Customer Reviews

Home Hacking Projects for Geeks (Hacks)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

A great deal of the projects in this book are basically various forms of X10 module automation. The projects include how to automate a light with motion sensing, how to remotely monitor your pet, creating a whole house audio or time shifted audio, a keyless entry system, and intrusion detection and deterrence. For each project the items are detailed, the software described in detail, information is included on where to locate them, assembly instructions, scripts, and everything else you need to complete it. Only basic skills are needed for each project. Each project includes information on estimated cost, time and difficulty ratings so you can easily decide which ones you will tackle and which ones you may not want to. Home Hacking Projects for Geeks is recommended to anyone wanting to have a little fun with home electronics.

Nothing in the splash page, back cover or anywhere with info letting you know it is almost 100% about the X10 hardware. I already own a house full of X10 stuff, so the fact that I wasted money on this book burns my soul. Not one thing deals with how to set up, rig or configure any of the projects without having to spend money on whichever X-10 product will do the job. If I wanted that I would just buy the product and read the installation guide that comes with it.
The author suckered me into buying the book... don't let him sucker you!

This is the kind of book I wish I would have had as a kid. A book that sparks your imagination about how you can use hardware and software to do practical and cool things. In this case to build little home helpers, like a TiVo for radio, a home theatre IR controller, a home theatre PC, and more.

The book spends about 300 pages on thirteen home hacks. They are separated into three parts; automation, entertainment and security. Each project starts with a list of materials then walks through a very detailed explanation of building both the hardware and software.

This is definitely a book for geeks. Specifically the type of geek that finds themselves at Radio Shack more than a couple of times a month. Certainly part of the value of the book is in the projects themselves, but a lot more of the value is in it's inspirational quality.

Since I am a computer engineer I was hoping to find that this book offered some home projects let alone hacks. First let me state that this book doesn't offer any "Hacking Projects". To be honest it barely offers any "Home projects". Fortunately for me I have a friend who is an electrical engineer. This book is extremely misleading. More than half of the projects listed in this book simply can not be accomplished because the projects mentioned severely lack the required information or were never honestly tested to see if the might actually work. A good part of this book suggests you will need a skill set of 3 out of 5 to accomplish a given task. What it doesn't say it that you will need significantly more money and electrical knowledge than this book will ever provide. Many of the projects listed here are extremely costly and provide little advantage to some running it through a computer. In addition, you will have to know a computer language [Pearl] in order to get remote benefit from any project. Having looked over the Pear scripts I have found some mistakes in the programming. It seems to me that O'Reilly just wanted to sell a book.

I have read through this book once already and plan to try most of the projects within. I have been very happy both with the projects themselves and the instructions. A must have for any geek or people who like to tinker with things

I thought this was an amusing book that described a collection of neat ideas. Most of them are not too technically sophisticated so that you could have come up with the design yourself if you are a technical person, using web resources, but the value was in the idea itself and the way it is suggested.

I just got this book and I'll admit I haven't read it from cover to cover. But the problem I've run into is that I want to slowly automate my home but most of the books out there are for electricians or electrical engineers.

Which for me is no help.

But by addressing a step by step approach to most projects you can read through them and get the basics and adapt it to what you are wanting to do.

Also it is written in a very easy to understand style which I like.

For those of you wanting to get started in automating your home, I have yet to find a better place to do so than this book.