Today, if you want to electronically control your home, you have a lot of opportunities. But this book is different. It is not about X10, ZigBee, Z-wave or one of the many other leading, or even bleeding edge systems, which can be acquired today. This book is about a do-it-yourself system made out of re-used materials. Why? - well, because you have just got to do something with your old technology gathering dust and you don't want to spend a fortune on equipment.
The main system described in this book reuses an old PC, a wireless mains outlet -with 3 switches and one controller- and a USB web camera. All this is linked together by Linux - as it can be acquired free of charge.

This book brings you ALL the basics about how to set up a Linux environment - including a software development environment -so that it can be used as a control centre. It guides you through the necessary setup and configuration of a web server, which will be the interface to your control centre.

A recommended prerequisite is just some limited exposure to PC software and hardware, including the ability to surf the Internet, burn a CD-ROM and assemble a small PCB.

And of course, Yes! - I kept a handle on your development costs - all custom software for the control centre is both listed in the book and is available as a free download from the Elektor website.

• Introduction
• Installing and configuring the PC software
  • Linux Operating System
  • WEB server related software
  • Compiler sw
• Installing and configuring the control centre
  • WEB interface
  • Parallel port
  • Parallel port driver
  • Attached HW
  • Wake-On-LAN support
  • USB web cam support
  • Additional extensions
• Operating the control centre
  • Logging in to the "Embedded Linux control centre"
  • Daily operation
  • Daily operations (reduced interface)
  • Troubleshooting
• Appendix
  • Background and some thoughts
  • First time with DSL
  • Some use full shell commands
  • Configuring the desktop
  • Further configuration of XAMPP
  • Driver c-code
  • Useful Parallel port data in one place
  • HARDWARE interface schematic
  • PCB layout
  • WEB server software description
  • Installation checklist