asterisk users - Oct 2010 - Asterisk to switch on electric heaters remotely?

Hello

I'm sure someone has already tried this: I use a couple of electric
heaters to heat my office.

I'd like to somehow connect them to Asterisk so that I could switch
them on remotely by either calling the IVR or sending an e-mail to the
Asterisk host, so that the room is warm when I get to the office :-)

Any information appreciated.

Thank you.

Something like http://www.audon.co.uk/udin.html UDIN-8R. It can only 
control 750W so you will probably need to get it to control a more 
powerfull relay as a heater is going to take a lot of current.
It can be controlled by a virtual serial port so you just program the 
extension to make a system() call to a simple script which sends a 
string of characters to the serial port.

That device is quite expensive. You could probably find something much 
cheaper on ebay.


Gilles wrote:
> Hello
> 
> I'm sure someone has already tried this: I use a couple of electric
> heaters to heat my office.
> 
> I'd like to somehow connect them to Asterisk so that I could switch
> them on remotely by either calling the IVR or sending an e-mail to the
> Asterisk host, so that the room is warm when I get to the office :-)
> 
> Any information appreciated.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
>

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010, Gilles wrote:
> I'd like to somehow connect them to Asterisk so that I could switch
> them on remotely by either calling the IVR or sending an e-mail to the
> Asterisk host, so that the room is warm when I get to the office :-)
X10.

(X10's web site, x10.com sucks.)

http://www.smarthome.com/2414U/PowerLinc-INSTEON-Controller-USB-Based-Home-Automation-Device/p.aspx
http://www.smarthome.com/2477SA1/INSTEON-220V-240V-30-AMP-Load-Controller-Normally-Open-Relay-Dual-Band/p.aspx

Not a big fan of the idea though. What if someone tossed their coat over 
the heater the previous day? What if you get hit by a truck on your way 
in and the heater runs continuously until...?

-- 
Thanks in advance,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Edwards       sedwards at sedwards.com      Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST
Newline                                              Fax: +1-760-731-3000

Mindless technology is only as good as the weakest mind that develops and
uses it...

Gilles wrote:
> Hello
>
> I'm sure someone has already tried this: I use a couple of electric
> heaters to heat my office.
>
> I'd like to somehow connect them to Asterisk so that I could switch
> them on remotely by either calling the IVR or sending an e-mail to the
> Asterisk host, so that the room is warm when I get to the office :-)
>
> Any information appreciated.
>
> Thank you.
>
>
>   
I use a linux box to control the hvac in my home using a QK108 instead
of a conventional thermostat(on a forced air nat gas furnace). I use
1wire probes from www.hobbyboards.com to monitor temperature and
humidity. I wrote custom perl cgi scripts to control this via a webpage.

Up to you from there on how fancy you want to get. I suspose you could
use an IVR system to reset the temperature...

Lyle

On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 04:34:34PM +0200, Marco Signorini
wrote:
> Did you looked at Arduino + Ethernet Shield?
> Is something you can program in C or C++ to receive a simple TCP and/or
> HTTP packet and turn on an external relay.
> From the dialplan you can run an http query through curl and/or an
> external AGI command.
I second this (as a hobby project). The Arduino starter/exp kit. contains all
necesarry components (a relay and PTC). The relay can switch 5A IIRC but
since I only have to short my thermostat this is not a problem.
Spaceheaters require a heavier relay. Building this is a the combination
of 2 examples (CIRC10 and CIRC11 from
http://ardx.org/src//guide/2/ARDX-EG-OOML-DD.pdf).

-- 

   Daniel Tryba

Ah Sandman http://sandman.com use a relay that goes onto an fxs port,
call that fxs port and you have a connection. Since that only work
momentary you will need a flip flop relay, the advantage is that by
calling it again you can turn it off.
Ring relay:
http://sandman.com/wizard.html#UniversalRingRelay
flip flop relay:
http://altronix.com/index.php?pid=2&model_num=RBR1224


On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 7:09 AM, Gilles <codecomplete at free.fr>
wrote:
> Hello
>
> I'm sure someone has already tried this: I use a couple of electric
> heaters to heat my office.
>
> I'd like to somehow connect them to Asterisk so that I could switch
> them on remotely by either calling the IVR or sending an e-mail to the
> Asterisk host, so that the room is warm when I get to the office :-)
>
> Any information appreciated.
>
> Thank you.
>
>
> --
> _____________________________________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
> New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? http://www.asterisk.org/hello
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
> ? http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>

I would look at x10 triggered switches. There are some command line tools 
you could call from an IVR. 
I did a lot of x10 development on windows back in the day. I have seen some 
things for linux as well.

http://www.heyu.org/

Bryant

----------------------------------------
 From: "C F" <shmaltz at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 7:55 PM
To: "Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion" 
<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Asterisk to switch on electric heaters 
remotely?

Ah Sandman http://sandman.com use a relay that goes onto an fxs port,
call that fxs port and you have a connection. Since that only work
momentary you will need a flip flop relay, the advantage is that by
calling it again you can turn it off.
Ring relay:
http://sandman.com/wizard.html#UniversalRingRelay
flip flop relay:
http://altronix.com/index.php?pid=2&model_num=RBR1224

On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 7:09 AM, Gilles <codecomplete at free.fr>
wrote:
> Hello
>
> I'm sure someone has already tried this: I use a couple of electric
> heaters to heat my office.
>
> I'd like to somehow connect them to Asterisk so that I could switch
> them on remotely by either calling the IVR or sending an e-mail to the
> Asterisk host, so that the room is warm when I get to the office :-)
>
> Any information appreciated.
>
> Thank you.
>
>
> --
> _____________________________________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
> New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
>               http://www.asterisk.org/hello
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
-- 
_____________________________________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
http://www.asterisk.org/hello

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users


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On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:09:50 +0200, Gilles <codecomplete at free.fr>
wrote:
>I'm sure someone has already tried this: I use a couple of electric
>heaters to heat my office.
Thanks everyone for the great feedback. Following Steve Edward's
advice, I won't automate the process and will only switch the heaters
on manually by dialing into the IVR or sending an e-mail. It's an
individual office to which I have the only key, so there's no risk of
the heaters eg. being covered with clothes.

I'll check the following sites X10 and Arduino, and the other
resources mentionned above.