Nicholas Booth Dot Com

• Probably not for the traditionalist Landrover owner: http://t.co/DJHYQs9N via @Telegraph #
• RT Pictures of Tractors -> @FarmersWeekly: RT @Will_FW: Latest photos from #agritechnica11 up here http://t.co/DaVidGug #agritechnica #

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• Just completed the final DNS change for one of our major sites that recently acquired a new owner. Good Luck, http://t.co/8SmY3Keu #
• Developers at work asking for Apache rewrite rules for one of our sites that will make spagetti. Trying to resist. #

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• April showers and rainbows http://t.co/EQHcvH3D #

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• Finished making a few bottles of sloe rum and whiskey for the winter. Tested the rather subtle gin with blackberries from 2009 – wow. #

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• Running around Slab CoMmon earlier today http://t.co/YT4dqsXt Thank you #HBLRO CLUB for a great driving day http://t.co/0s6kP4O2 #
• Superb fun at Slab Common with the Hants and Berks Landrover club #
• 'Twas on a Wednesday morning, the gas man came to call… and said "Your boiler's in a bad way". #
• #nanode number 487 now lives. Doesn't do much (yet), but it does blink and talk to the network. #

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• You can spend a lot of time unsuccessfully debugging things that aren't plugged into each other. #currentcost #homeautomationhub #pachube #

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• Home after a day's off-roading at Bagshot Heath http://t.co/sPQimzrQ w/ Guy. Landrover event in 2 weeks at Slab Common http://t.co/rU8EnxRj #
• Off to do some off roading with a buddy in his Jeep #

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• The daphnia from #bmmf needed new water-weed for oxygen. They have multiplied, so we have many more than the original four. #
• RT @adders: Want a journalism job? Like chickens? Then we have the PERFECT job for you: http://t.co/LLgy8VZU @pinwingirl @markphelan #

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• MIghtyohm.com geiger counter kit http://t.co/ZlPLbIOe done & hitched up 2 #arduino nxt build #nanode & attach 2 #pachube click click #
• A spider was floating right in front of my face as I was driving home via The Dorking Brasserie to collect some supper. #
• Finished the HomeAutomationHub http://t.co/1lSSEJL now feed #currentcost data 2 #pachube 2204 instd of perl/mysql used b4. Now for the IAMs #

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This week saw the introduction of the Home Automation Hub which I put together last weekend. The primary function so far is to act as a bridge for the Current Cost monitor system and Pachube. This has replaced my old solution which collected data into a local MySQL database and then sent averaged results to Pachube. This was somewhat inefficient and not easy to extend. the HAH means that I have now been able to integrate the Individual Applicance Modules that work with the CC unit – so Pachube presently has five streams of data.

One of these streams will allow me, for the first time, to reliably monitor the power consumption of the Christmas Lights. I previously tried to do this with a Maplin plug-in monitor which melted a few years ago making an odd smell and posed something of an unexpected danger!

Construction was fairly straightforward, however this is not a project to the novice constructor and a reasonable level of skill in working without highly detailed instructions was necessary. Nothing particularly difficult, though, and it worked first time. It took longer to get to grips with configuration of the data streams as this requires some careful reading and interpretation of the notes. I have yet to work out the best way to try and integrate things with the X10 house control system – and if it won’t work directly the xAP system which is deeply embedded looks promising.

The HAH will allow for additional functions in due course, perhaps one day to include a garden watering system – pending getting A Round Tuit.