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I'm looking to automate my home a little more and want to start by buying an IR / RF blaster and hook it into my ubuntu server at home.

Is this even do-able?

Which IR or/and RF blasters support Ubuntu Server, and can be installed and controlled with the terminal alone?

Can I program certain IR signals into the software and which software should be used?

My ubuntu server is primarily a web-server

My goal is to have some web-service calls so I can control my lights/home media equipment from anywhere from my phone or a web-page. Preferably I will code or use an app (tasker for Android) that does this based on my location or scan from a NFC tag.

Any tips for how this can be done is appreciated.

fixer1234
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Joakim Engstrom
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1 Answers1

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One long time solution for this has been X-10 adapters. They are inexpensive plug adapters that are addressable thru sending codes over the power line. One of the many available plugs is a PC serial connector ("Firecracker") that sends a RF signal to a RF receiver AC plug, that can then propagate the signal to the rest of the X10 network. The code to communicate to the serial port is trivial, that you could host on your webserver regardless of the platform. One serious limitation of X10 is power filtering that happens with surge protectors or some circuit breakers. Depending on the circuit, it might limit the addressible range to a subset of plugs connected to the RF receiver plug.

jdh
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