This page started waaaaaay back in the summer of '99 as a simple
webcam page. My how things change!
There are several different systems that go into making this page possible:
the webcam, the weather monitor, the home automation system, and various other
assorted network parts and such.
I've used several different webcams over the years. My current one is an
Axis 2100.
This is a self contained camera and webserver that connects via ethernet to your
network. This pretty much makes the webcam a stand-alone app that needs
little mucking with. When your web browser refreshes the main page you are
pulling the image directly from the camera. It also sends periodic snapshots
to a server at the house so I have a record of what happened during the day.
Part of the fun here was making it weatherproof for outdoor use - the 2100
is a simple unit designed for indoor use. I took the cheap route and bought
an outdoor enclosure for $60 and mounted the camera in it.
The weather station has two parts: the weather station hardware itself and the monitoring software. The hardware is a Davis Weather Monitor II. This is a standalone unit that does indoor/outdoor temperature/humidity, rainfall, barometer, and wind speed/direction - and does it well. It in turn connects to the Home Automation pc via a serial connection. the HA pc runs a nice little application called Virtual Weather Station to log the data and take care of the web page. Both the left pane and the temperature graph are generated and uploaded by VWS.
Why does Home Automation belong here? It doesn't - yet.... But it will. I'm using HomeSeer in conjunction with an Ocelot to control various things in the house. While very much a work in progress (and will probably always be), I can do things like play warning messages and turn on floodlights when somebody comes down the driveway, change my thermostat settings from my desk at work, and so on. Some of these things have obvious practical value, while others are just for the fun of it. One of the things I'm working on includes having a popup show up on my desktop at work when somebody comes down the driveway, along with a live camera feed so I can decide if I should unleash the bolo on 'em...
I'm a geek. It's what we do... ^_^
JerryDecember 16, 2002