My PhD Project

[mark_venn]

Hi All
I am new here; just wanted to say I am glad I have stumbled over this site as I am currently working on my PhD project that is aiming to see if a smart home can be used to help improve the independence of adults with autism. I am using openHAB with, at the moment, Insteon to communicate but I have had a number of issues. I am looking for a possible replacement and I thought I would have a go at creating my own sensors. I have a number of Ardunios, 4 Unos, 1 Yun, 1 mega and 2 RPi, 1 A and 1 B. I have just ordered a bunch of NRF24L01+ to see what I can achieve myself rather than using a different system. I need to work out what info I can get from my various bits of kit and see how I can use this info in openHAB but I am looking forward to playing!

[hek]

Welcome to the community @mark_venn !

[TheoL]

@mark_venn Welcome aboard. I also have a special interest in the group you are doing you PhD on. So if you need my help just give me a yell and I'll be happy to lend you a hand.

[mark_venn]

@TheoL
Thanks!
I have a son with autism and I am sort of thinking about the future when I am not here!

I am working at the University of Portsmouth in the UK and I have access to a test house for testing my ideas. I will be in touch at some point.
Mark

[TheoL]

@mark_venn Hopefully a lot of people can benefit from your research and products. Again I'll help you out when you need me. I work with a lot of people whom have High Functional Autism. So I'm a bit familiar with the field.

Porthmouth I used to to travel a lot to the UK for work. Our project leader was born and raised there. I still have to pay him a visit. As I've been told, it's a really nice region.

[freedomotic]

@mark_venn Very interesting and useful project!
If you want to explore other home automation platform please refer to our framework http://forum.mysensors.org/category/19/freedomotic
We had different collaborations with Universities http://freedomotic.com/wiki/academic-papers-thesis

[mark_venn]

@freedomotic
Hi
Thanks for the pointer. I will have a look at your system. I have had a quick scan of your web page and I can see that there could be some uses for my system. I need a good rules system that can react to sensor input that reacts to the users in the house. A quick look seems to say that you have a rules system that I could use. I will set it up on my spare RPi and have a play with some sensors. See you on the forum!

[mark_venn]

@TheoL
Hey Theo
If you do get to come over some time, let me know and I will show you how my project is going in the test house. Assuming I get some where soon. I have been trying to get an Insteon hub working with openHAB and I have had so many problems, hence my looking for a different approach and looking at MySensors! Just waiting for my pro minis and radio boards to arrive then I can actually get somewhere. (I hope)

Might have made a bad decision with my choice of 5v minis with step down regulators for the radio. Wasn't thinking of power for the boards themselves. What do you recommend I do to power 5v boards when there is no power locally?