En route to a smart home with the Z-Wave protocol
Turn On

Whether you want to control your lights or water your house plants remotely, home automation is making inroads into nerd households. Z-Wave technology offers devices for reliable control – a quick Perl script gets you started.
Now that inexpensive mini Linux platforms like the Raspberry Pi are readily available, I can think of dozens of home automation projects I'd love to be working on in the near future. For example, how could I use my cellphone – while out and about – to check whether my surfing wetsuit drying device is still doing its job, and how could I switch it off when all the moisture is out? Is the front door really closed and locked?
I just love to whip up applications like this, and I have explored similar topics in the past. Regular readers may recall the – now somewhat dated – articles on an Internet-controlled power switch [1] and a weather-controlled plant watering system [2].
At the end of the day, the procedure for these and similar applications is always the same: A sensor measures a value, such as brightness or moisture, and reports the values to a controller, which then trips an actuator – say, a relay – which in turn switches on a lamp or a pump. At this point, you may be faced with the problem that the control unit is quite a distance away, and you need a wireless approach to transmitting the signal to the actuator. Or do you really want to have the controlling computer in your plant pot?
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
There's a New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle is a Linux AI assistant that can work with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.