Raspberry Pi Home Automation With Arduino Paperback – February 1, 2013

Raspberry Pi Home Automation with Arduino is an introductory guide to building projects for your home using the Raspberry Pi computer and the Arduino to Pi bridge shield.The book starts off with an introduction to the history of home automation and provides some background to the Raspberry Pi, Arduino and Arduino to Pi technology.Following this we learn how to setup a small LED and switch it on and off. This is the "Hello World" program of the electronics realm.Having got to grips with wiring the Pi up to the Arduino shield and subsequently connecting up some electronic components, we move onto some more complex projects.In the following chapters the book covers setting up relays that can switch a fan on and off using mains electricity. You are guided through a basic thermostat circuit and then explore HTSQL, SQLite and Python in order to build a database for storing room temperatures.I'd never used HTSQL before so this was a great introduction to a new technology.The book finishes of with some future projects and gives us a guide to the Gertboard.For those in the US Lady Ada has the vast majority of components you'd need on her website and they are all pretty cheap. The Arduino to Pi shield I had to order from the Cooking Hacks website.Who would I recommend this book for?1.) If you already have a bunch of Arduino shields and want to use them with the PI, this is the perfect book. Since buying the Arduino to Pi shield I have been able to re-use a bunch of electronic components I had sitting around.2.) Your are an absolute newbie and want to learn about the Raspberry Pi and Arduino and a way to combine the technologies.The book was a lot of fun and has given me a way to get new life out of old components.

This is a great starter book for those who want to learn how to build their own media center. This is an accessible book and provided you have the hardware expertise or are willing to roll up your sleeves and learn.

When I ordered the book, I did not realize that I would have to separately order a 40-Euro Arduino shield from cooking-hacks.org to use it. So basically, until I want to cough up the funds,the book is a doorstop. Even the most basic part of the setup requires additional parts (LEDs, resistors) that as a new user, I don't have. I was able to find a list of what was needed, but it would behoove anyone wanting to use the book to search through the sample pages to get the shopping list first. I will say that the portions I have read are clear and comprehensible; just not terribly useful without all the additional hardware bits.

So, you're interested in custom home automation? This book introduces you to the sensors, controllers, and programming languages to spark your creativity towards home automation. Very detailed with lots of resources to get started on your journey. Good for both novice and intermediate users.

Once again a great book for the Pi.

The description of the book neglects to tell you that a raspberry pi to arduino bridge shield is needed. I only found that out after I downloaded the book. That is very deceptive. I feel badly ripped off.

As a newbie in the field of not only Raspberry Pi, but of electronics as a whole, I needed a lot of background to catch up with. All of these resistors, thermistors, bread-boards, shields, wire-color-codes, etc. - the book is not a theoretical guide in the filed but give just enough explanations for all the hardware involved. The book's chapters are typically organised as a set of tutorials. This makes it comfortably structured, and allows for quicker reading and jumping directly to your level or particular sub-theme of interest.So lets be a bit more specific and see what is in the book. The first chapter is introductory in sense of providing historical background to the both platforms - Raspberry Pi and Arduino, and automation of the home environment. In the end we are convinced that the Pi (equipped with the Arduino shield) really represents a little revolution in the field.The next two chapters provide the initial set-up for our automating system. From installing the operating system of choice, through constructing the shielded device, to the programming tools required for managing the test system. Here the chosen OS is the "default" option for Raspberry Pi - Raspbian Wheezy. Once the shield is installed, the programmatic communication with it needs to be carried through some library. It is shown, how to check which version of the provided arduPi library is the right one for our Pi. When ready and after the mandatory Blinking LED test we're set and ready to dive.Chapter four is very important, because it is a proof of concept. Guiding us through making the hardware set-up of digital thermometer and finally the code that reads the measurements, it is actually the first example of a real world application of the Pi. Just reading through this chapter and automation ideas might start to pop out. And since the home is a physical environment, the underlying laws and principles are explained when necessary up to the mathematical equation and its corresponding arduPi code. We're hinted that for further and more complex experimentation the simple Geany IDE could be of great help to automate the process of compiling and running the executable binaries.The next chapter five is the fore mentioned increasing (although quite slight) of complexity - it shows how to turn the thermometer into a thermostat. On the level of hardware the relays are introduced. On the level of software the screen and the cURL were installed in order to keep the application as an autonomously running process on Raspbian, and for the application to communicate to other programs (code) through URLs respectively.Chapter six is dedicated to making things permanent - to better control the data by recording the measurements to a database. The mixture of SQLite, HTSQL, Apache HTTP server with WSGI (server side Python implementation) is gradually tied up so in the end all the results are written into the SQLite database file. Its data can conveniently be displayed in the simple web application just created.The seventh chapter takes a little step aside, by exploring the task of using the combination of photoresistor and a motor shield, which is a bit different look of the previous task. They're used to automatically close/open blinds regarding the environment's luminosity. Thus it is shown that there is abundance of ideas floating around and only the lack of imagination can make them remain invisible. Discovering the new projects is subjective to everyone and hinting to some of them is the task of the last chapter eight. Here the tone is set for the real world problems. The hardware presented is the Gertboard, the GPIO pins and their meanings, the components from the previous tasks are provided with some more advanced details. Some possible applications are mentioned (like the modern 3D printing for instance).So if you're this type of electronics enthusiast who is new to Raspberry Pi, this book is for you, regardless of your experience with soldering components. The book has a real practical value. But only if you're not afraid to get your hands a little bit dirty.