Smart Home Automation with Linux and Raspberry Pi, 2nd Edition

Smart Home Automation with Linux and Raspberry Pi shows you how to automate your lights, curtains, music, and more, and control everything via a laptop or mobile phone.

You’ll learn how to use Linux, including Linux on Raspberry Pi, to control appliances and everything from kettles to curtains, including how to hack game consoles and even incorporate LEGO Mindstorms into your smart home schemes.

You’ll discover the practicalities on wiring a house in terms of both and power and networking, along with the selection and placement of servers. There are also explanations on handling communication to (and from) your computer with speech, SMS, email, and web. Finally, you’ll see how your automated appliances can collaborate to become a smart home.

Smart Home Automation with Linux was already an excellent resource for home automation, and in this second edition, Steven Goodwin will show you how a house can be fully controlled by its occupants, all using open source software and even open source hardware like Raspberry Pi and Arduino.

What you’ll learn

• Control appliances like kettles and curtains both locally and remotely.
• Find and harness data sources to provide context-aware living.
• Hack/change existing hardware/software to better fit your needs.
• Integrate various technologies into a function greater than the whole.
• Set up a home network, for both network and audio/video traffic.
• Learn how to incorporate Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and even LEGO Mindstorms into your smart home.

Who this book is for

This book is for amateur and professional Linux users and electronics enthusiasts who want to control their homes and their gadgets.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Appliance Control: Making Things Do Stuff
Chapter 2: Appliance Hacking: Converting Existing Technology
Chapter 3: Media Systems: Incorporating the TV and the HiFi
Chapter 4: Home Is Home: The Physical Practicalities
Chapter 5: Communication: Humans Talk. Computers Talk
Chapter 6: Data Sources: Making Homes Smart
Chapter 7: Control Hubs: Bringing It All Together
Chapter 8: Raspberry Pi