My Raspberry Pi Server - Control lights from web and be a NAS

[shahzaddddd]

Hi,

I recently came across the Raspberry Pi/, which is a cheap (£35) and low powered computer which can run a basic Linux OS.

As soon as I got my hands on one I set it up to be my home NAS (Network Area Storage) for all my pictures, videos, movies etc.

While googling around uses for the Raspberry Pi, I came across a product called the Telldus Tellstick which is basically a USB dongle which you can plug into any PC (Windows or Linux) and it acts as a transmitter on the 433.92 MHz frequency which a lot of remote lighting setups use.

I have now used this to control a number of remote control mains sockets from my Raspberry Pi server. I have a some basic knowledge of PHP (A programming language for web pages), and I was able to write a web page to control these lights:

Home Control screen.jpg

I can now turn lights on or off from my phone, pc or anything that has a web browser and access to the internet.

I have also written scripts to download to grab the sunset time for my location on a daily basis from the web and then set a scheduled task to turn on certain lights at that time (yes an elaborate dusk til dawn setup).

I am only getting started with this, but if anybody has an questions, suggestions or needs any help doing something similar give me a shout.

S.

[biccies]

That sounds like good work! I have a couple of Pi and use them for xbmc. I think the raspberry pi has a good place in DIY HA setups. I'm currently looking for a way to utilise Pis for audio to have a system similar to sonos using existing speakers and amps

[shahzaddddd]

That sounds like good work! I have a couple of Pi and use them for xbmc. I think the raspberry pi has a good place in DIY HA setups. I'm currently looking for a way to utilise Pis for audio to have a system similar to sonos using existing speakers and amps

Could you use XMBC as a DLNA/UPNP renderer and then control your music over a phone/ipad? Also check out despotify which is a linux spotify client (However a premium account is required).

[biccies]

I should have mentioned that I am a spotify user, so DLNA is unfortunately out. I had heard of despotify but its UI is more akin to CLI. Plus I'd like to control the music from another device. I currently have a PC setup that just rubs spotify with an android app to control it from tablet and phones.
The XBMC spotify addons don't currently work with Raspbmc, plus you'd need to see the screen to control it.
The hope is I can control it from my phone, so for example I could install speakers in the kitchen and use a phone or tablet to control music. Airfoil for the pi is currently looking to be the best. The downside is that involves a device streaming the music, whereas I'd prefer to control a box that is doing the real hard work (mostly to save battery)

[TomPlumb]

Could you use XMBC as a DLNA/UPNP renderer and then control your music over a phone/ipad? Also check out despotify which is a linux spotify client (However a premium account is required).

Didnt know you could get spotify over linux! Thats got me thinking now too....