Cheap!! Who're you calling cheap?

[lbenson]

Ok, I might fit the bill. This is all I want for a household control system.

1. $10-$15 (US) wireless sensor modules, with 08Ms or 14Ms and perhaps the e-madeinchn 433 or 315MHz transmitters.
2. $20-$30 concentrator module with 28X1 & higher-quality receiver, perhaps Hope.
3. $50-$70 internet connector & control module, like NSLU2 (10W) running openWrt with PHP, USB serial, and internet connection. Perhaps with a reliable wireless receiver on USB serial, item 2 would not be needed. This would have internet connectivity with backup cell phone SMS service.
4. $550-$700 notebook to program the others (and to do all the other stuff one does).

Of course, if one counts one's time, none of this is cheap. But I'm a retired person, so my time has no value ;-/ and I'll just keep phaffing about.

 

[papaof2]

You must follow the instructions in an old song
"You Gotta Shop Around" ;-)

The rest of this is US-specific, so others should skip the rest to avoid wallet pain ;-)

Item 3:
T-Mobile had a WRT54G-series router with VOIP for $38US delivered about a month ago -something I found on http://www.slickdeals.com (and you did not have to be a TMobile phone customer to purchase it).

Item 4:
There have been numerous $400 laptops of various brands available in the past month (from Staples, OfficeMax, direct from Dell, etc), as long as you can live with Vista. Dell will ship with XP installed and Vista media in the box, but it's now $150US extra (was $100US last year).

John

 

[manuka]

concentrator module ?

You really need to detail what you are hoping to control, as some of these items may be mission critical.

There are zillions of 1-3 yo. XP notebooks going for well under $400, & some even still have inbuilt serial. My ~2004 ~1GHz Toshiba cost just ~US$25, due to a wonky battery! If your eyes can stand it, consider a Intel Atom netbook- I'm an MSI Wind fan.

 

[Dippy]

..mission critical.... aaaargh.

I bought a cheap Tosh running Vista.... slow as a snail.
I bought an expensive Tosh running Vista... goes like a rocket.
Yeah, save money... and go grey

Coincidentally, I'm a small cog (yes, cog) in a larger gearbox designing a system a bit like that. Except ours does a lot more. I'll be interested to see how you get on. (I'm not after any secret details...).

 

[lbenson]

I'm not looking to buy any of those things listed above--I already have the notebook, 4 NSLU2s doing various things (plus two other openWrt-ready routers, sitting idle) and more picaxes than I could well have imagined when I started on all this. The hard part is putting the pieces together when I'm neither a hardware person nor a linux guru.

As an aside, I'm finding Vista more stable than XP--except for one little deal where a link goes into never-never land and brings down the IE instance that invoked it, including all tabs. I don't find Vista noteably slow on a low-priced HP.

Regarding "mission-critical", so far I'm just monitoring, not controlling. One phase at a time.

The VOIP router won't do what I want--it depends on the internet. What I am looking for with the cell phone is to have a backup means of communicating if the internet is down (for instance, because of ice storms bringing down wires).

I believe, Dippy, that much of this stuff will be commercially available within a few years--and it is now, but at prices beyond what seems reasonable. But once you get into commercial activities, liability and reliability come into play--no place for this tadpole. There are no secret details--just a shortage of details of any sort.