The Complete Guide to Home Automation


Book Description

Covers environmental controls, home theatre systems, pc-based automation and more.




Home Automation For Dummies


Book Description

Ready to control you house with your smartphone or tablet? Spivey shows you how to control thermostats, home security systems, and much more! Best of all, with these plain-English instructions, you can do it yourself!




Smart Homes For Dummies


Book Description

Do you long to listen to your favorite CD from anywhere in your house? To set up a wireless network so you can access the Internet in any room? To install an iron-clad security system? To fire up the coffee pot while you’re still asleep and wake up with automated lighting? Smart home technology can help you do just that! Smart Homes For Dummies, Third Edition, shows you how easy it can be to create and live in a cutting-edge, fully connected home—without breaking your bank account. With this user-friendly guide, you’ll discover all the latest trends and gadgets in home networking, automation, and control that will help you make life more enjoyable and comfortable for your entire family. We help you plan for things such as flat-screen TVs, intercom systems, whole-home audio systems, gaming consoles, and satellite systems. We talk about your wiring (and wireless) options and introduce you to the latest technologies, such as VoIP and Bluetooth. You’ll see how to: Build your home network on a budget Turn your home into an entertainment center Access the Internet from any room Get VoIP on your phone network Boost in-home wireless and cell phone signals Connect your computer to your TV Secure your home and property Increase your home’s resale value Avoid common networking pitfalls And much, much more Complete with a resource list for more information and neat toys of the future, Smart Homes For Dummies is your plain-English, twenty-first century guide to a fully wired home!




Smart Home Automation with Linux and Raspberry Pi


Book Description

Smart Home Automation with Linux and Raspberry Pi shows you how to automate your lights, curtains, music, and more, and control everything via a laptop or mobile phone. You'll learn how to use Linux, including Linux on Raspberry Pi, to control appliances and everything from kettles to curtains, including how to hack game consoles and even incorporate LEGO Mindstorms into your smart home schemes. You’ll discover the practicalities on wiring a house in terms of both and power and networking, along with the selection and placement of servers. There are also explanations on handling communication to (and from) your computer with speech, SMS, email, and web. Finally, you’ll see how your automated appliances can collaborate to become a smart home. Smart Home Automation with Linux was already an excellent resource for home automation, and in this second edition, Steven Goodwin will show you how a house can be fully controlled by its occupants, all using open source software and even open source hardware like Raspberry Pi and Arduino.




Essential Guide to Smart Home Automation Safety and Security


Book Description

This book addresses readers who wish to gain an in-depth understanding of Smart Home alarm and safety systems. Detail is provided on six key smart systems that you can use to enhance your family's home security levels, namely smart alarm systems, Smart IP cameras, Smart combo alarm devices, smart access control, smart locks and smart doorbells. In addition to covering the integration of alarm and fire detection systems with your smartphone App, this chapter also deals with adding smart air quality control, water and freeze alert capabilities to your home. This mini ebook includes technical illustrations, examples of how smart homes are helping people, insights from Gerard and details of an awesome monthly giveaway.




Complete Guide to Test Automation


Book Description

Rely on this robust and thorough guide to build and maintain successful test automation. As the software industry shifts from traditional waterfall paradigms into more agile ones, test automation becomes a highly important tool that allows your development teams to deliver software at an ever-increasing pace without compromising quality. Even though it may seem trivial to automate the repetitive tester’s work, using test automation efficiently and properly is not trivial. Many test automation endeavors end up in the “graveyard” of software projects. There are many things that affect the value of test automation, and also its costs. This book aims to cover all of these aspects in great detail so you can make decisions to create the best test automation solution that will not only help your test automation project to succeed, but also allow the entire software project to thrive. One of the most important details that affects the success of the test automation is how easy it is to maintain the automated tests. Complete Guide to Test Automation provides a detailed hands-on guide for writing highly maintainable test code. What You’ll Learn Know the real value to be expected from test automation Discover the key traits that will make your test automation project succeed Be aware of the different considerations to take into account when planning automated tests vs. manual tests Determine who should implement the tests and the implications of this decision Architect the test project and fit it to the architecture of the tested application Design and implement highly reliable automated tests Begin gaining value from test automation earlier Integrate test automation into the business processes of the development teamLeverage test automation to improve your organization's performance and quality, even without formal authority Understand how different types of automated tests will fit into your testing strategy, including unit testing, load and performance testing, visual testing, and more Who This Book Is For Those involved with software development such as test automation leads, QA managers, test automation developers, and development managers. Some parts of the book assume hands-on experience in writing code in an object-oriented language (mainly C# or Java), although most of the content is also relevant for nonprogrammers.




