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Message 1 in thread 
From: Bruce Winter (brucewinter@home.net)
Subject: MisterHouse open source HA program 
 
  
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Newsgroups: comp.home.automation
Date: 1999/04/01 
 

Hi all,

I am the author of a free, perl based HomeAutomation (HA) program called
mysterious (mh).  I've been using/extending for about a year or so, but it
has just recently become stable enough that I feel comfortable posting this
announcement.

Perl is a free, powerful, interpreted language that is available on many
different operating systems.  By extending perl with various HA related
objects and methods, mh can use the perl language for its event language.
Since it is written in perl, it can in theory run on any OS that runs perl.
I've run it on Windows 95, 98, NT, linux, and AIX.

On the windows platform, mh can use free MS  TTS and VR engines.  On linux,
it can use the Festival TTS engine.

On the downside, it is a bit of a memory hog, using between 10 and 20 mb,
depending on if you enable the Tk gui interface and how many events you
have.  On my house computer, for example, I have about 3k lines of code in
40 different event files.  This uses 20 mb and about 30% of a 100 mhz
Pentium cpu, set at 10 passes per second.

On the upside, since it is an extension of a powerful programming language,
you can fairly easily program complex events.  Here are a few of the tasks I
have running:

- Control of south facing window curtains.  By monitoring sunlight and
temperatures, mh can maximize passive solar heat gain.

- Internet data retrieval and processing.  Monitors URLs, sends and monitors
email, announcing who has what mail.  Other example data is weather info and
TV programming.

- Controls a relay enabled PA speaker system, so it can speak to one room or
all rooms in the house.

- For those with radio receivers, it can tracks HAM radio GPS enable cars,
announcing speed and position.  Also gathers weather data from HAM/packet
weather stations.

You can control events with voice, a web interface, a Tk widget GUI
interface, from a command line, via tcpip sockets, time of day, and/or
serial port data.  It currently has code to interface with the CM11, various
weeder PIC kits, wx200 weather station, and various other serial devices.

Programming mh is not as easy to program as some of the other fine HA
programs out there, and it requires a 32 Meg 100 mhz Pentium or bigger, so
it is not for everyone.  But it is free and open sourced, so if it doesn't
do what you want it to do, you can change it or ask for a change from any
the other mh users.  Currently there are about 50 people on the mailing
list.

 You can download it and or view the mailing list archives from any of the
following:

  http://members.home.net/winters/house/programs/index.html
  http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/5514/index.html
  http://misterhouse.webjump.com/index.html


Bruce Winter
Message 2 in thread 
From: Bruce Winter (brucewinter@home.net)
Subject: Re: MisterHouse open source HA program 
 
  
View this article only 
Newsgroups: comp.home.automation
Date: 1999/04/02 
 

blush ... my spell checker went out of control.  I ment to say:

    "program called MisterHouse"

instead of:

    "program called mysterious"

One other note: you can take a peek at the web interface at

http://winter.tzo.com:8080

This is MisterHouse running on my house computer, connected to the net via a
cable modem.

Bruce

> I am the author of a free, perl based HomeAutomation (HA) program called
> mysterious (mh).  I've been using/extending for about a year or so, but it
> has just recently become stable enough that I feel comfortable posting this
> announcement.
