Hello world!

Hey all,
 
I'm an enthusiast looking to expand my system. My current build is hacked together with spare parts and lots of ugly glue code. 
 
I like writing software and soldering things, so premade systems don't appeal to me very much. I'm mostly looking for ideas about what to do.
 
Current build:
A web server that drives the whole system
A bunch of cheap wireless outlet switches with an arduino mediating between a server and the remote
A couple of TCP smart bulbs
An IR blaster that turns on the TV with a Reddit-driven dashboard and plays annoying music when we wake up
Custom dashboards for Fitbit data that display in the living room and bedroom
Old android phones modified to be always-on control panels
 
Future:
Finish moving lights over to the system (waiting for a month of stability before finishing that)
New things that I haven't thought of yet
 
I'm excited to join into the conversation. I never knew that there were this many people interested in HA.
 
I guess my big question is: what can your systems do?

Hey there machinesofn!
 
Welcome to Cocoontech.  Many friendly folks here and almost everybody here is into home automation / security off the shelf stuff and a lot of DIY stuff.
 
Today I am training my 38 year parrot to talk to my 16 year old automated Furby.  The parrot (well she) likes the Furby so far.
 
Here I like to play with automation and the house is my sandbox.  WAF (wife acceptance factor) is good.
 
I like soldering little things; well I like to tinker. 
 
Automate much in the home and into little touchscreens (modded firmware stuff) and little things. 
 
Playing with a little microrouter modded with OpenWRT mostly to see if I can break it.
 
I utilize hardware (Leviton HAI OPII) / software (Homeseer) for my automation plus the tinkering stuff.

Hello,
 
I'm looking to get started with basic monitoring of thermostat, sump pump and water sensors, fire detectors, and utility usage.  This would be tied to text messages through an SMS service such as from Amazon and a pay-as-you-go cell phone with a serial interface.  I'm currently on BeagleBone Black and Arduino/teensy devices but would move to RPi probably at some point.  I plan to start with a basic web server but would adapt to something more established (Homeseer) as modules become more developed.
 
The thermostat is Carrier Infinity and I am able to snoop basic info with a RS485-USB device, but I still need to be able to write setpoint, fan speed, etc.
 
Sump pump will have a simple on/off detector from a pot/comparator in a kill-a-watt to log how often the pump is used.
 
Water sensors and fire detectors all have digital signals that can be monitored.
 
Water utility is Neptune e-coder and transmits with ERT.  Gas and electric both have Itron ERT transmitters that I plan to use rtlamr to listen in on with an RTL-SDR USB device.  The Neptune e-coder will require some work with the RTL-SDR to pick out the proper transmission.