[Noisebridge-discuss] X-10 hardware hacking

[travis+ml-noisebridge at subspacefield.org]

Hey all,

You may have seen X-10 home automation equipment.  It's kind of
hackish, but it's cheap.  There's also an alarm system, which is quite
cheap.

I did a talk on it a LONG time ago:
http://www.subspacefield.org/~travis/x10_talk.html

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had an ideas on how to design a
computer interface for the wireless security system.  You see, they
sell a RS-232 computer interface for the regular X-10 security
protocol, but the wireless SECURITY modules use a completely different
protocol, and the console will do these (and only these) in response:

(a) dial a number on a hard line
(b) sound an alarm
(c) send regular X-10 commands to flash lights on and off

At the moment, it will only call a number (up to 11 digits I think),
repeat a message, and if you hit "0" you can listen in over the
microphone.

I was thinking that if you could tap into the circuitry somehow, you
could interface that with a computer and make the alarm response
rather flexible, for example:

(a) silent alarm - just log to the computer
(b) send an email
(c) start recording video (see GNU motion)
(d) SMS you
(e) allow you to see and/or have a two-way dialogue with the intruder

The general idea of a flexible, powerful home alarm system is
something I've actually been thinking about for over a decade, so if
anyone else is interested in this please let me know.  I knew a guy at
a previous job who had an AWESOME system he wrote himself in Java, but
having worked on it for over a decade himself, I didn't feel like
asking him to share the code.
-- 
A Weapon of Mass Construction
My emails do not have attachments; it's a digital signature that your mail
program doesn't understand. | http://www.subspacefield.org/~travis/ 
If you are a spammer, please email john at subspacefield.org to get blacklisted.
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