Trenton Computer Festival 2015, HA Presentation

In case I didn't mention it, I'm doing a HA presentation basically on Linux Home Automation using the doll house with Misterhouse, Homeseer and possibly Pytomation. Misterhouse has been around for a while and it works well. Pytomation is a lot more complex but supports object oriented programming better. Homeseer is a commercial product that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. A commercial product for Linux is not a bad thing and some users may find Homeseer matches their needs better. I've started playing with the features and with the plugins. Homeseer has an SDK for it's plugins. The plugins can be written in C# or vb.net (Mono and Monodevelop). I've setup the mono enviroment and compiled the sample Homeseer plugins, which is a good start. While I'm not too thrilled about mono, I am happy that there is a flexible, open programmable enviroment. I'm working on getting a MQTT plugin working (C#). The use of MQTT would allow Misterhouse, Homeseer, Pytomation and any other software to share the same devices. Yes, I've taken a liking to MQTT but I'll also be looking at XMPP and CoAP but for now I'll stick to MQTT as I have it up and running and the libraries are easy to use.

Of course, everything I learn will be going into my presentation @ Trenton Computer Festival in March. I'll have a doll house setup on a Raspberry Pi (Homeseer, Misterhouse, HS3 Pi and perhaps Pytomation) with X10, Insteon and Z-Wave devices. This will be interesting.