Hi Guys,
So, as a lot of other users, I'm using my rPI as a web server on my little home automation project, I successfully completed two parts of it, and I wanna share one of the features that honestly I wanted most!
THE PROBLEM: Every time that I wanna use my apple tv, video game I need to pick my TV remote and turn the TV on, ok not a big deal, but usually this new appliances turn on much more easily, for example the apple tv turn on as soon as I start playing one music on it, so, the feature that I wanted is: every time I turn the apple tv on, the tv would turn on automatically.
THE SOLUTION: I'm using for this project one rPI and one Arduino Pro Mini, they connect with each other using nRF24L01+, This transceiver IC operates in the 2.4GHz band, is very cheap and reliable, you can find it for 3 dollars.
The hole of the Arduino is to detect when the apple tv is turned on, and send a message to the rPI saying that it should turn the TV on. I detect the state of the TV and apple tv by measuring the current with non-invasive current sensors.
I equipped my rPI with some IR leds and one IR receiver, so I cloned all my remotes on it using LIRC and I can control everything that has a remote control using my rPI, than I coded one simple client on rPI that keeps listening if any package was sent from the arduino, and if it receives a status saying that it should turn the tv on, it does.
I just finished the basic setup, everything is working great, and I plan to expand the code to make it work as some kind of a energy monitoring system. I'm planing to put one of this sensors on my clothes dryer, and it would warn me when my clothes would be dry and ready to pick, fold and hang (I wish I could automate this).
Video of my project working:
I'm planing to create a blog and put every single step of the build and put the code on Github, but it will take some time, because I need to clean the code a little bit.
Any suggestion? Comment?
I'm a chemical engineer, never studied or worked with electronics and my programming knowledge is very basic, this is my first real project and I hope you liked!
(sorry for any bad english, but my native language is Portuguese)
Vitor de M. Henrique