Low battery...

NetHomeServer always keep a rolling log on disk about events in the system. Now the last 50 rows of this log (since last restart) is also available in the GUI via the settings page and via a link on the top right of the screen. The log contains information messages but also warnings about configuration issues or low battery warning for sensors, for example the UPM temperature sensors. If a warning message is present in the last 50 log rows a small warning triangle is presented next to the log link on the screen, as shown in the picture above. This is now available in the nightly build. 

RF-Bitbanger

I have been working a bit with T Andersson, who has written rf-bitbanger. Rf-bitbanger is a device driver for Raspberry Pi that allows writing of pulse sequences to the GPIO-pins. This makes it possible to connect for example a 9€ 433MHz transmitter directly to the RPi and control remote switches without any additional interface components (see picture above).
I have now made a first version of a rf-bitbanger-HomeItem which can transmit all protocols supported by NetHome via a rf-bitbanger port. This means that for only 9€ you can turn RPi into a complete home control system!

Plan view

So I have finally finished the plan-view page on NetHomeServer. It has been half done for a long time, but the editing part has been missing. But now this is also there! The idea is that you can load any background image that represents your home (I used the excellent SweetHome3d to create mine), and then you can add and drag and drop your Home Items on the image.

When you click an Item, you get a popup with all available actions for that Item, as is shown in the example below:

The main attribute of the Items is presented below the icon, for example temperature if it is a thermometer. The values are constantly updated on the page, so it always shows the current status.

It is also possible to add multiple plan views (they are Home Items of course), and when you add another Plan Item to a plan, it becomes a link to that plan. The green arrow in the top center of the image above is such a link and when it is selected you are directed to that Plan Item, as is shown below:

In this way you can for example zoom in on an area with many lamps or controls or have multiple plans for different floors, rooms or buildings.

The plan view is now available in the nightly build and will be part of next release.

ZhejiangLamp

Added support for a new remote switch. In Sweden it is sold by Kjell & Company, but it is probably OEM:ed by many others. The manufacturer is Zhejiang Fuhaote Electronic, so I called the corresponding lamp Item "ZhejiangLamp". It uses the same chipset as most low end remote controls, but with quite short pulse times so it pushes the limit a bit for the audio signal based driver.
It is now available in the nightly build.

Oracle Java on Raspberry

So, now there is a version of the Oracle Java that works on RaspberryPi! I tried the NetHomeServer on the Pi with the new JVM and I get page loading times under a second in the WEB GUI. The real time analysis of audio input for signal reception takes around 10% of the CPU time, which is acceptable. This means that RaspberryPi is now a practical alternative as platform for NetHomeServer!

There is an excellent description on how to install the Oracle Java version on SavageHomeAutomation.

Second System Syndrome

I think I have hit a light version of second system syndrome.

I wanted to clean up the architecture of the NetHomeServer, prepare for plugins and convert to Maven. So I created a clean branch where the structure and main interfaces are cleaned up and I started to (slowly) adapt and move over Items to this new branch. 

Mean while I really wanted some features in the system I have running at my home, which I then had to add to the old branch, since the new one is not working yet… So the result is that the work on the new branch has stagnated and is falling more and more behind.

I really should have known better. Trying to do a new second version where you clean up all the bad parts and rewrite it like it should have been done – all in one big go, is a well known trap in software development and has lead to many spectacular project failures. I have seen a few of them first hand in my career.

I somehow thought I would escape just because it is a small one man project. But some constants remain…

Home Automation on RaspberryPI

Finally, my RaspberryPi arrived, the $25 Linux computer the size of a credit card. So of course I had to get NethomeServer  running on it.

The only real problem was actually to find a good Java virtual machine to use. The only one I have managed to get going with all needed features is OpenJDK, which unfortunately is a bit slow, but now there is a new start-script  for NethomeServer in the nightly build which will start and run NethomeServer on a RasberryPi with the Raspian Linux distribution!

The only feature that does not work so far is the desktop GUI, but the new WEB-GUI works fine, and that is the preferred GUI right now, so this means that all the home automation features may be run on a $25 box consuming less than 5W!

New fixes and features are constatntly being added to RaspberryPi, so faster Java virtual machines (JVM:S) will hopefully come available soon.