Smart Home Blog

If you don’t want to wait Philips Fidelios media docks for Android devices then you may make it by yourself. You should just follow by this instruction, have some free time and be familiar with electronic and polymorph.

Another way to use iOS dock with Android device is to get the DockBoss+ cable with has iOS connector on the one side and micro-USB + audio jack on another. It’ll cost you around 30 bucks plus delivery.

So, even now we have at least two ways to use Android device as a part of home media system. But personally I’ll wait for Philips Fidelios.

[via Unplggd]

Vidtonic is going to present its new DIY kit to build Android TV on the CES 2011 on January. It’ll include television housing, cables, 1080p LCD panel in various sizes, power supply, a motherboard using an ARM/DSP microprocessor solution and full SDK to build software part. Sure, it’ll be interesting for many Android folks. We saw such approach in the past with hacker Roomba kit or open source version of DVR Neorus. But in my opinion it’d be much better to have set-top-box based kit. It’s cheaper and easier to delivery. In any case, let’s wait till CES 2011 and see the DIY Android TV kit availability and price.

When beginners start DIY smarthome project first they face with problem of choice of right equipment. The ZigBee & Z-Wave wireless Home Automation integrator Vesternet recently launched the online graphical planner which can help to solve that. The planner is separated by two areas – lighting control and security system. So, you just need to press highlighted elements in the house, see detailed info and add them to the cart if you’d like to buy them. Additionally you’ll able to control total cost according to your budget because it’s calculated dynamically when some product is added to or removed from the cart. Smart and helpful tool indeed!

[via AutomatedHome]

Smarthome enthusiasts from Automated Home forum announced the way of using O2 Joggler as xAP controller. What is the O2 Joggler? The O2 Joggler is a touchscreen family organizer offered by UK company O2. It’s very cheap – just £50, and can be used to access online content via WiFi or some applications such calendar or maps. And xAP is an open Home Automation Protocol, created by Automated Home readers. The big advantage of xAP, except its openness, of course, is possibility to integrate it with most popular standards like X10 or Z-Wave. So, mixing O2 Joggler and xAP we get a cheap portable controller for our DIY home automation system. To get more information, please, follow by that thread on the Automated Home forum.

Using of WiFi router as a controller of DIY home automation system is a good idea. It’s energy efficient, noiseless, reliable, compact and you don’t need additional device. Good example of commercial realisation of that approach is a Z-Wave controller MiCasa Vera, based on WiFi router Asus WL500G Premium. There is also a few DIY projects utilized routers. One of them is Linknx.

As a base Linknx uses a Linksys WRT54GS wifi router running OpenWRT or some other ones from this list. That project is oriented to KNX/EIB technology. To communicate with KNX/EIB devices a home made-interface is used. Users have a good-looking web-interface with Ajax to manage the system. Its live demo version is available here. If you’re building KNX/EIB smarthome system by yourself Linknx might be good option for you.

Another interesting project Home Automation Hub (HAH) is based on cheap WiFi router Livebox. It uses xAP home automation protocol which can be integrated with X10 or C-Bus devices. Integration with 1-Wire bus and I2C bus is done by adding interfaces for them. Also there is a RF transmitter to communicate with cheap RF modules, AVR micro-controller, four relays, a set of input lines and LCD display. The HAH includes software modules for integration with Twitter (can be used as a transport for notifications), Google Calendar and Pachube and offers possibility to send SMS via connected old Nokia mobile phone. HAH is a green project because first of all its power consumption 6 Watts only. And secondly, it reuse old hardware.

A short resume is following. If you need a plug-n-play solution then Vera is your choice. It’s ready made budget solution, used modern Z-Wave technology. If you’re DIY-er and smarthome enthusiast then Linknx or Home Automation Hub might be your choice. They need some customization of hardware but also give an open source flexibility and freedom.