[Noisebridge-discuss] X-10 hardware hacking

[Jonathan Foote]

Hunh, that's new. Used to be proprietary (and legendarily flaky),
though people were hacking it 30 years ago. Guess BSR went under and
someone opened the protocol? (Unsurprising as BSR's main product
besides the X-10 modules was... wait for it... record changers.)


On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 11:08 AM, Christie Dudley <longobord at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
> Christie
> _______
> "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The
> latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to
> hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
> -- Albert Einstein
>
>
> 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> 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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