HomeAutomation Blog

[jcarterwil]

I have started a blog descrining how I totally automated my home, and what things I plan to do next. Pleae take a look www.automateitall.com.

Thanks

 

[upstatemike]

I notice you don't mention your phone system. Did you put one in and is it tied in to the automation system?

 

[nswint]

I notice you don't mention your phone system. Did you put one in and is it tied in to the automation system?

Check out mine

http://shiksa.dyndns.org/~nswint/2005/12/h...automation.html

I use Asterisk and Misterhouse. I have to setup some extensions and an ivr to perform some automation commands. By the time I can pick up the phone and dial an extension, I can press the button on my x10 remote, keypad, or pad on the wall. But would be nice to turn stuff on an off when I'm not at home by phone. This guy in the UK http://www.zorg.org/homeauto/index.shtml has asterisk working with some extensions that setup, but never responded to me on how he did it

 

[electron]

I am thinking about setting up Asterisk, just so I have a dependable voice mail solution. The hardware interface is $10 on eBay, much cheaper than buying an expensive modem.

 

[upstatemike]

What is the $10 hardware interface? Some kind of PCI Phone card?

 

[electron]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digium-Wildcard-X100P-...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[upstatemike]

Ok so this is the interface to the telco phone line... I assume you would need one card for each incoming line? What about telephones? Do you also need a card for each telephone extension? I have 5 lines and 20 phones, would I need 25 of these cards?

 

[electron]

I am not sure about the details myself yet, I was going to use it more as an answering machine than anything else, maybe use some VoIP soft phones, but that's it. Check out Asterisk@Home, the better distribution IMO. I am sure others can explain how to connect the phones etc, I am still in research stage.

 

[nswint]

http://www.asterisk.org/hardware

They have some T1 cards with support for up to 60 lines

 

[nswint]

Ok so this is the interface to the telco phone line... I assume you would need one card for each incoming line? What about telephones? Do you also need a card for each telephone extension? I have 5 lines and 20 phones, would I need 25 of these cards?

You just need online incoming line card. Asterisk handles all the extensions over the local network

 

[upstatemike]

So my local extensions need network cards?

 

[Skibum]

If you want to use conventional phones, all you would need in addition to the FXO card for the incoming line is an ATA to connect your landlines to.

(Or you could use all soft phones, or a VOIP phone like the grandstream)

 

[Skibum]

Ideally, you should wean yourself off of PSTN for your trunk and go VOIP. Then you need no FXO.

 

[upstatemike]

Phone lines go literally years without an outage. Even with Roadrunner plus an auto failover to DSL I still see some sort of glitch in my broadband service almost every month. When I hit 12 straight months of uninterupted broadband service I'll consider making the move. Unil then POTS rules for reliability.