Book Image

BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints

By : Rodolfo Giometti
Book Image

BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints

By: Rodolfo Giometti

Overview of this book

BeagleBone is a microboard PC that runs Linux. It can connect to the Internet and can run OSes such as Android and Ubuntu. BeagleBone is used for a variety of different purposes and projects, from simple projects such as building a thermostat to more advanced ones such as home security systems. Packed with real-world examples, this book will provide you with examples of how to connect several sensors and an actuator to the BeagleBone Black. You’ll learn how to give access to them, in order to realize simple-to-complex monitoring and controlling systems that will help you take control of the house. You will also find software examples of implementing web interfaces using the classical PHP/HTML pair with JavaScript, using complex APIs to interact with a Google Docs account, WhatsApp, or Facebook. This guide is an invaluable tutorial if you are planning to use a BeagleBone Black in a home automation project.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

The basics of functioning


The functioning of the prototype we're going to realize is quite simple. We need an electronic circuit that can detect the infrared light emitted by the remote controller and then generate some impulses that are caught by a special software that can detect and store them into a configuration file in order to be used at later time. Then, by using a special daemon, we can convert a button pressed on the remote controller into a suitable command for our BeagleBone Black.

In this scenario, the hardware we have to realize is very simple. We just need a small circuitry with an infrared-capable photo diode (infrared receiver). On the other hand, the software part is a bit more complicated due to the fact that we first need a kernel driver to reliably detect the message from the remote control, and then a user-level program to record it, a program to recognize which button has been pressed, and a last program to convert such pressures into on and off commands (or whatever...