCard) and a dedicated port for connection of a JeeLabs RFM12B 433MHz or 868MHz wireless board. While the standard Arduino header layout means the Nanode is physically compatible with standard Arduino shields you need to bear in mind that digital pins 8,11,12 and 13 are used for the built in ethernet controller and 7,9,10 may also be used depending on the hardware options fitted so some things may require some modification. Programming is currently by way of the 6 pin FTDI header (requires a 5V USB FTDI cable or board) with programming via the USB-B socket (using V-USB) currently a work in progress – it works but needs polishing, advice is to stick to FTDI for now. The board is of very high quality and is well marked. All the standard parts are included, even some extra components to be soldered in at a later date to support the V-USB programming and some extra male headers. The online build instructions are very clear and it will take around an hour or so to build if you are well practised with a soldering iron, it’s all standard through hole stuff, nothing fancy except for the tiny MAC address chip which fortunately comes pre-soldered to the bottom of the board. Here is what the components of the kit look like and this is the completed board. Having used Arduinos with ethernet shields in the past the Nanode is a much needed addition to the market, the reduced cost, size and complexity are very welcome and having been developed around a Hackerspace community there is plenty of information online as you might imagine, the wiki here should be your first port of call and there is also a Google Group and an IRC channel. My first plan with this one is to replace the X10/Misterhouse based system that I currently use to send me a text message when the front door bell is pressed and will probably move my 1-wire temperature sensors on to it too. With so many possibilities I’ve got a feeling this will only be my first Nanode. You can buy the Nanode kit directly from the Nanode website or via Earthshine Electronics in the UK or from Wicked Device in the US. Finally, the obligatory tweet that is the “Hello World” of the modern internet connected device: 
By Nathan Chantrell, on July 2nd, 2006 Spotted this one one of my security cameras! Caught it out of the corner of my on screen and it frightened the life out of me! Click for bigger image.
 By Nathan Chantrell, on January 7th, 2005 Yesterday the community VoIP service at VoIPuser.org went live. I’ve been lucky enough to be one of the beta testers for this over the last few months and it works brilliantly. Basically the revenue generated by the use of the Inbound PSTN to VoIP numbers is pooled in to a central community “pot” which can be used by members to make free outbound PSTN calls via a SIP phone. Calls can be made to any number that can be routed to for under 2.5p/min which covers most landlines in the world. More info here. By Nathan Chantrell, on July 10th, 2004 Xbox Media Center went Gold on June 29th, Version 1.0.0 should be available from all the usual places. Like XMBP before it, XBMC has continually exceeded expectations and is THE killer app for the Xbox in my opinion. Even as someone who doesn’t play computer/console games much if at all I don’t regret buying the Xbox in the slightest and would still do so today. By Nathan Chantrell, on May 17th, 2004 Online UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) interface. There is something wrong with the graphs page when you click on UPS1 though… the values are bollocks and change each time you load the page although if you hover your mouse over each column the tool tip shows the correct value… strange! I feel a graph of input/output voltage coming on next… want to see how often the power is dropping. Also finally did something with my barcode reader and made up a database for keeping an inventory of things, don’t know what yet though, automated shopping list or something like that I think. Definately need to get the outside temperature sensor moved so it doesn’t get direct sunlight. I know it’s warm today but I don’t think it reached 100F!! By Nathan Chantrell, on April 20th, 2004 Added another lamp module to the home automation system for the book shelf lights in the lounge today. I also modified a KR19 RF keyfob to operate as an X10 wireless door bell by locating two traces on the pcb that operated button two ‘on’ and soldering the two wires from the door bell push button to these traces, hey presto: wireless X10 door bell. When someone presses the door bell misterhouse announces through the speakers that there is someone at the door and logs it to a file. If I am out then it also sends a sms text message to my mobile phone. Huge grins for very little work! Tue 20/04/04 13:00:03 Front door bell was pressed
Tue 20/04/04 12:18:57 Front door bell was pressed
Tue 20/04/04 11:39:54 Front door bell was pressed
Tue 20/04/04 11:36:05 Front door bell was pressed
By Nathan Chantrell, on April 16th, 2004 For a while now the Xbox Media Player team have been working on a complete rewrite of XBMP which is intended to replace XBMP in the long term. It is called Xbox Media Center and is now very functional and is, I think ready to replace XBMP for my own use. The web interface is a nice addition as is the ability to remap the remote control or game controller keys. By Nathan Chantrell, on April 16th, 2004 I’ve made a few more additions to the home automation system this week, some additional X10 modules, another RF light switch and another motion detector along with some iButton 1-wire temperature sensors. Misterhouse now logs the temperature every 5 minutes, updates a graph every half hour and can turn the fan in the computer area on or off depending on the temperature. I’m all set for controlling the central heating boiler now. I also bought a TV Messenger recently which overlays Caller ID information over a TV picture, it also allows you to assign a name to each number so you know who it is when it pops up on your screen. Very handy. I’ve also been doing a bit of playing around with Asterisk, the open source VOIP PBX which has great potential in my HA system. A few weeks ago I picked up a nice kiosk PC off ebay which is a celeron 433Mhz with 256Mb ram and a built in 12″ LCD Touchscreen, makes for a perfect home automation controller. Ideally it wants it’s own case building but for now it looks quite cyberpunk on just sitting on the coffee table! There is a rather poor picture on the home automation page but I’ll get some better ones up soon. For a while now the Xbox Media Player By Nathan Chantrell, on February 14th, 2004 Hi! Yes, I’m still here and yes, I have been slacking in the web update department recently! Not that there has been much happening, it’s all been work, work, work!
A couple of weeks ago I was finally persuaded (thanks Tj!) into upgrading my home automation system from Heyu/Xtend/BlueLava and Cron to the Misterhouse package. Misterhouse is a Perl based system which does a lot more than just X10 but for the moment it is mainly the X10 stuff I’m interested in. It didn’t take long for it to be doing everything the old system was and more and I can see lots of potential there for the future. A few small updates to the Home Automation page for now but more to come – watch this space! | |
I’ve had my front door bell sending me text messages since 2004 using a combination of a hacked X10 wireless remote control and Misterhouse, initially through an email to SMS gateway (not ideal as it cost me every time someone pressed the door bell) and more recently using TTYtter. It worked well enough most of the time but the X10 (both the radio and mains components) was always the weak link in the chain. I first had the idea of changing this over to an Arduino based system some time ago when I bought a Duemilanove clone and ethernet shield but it seemed like a lot of money to have tied up in a doorbell, that all changed with the Nanode of course, £22 seems like a much more reasonable figure.
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