Home Automation

One of the most impressive displays at CES 2008 wasn't on the show floor. Instead of a traditional plasma-screens-and-pamphlets CES booth life|ware chose to build three fully functional homes out front of the Las Vegas Convention Center to show off the various home…

Recently, the noise from the multiple servers running in the garage, the enormous energy bills, and my general sense of “I should do more to save the planet” outweighed my procrastination and led me to take action and reduce my energy consumption. My first step was buying an Energy Monitor. After…

Chris Walker ControlThink LC Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 1-3 hours Cost: $50-$100 Software: Z-Wave PC SDK Hardware: Z-Wave PC SDK Download: C# Download VB Download December 20, 2006 Controlling your lights with a remote is pretty cool, but doing it from your PC opens up a…

Today's Hardware Friday project by a friend of the blog, Marco Minerva, shows how he, and with his help, us, can build a cool home automation system with some of our favorite tools. Gadgeteer Home Automation SystemIn this post I want to describe how to create a Home Automation System that puts…

Author: Rob Miles: www.robmiles.com Download: Download Software: Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition or better, .NET Micro Framework 3.0 Hardware: Digi Connect-ME GHI Electronics Embedded Master Devices Solutions Tahoe II Time Required: 3 hours Cost: 30 dollars for lights plus…

Typically we think of robots as machines from science fiction or as industrial robots such as those that build and paint cars. In the world of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio, anything that has sensors and/or actuators can be considered a robot. In this article, we look at an automated…

This article demonstrates how to use a smartphone running Windows Mobile 5 to remotely control a host machine running Windows Media Center. I will describe how to create an add-in application that runs within Windows Media Center, and how to create a Windows Mobile 5 application that you can use…

In this article I will show you how you can use Twitter API to Shutdown/Restart/Logoff your PC remotely using VB.net. Introduction I have a very slow internet connection at home and most of the time Downloads takes hours to complete. I decided to write an application which will help me Shutdown my…

  Stall Status is a Silverlight-based Vista Sidebar Gadget that uses the Z-Wave wireless protocol and door sensors to notify you of the occupied/available state of the bathroom stalls. Jerry Brunning Clarity Consulting, Inc Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 1-3 hours Cost:…

At this year's CEDIA EXPO, the show put on by the trade association of home theater companies, Lifeware launched a brand-new, all-in-one, Lifemedia Server (LMS). This new server combines Windows Media Center with a 5.1 surround-sound amplifier and ZigBee control technology all within a single box.…