[Noisebridge-discuss] X-10 hardware hacking

[Christie Dudley]

Uh... X10 is an international standard for communicating amongst home
automation products.  I might start there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_(industry_standard)

There are other protocols designed specifically for home automation, like a
stripped down version of Zigbee, but my money is on this one.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_(industry_standard)>Christie
_______
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On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 10:00 AM, Jonathan Foote <jtfoote at ieee.org> wrote:

> Have you busted open a unit to see what the wireless transceiver is?
>
> Chances are high it's a cheap commodity chipset like Nordic or Zigbee.
> If so, you can sniff the serial commands to the transceiver with a
> scope and roll your own with a microcontroller.
>
> I'd be interested in looking inside the box but reverse-engineering
> the protocol will likely be more labor-intensive.
>
> -J
>
> On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 1:26 PM,
> <travis+ml-noisebridge at subspacefield.org<travis%2Bml-noisebridge at subspacefield.org>>
> wrote:
> > 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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> >
> >
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