Home Automation Library [closed]

Answer 1

We found there really wasn't much developer support for Insteon unless you wanted to buy their SDK and agree to their rather heavy-handed license agreement. Rather than go that route, we wrote our own .NET library called FluentDwelling and we open-sourced it. You can find a download link, and some get-you-started code samples if you follow that link.

The source code comes with a full suite of unit tests (requires NUnit, also free), so you can add improvements and make changes if you like.

Answer 2

A bit off topic, but listen to the latest episode of dot net rocks, one of the finalists of my .net story built an home automation solution that really made me want to dive into home automation again. Totally awsome solution.

http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=518

Answer 3

I would avoid X10 like the plague. Between things like modern TV's and power strips, bridged power junction boxes and just plain strange wiring, X10 signals tend to just "disappear" and never get to their destination.

If you really want to give X10 a shot, I've got a box of X10 stuff in the garage that was worth $250+ new and it's all completely useless in my house, so you can have it. Some of it worked in my old house, but it won't so much as turn a light on 2 outlets away where I live now.

X10 is viewed by most modern electronics as "noise" on the line (which, technically, it is) and something to be filtered out rather than passed along or left alone.

Answer 4

I know it's been a long time since this post was made, however I was wondering if you'd picked a route, and what you've ended up doing with home automation since.

I've been doing this kind of stuff with many of the technologies available, but I've always done it on top of a product called homeseer. .net plug-ins and vb.net and c# scripting can be done on top of this foundation. I've been thinking of rolling my own similar to what you were describing. Any thoughts, tips, decisions you've made etc?

Answer 5

I can't remember if it covers the specific technologies you mention but you should definately check out this episode of .NET Rocks. They talk about all the different stuff you can do with home automation and a lot about how to do it. I believe one of the main points was that Microsoft Robotics Studio was a good tool to use, as it uses a lot of the same abstractions as you would otherwise use.

Answer 6

you can try C-bus by Clipsal(schneider) it's free.