The Smart Home Manual


Book Description

Do you want to make your home smart, but aren't sure where to begin? Are you worried about hackers taking control of your smart devices? Do you want to make a smart home that keeps your family entertained, comfortable, and safe?When you are done reading the Smart Home Manual you'll know:What a smart home is and what it can do for youHow much smart homes costHow to get started building your smart home from scratchHow to pick the right smart home devicesHow to plan for the future of the smart homeHow to secure your smart homeAfter reading this book, you'll be equipped with all the tools and information you need to plan, design, and implement the smart home you've always wanted.




The Complete Guide to Home Theaters


Book Description

You’ve probably seen home theaters in the pages of home improvement and technology magazines like Electronic House. You may have even encountered one at the home of a friend or colleague. Perhaps you’ve stopped at a home electronics store and have seen a home theater there. Have you ever wondered what it takes to create these elegant, high-performing A/V masterpieces? Our Complete Guide to Home Theater Planning will walk you through the process, step by step. As you’ll learn, creating a home theater requires carefully planning to get right, some imagination and plenty of time and patience. It’s hard work, but the results can be phenomenal—something that pleases every member of your family and adds real value to your house. And here’s some really good news: Any room in your house can function admirably as a home theater, as long as you design the space correctly and select and install the A/V equipment carefully. This book discusses the pros and cons of the morphing existing rooms into home theaters, as well as building a space from the ground up. The appropriate types of equipment for each type of space are suggested, and classic mistakes to avoid are divulged. And if being on the cutting edge is important to you, there’s a complete chapter dedicated to a discussion about the new audio and video trends that are worth consideration. You can take your theater project a step further by adding features like dimmable lighting, specialty seating, fiber optic “star” ceilings and more. Although these amenities will add to your bottom line, they’re an effect way to put your own personal stamp on your theater, making it a space that’s uniquely yours. We’ll introduce you to some of these unique home theaters—both ones that have been designed and installed entirely by the homeowners themselves and ones that have been created by seasoned home systems professionals. You’ll gain loads of advice and gather great inspiration for tackling your own home theater project. Good luck and happy home theater building!




Home Automation


Book Description

Smart home, automated home, connected home or intelligent home. Whatever you call it, a home that’s able to take the drudgery out of common, everyday tasks is something that every family can appreciate. In this inaugural book about home automation you’ll learn how to incorporate the right types of products and systems into your house to achieve a new level of comfort, convenience, safety and efficiency. The book walks you step-by-step through the process of automating your home, and because automation systems are able to control just about anything electronic you can imagine, we’ve provided plenty of practical ideas. In 10 Key Features of a Home Automation System and Automation Ideas for Every System of Your House you’ll gather more than enough recommendations to get started in your automation endeavor. No matter how many great ideas you gather from our Home Automation book, though, it’s important that the system you buy today incorporates the most recent iterations of control technologies. We’ve followed the automation trends, put them into perspective, and offer advice on the critical new updates, upgrades and upstarts you’ll want to look into when selecting a system. In addition to deciding what you want your automation system to do, you’ll want to determine whether you’d like to install the system yourself or hire a professional to handle the task. Both methods offer their own unique set of advantages and disadvantages, so be sure to read DIY or Professionally Installed? before making your decision. You’ll also want to check out our comprehensive directory of home automation manufacturers before taking the plunge. Finally, we finish the book with a series of finished automation installations, which range from a basic starter package in a condo to a full-blown, bells-and-whistles system for a bigger house. You’ll see what types of features that owners of these homes chose to incorporate and hear how automation is truly making a difference in their lives. The technology has been so carefully designed and meticulously installed, that you may not even notice it in the full-color photography of many of the rooms where lights, motorized window shades and A/V equipment have been automated to dim, brighten, turn on and off, open and close and adjust and reset, based on the time of day, occupancy or the single touch of a button.