The Raspberry Pi can make an excellent tool for home automation by providing accurate timing, control, and the ability to respond to commands, button inputs, environmental sensors, or messages from the Internet.
Great care must be taken when controlling devices that use electricity from the mains since high voltages and currents are often involved.
Note
Never attempt to modify or alter devices that are connected to mains electricity without proper training. You must never directly connect any homemade devices to the mains supply. All electronics must undergo rigorous safety testing to ensure that there will be no risk or harm to people or property in the event of a failure.
In this example, we will use remote controlled radio frequency (RF) plug-in sockets; these use a separate remote unit to send a specific RF signal to switch any electrical device that is plugged into it on or off. This allows us to modify the remote control and use the...