Apress - Smart Home Automation with Linux (2010)- P8:Linux users can now control their homes remotely! Are you a Linux user who has ever wanted to turn on the lights in your house, or open and close the curtains, while away on holiday? Want to be able to play the same music in every room, controlled from your laptop or mobile phone? Do you want to do these things without an expensive off-the-shelf kit | CHAPTER 1 APPLIANCE CONTROL Handheld Transmitter Modules These modules work wirelessly and therefore require an RF-to-X10 gateway within range. Otherwise they perform the same task as the tabletop transmitter modules except they need batteries to power them. Handheld RF Remote HR10U These are comparatively cheap devices capable of controlling all 16 devices in any given house code. They support brightness control but not all lights on all units off and they have arranged the buttons in an on off order rather than the more geek-logical off on. One useful trait of this device is that it has a strip of card on the left side onto which you can write the names of the appliances that each button controls. Other than that it s a fairly straightforward device that does what it says on the tin. There is an even smaller version containing just three device buttons called a Stick-a-Switch SS13E shown in Figure 1-10 which is also wireless and can therefore be placed on any wall. This allows you to control devices from the bathroom where mains-powered controllers would be illegal. Figure 1-10. The SS13 Stick-a-Switch Keyfob Remote KR22E This almost novelty device allows you to control four successively numbered devices from your key ring using the on off bright and dim messages. It doesn t have a great range and the batteries don t last very long. 18 CHAPTER 1 APPLIANCE CONTROL EasyTouch PanellO RF This Marmitek device is one of the closest to being a cheap touch display. It is a battery-driven RF-to-X10 transmitter just like the HR10U but is operated by touching a screen. The screen however is merely an image behind a glass panel. That is why it s cheaper than the other solutions. Although this does prevent you from receiving any visual feedback from the devices you can customize the image by making one with GIMP and your printer and control where on the touch panel the buttons appear therefore you can make this appear like a more expensive unit. Unlike the HR10U which has a .
