Home Hacking Projects for Geeks (Hacks) [Paperback]

Eric Faulkner (Author), Tony Northrup (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hacks | Publication Date: December 1, 2004

Take a geek and a PC, add one soldering iron, a home, and a copy of Home Hacking Projects for Geeks, and you'll give new meaning to the term, "home improvement." From fearless neophytes to tool-wielding masterminds, the home hacker in any geek will find new inspiration and plenty of hands-on guidance to take on a variety of home-transforming projects once relegated to the world of sci-fi.

This fun new guide combines creativity with electricity and power tools to achieve cool--and sometimes even practical--home automation projects. Never again will you have to flip a light switch when you enter a room or use a key to open your front door. With a few off-the-shelf devices, some homemade hardware, and a little imagination, you can be living in your own high-tech habitat.

Home Hacking Projects for Geeks shows hackers of all ability levels how to take on a wide range of projects, from the relatively small but energy-conscious automating of light switches, to building home theaters using Windows or Linux-based PCs, to more complicated projects like building home security systems that rival those offered by professional security consultants. Each project includes a conceptual diagram, a "What You Need List" and a small "Project Stats" section that describes the relative difficulty, time involved, and cost of the project. What's more, each project is a workable, practical way to improve your home--something unique that you can customize for your individual needs.

The thirteen projects in Home Hacking Projects for Geeks are divided into three categories: Home Automation, Home Entertainment Systems, and Security, and include projects such as:

• Remotely Monitor Your Pet
• Make Your House Talk
• Remotely Control Your Computer's MP3 player
• Create Time-Shifted FM Radio
• Watch Your House Across the Network
• Build a Home Security System

If you've ever thought the Jetsons had it made, or looked around your house and thought, "I could make that better " then you're ready for Home Hacking Projects for Geeks.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric's Love affair with technology began as a child with his first electronics project kits from Radio Shack. In his early teens, a friend's Texas Instruments TI99/4A intoduced him to computers and programming, thus sealing his fate to be a lifelong geek.

Professionally, Eric's experience is diverse. He worked for a voice messaging pioneer in the 80s. He spent three years in the Army working with nerve agents. He designed fully automated manufacturing facilities for the precast concrete industry. Then he went to college.

These days Eric makes a living as a technology consultant and systems engineer. He also finds time for writing, teaching, and editing. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Alyssa, their daughter, Lily, and Lily's grandparents Will and Jean.

Tony Northrup, a Boston-area network security consultant and technology author, developed his interest in home automation after renting an apartment where every light was controlled by pulling a string. Tony turned to home automation products to add light switches without needing to hire an electrician or cutting into the drywall. Tony later bought a house and now uses computers to control and monitor virtually every system in his home: electrical, home theater, security, and even plumbing. Tony's wife, Erica, ensures his home hacking projects are user-friendly and reliable, while his cat, Sammy, mangles every project within paw's reach.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596004052
• ISBN-13: 978-0596004057
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Computers & Technology > Digital Music > MP3
  • #54 in Books > Computers & Technology > Apple > Mac Administration

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I won't pretend that I wasn't disappointed, January 4, 2005

By 

Anthony Sutton (Round Rock, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Home Hacking Projects for Geeks (Hacks) (Paperback)

A better title for this might be "Introduction to X10 Technologies," because that's all it was. That being said, I learned many interesting things about X10, from an end user's perspective. Frankly, before I bought this book, I didn't even know that X10 was a protocol, and not a product. (You've seen all those X10 camera links on the web.) But, to pretend that you'll get many ideas from these cookie-cutter projects, or to pretend that this is a book "for geeks" is to seriuosly mislabel this book.

As I said earlier, the book on it's own merits, isn't bad. The projects are step-by-step recipes for doing things like hooking up X10 controls to light switches, motion detectors, and radios, and managing them using (downloadable, no programming knowledge is required or expected) scripts and applications in both Microsoft Windows and Linux. It's geared for the casual technophile: if you're comfortable in a conventional home electronics store, then there aren't any projects in this book that would be out of your reach.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even software geeks can follow these hacks..., January 7, 2005

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Home Hacking Projects for Geeks (Hacks) (Paperback)

When I got back from vacation, one of the books waiting for me to review was Home Hacking Projects for Geeks by Tony Northrup and Eric Faulkner (O'Reilly). After finishing the book, I think I need to invest in some X10 devices...

Chapter List: Automate A Light; Automate Your Porch Light; Remotely Monitor A Pet; Make Your House Talk; Remotely Control Your Computer; Control Your Home Theater; Build A Windows-Based Home Theater PC; Build A Linux-Based Home Theater PC; Create Time-Shifted FM Radio; Access Your Entire Media Collection Over The Internet; Keyless Entry Welcome Home; Watch Your House Across The Network; Build A Security System; Index

Normally these types of books involve lots of soldiering and circuitry, and as a result tend to be beyond my level of expertise. I do software, not hardware as a rule. But the authors of Home Hacking Projects have written a book of clever things you can do with home automation, largely using the X10 protocol. X10 is a communications protocol like TCP/IP, only it runs over power lines and is generally used to control devices plugged into outlets. Each device has an address and can take action based on the information it sends and receives. They start with very basic stuff such as automating a light to turn on based on a motion sensor. From there, you get into some automation involving X10 and Perl scripts to allow X10 to be driven from your computer. But don't worry if you don't know Perl. The source code is included, and you can probably figure out the areas you need to tweak. The complexity builds from there, and by the end you could happily be drilling holes in walls and such. At the start of each chapter there's a cost/time/complexity estimate, and each chapter ends with a bill of materials so that you know exactly what to buy to accomplish the hack.

Nicely written, well documented, and easy to follow... I'm sure my son and I will have a few projects to keep us busy in the coming months.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun but not completely original, March 15, 2005

By 

ueberhund "ueberhund" (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Home Hacking Projects for Geeks (Hacks) (Paperback)

Home Hacking Projects for Geeks is a really fun book to read which also provides instructions on how to perform some very interesting home improvements. This book reminded me a little bit of O'Reilly's other book "Smart Home Hacks", only the hacks in this book are not all specifically smart-home related. In any case, some of the hacks in the other book mentioned are also found in this book. "Home Hacking Projects", however, does contain some fun projects I haven't seen anywhere else.

Some of the more interesting projects in this book include how to remotely monitor your pet, creating time shifted radio, and how to make your home talk. One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that examples are provided for both a Linux and Windows environment. Additionally, configuration information is provided for your router, if the completed project is to be accessible from outside your home network.

While there are some projects included in this book that you might find elsewhere, this book does an excellent job of providing clear and detailed instructions, including wiring diagrams (if applicable), screen shots of configuration information, and a lot of other things that make the successful completion of these projects much more likely. You'll have a blast automating your home with this book.