Mango For Home Automation

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I am currently using Mango to run scheduled tasks and to control my home via the web. Mango is a great solution due to the fact that it is web based and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

Everyday Mango is improving and I am proud to say I joined the "band wagon" early on! The support and assistance I have received from the Mango team has been excellent.

My Home Automated System or HAS is built based upon a Velleman k8061 board. This board is awesome and provides many digital and analog inputs and outputs. It can be purchased from qkits at this address: http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/K8061 - I recommend paying extra for the company to assemble.

I have written software using VB which runs on the machine which the board is connected to (USB) as a service. The service takes values from the board and populates them to a MYSQL database. The database has basically two tables. One table is to set values on the board, the other receives values from the board.

From this point, Mango's database connection tool (SQL Data Source) is used to connect the board and Mango together.

I am working on documenting this process and will be available at http://www.matthewjbailey.com

If you can make your components store there values in a database, Mango can handle the rest.

Hi, I have been playing with Home Automation for several years, from time to time. I have been working with a ISA based I/O card for digital I/O 8/8/8. I developed multiplex system to give me 64dI/64dO. I never got it past test phase.

Sounds like a lot of I/O, but everything in my house is controlled by 12v. I currently hardwire most and have some discreet logic for the rest. I actually need more that 64 inputs and have two systems, one in the old part of the house and one in the new part.

I picked the project up about 6 months ago after 4 years. The computer (a 486) is dead. It is getting to hard to find computers with ISA slots. Time for an upgrade. Found the K8055 and played with this but it just not up to the job. So back in the to hard bin.

Then last week I found the K8061, I ordered 2 yesterday. I plan to use the same setup to get 64dI/64dO and have 8ain free. I will use the K8055's for the AO.

Then I found this post then looked up your web site. The system you are building is almost identical. I was using VB3 on the first test rig. I got VB6 as part of the upgrade. Just as you have done I used a database (flat file) to hold the i/o settings and use a small VB app to read and write to the I/O cards. I have also been playing with the design for a controller and cut some VB3 code, but it was just to hard. (I have only ever played with basic in the past, OE programming is all new to me)

I have a rudimentary understanding of VB6 and database management and was planning to see if I could get some help on line.

Anyway after reading your post I believe that you have done most of the work that I about to do. It would be good if I could get a copy of the VB code and maybe a pointer or two on how to setup the database to work with Mango.

Regards Laurie

ldevitt@xtra.co.nz

That sounds great. I am workng on making the interface a little more user friendly. It will run as a service.

I know it has been a couple of Months. Have you got anywhere?

Hi,

Yes I have got the new 9061 cards and have cut some VB code to control the cards in a multipelx setup. There is an updated driver for the 8055 that works a lot better. I am now using the 8055 as the control port driver and the 8061 to do the read write. seems to work fine. This gives me a set of cards for each location. With a total of 128 i/o ports more that I need. I worked out if I connect everything I will get the about 100.

The next step is to link the cards to the current house system to get an end to end test of a simple function, turn on and off a light.

As to Mango, I downloaded the files and did everything they said to set it up, but it gust will not run so I gave up. I will give it another go when I get the hardware sorted. Maybe by then they will have made it simpler to install.

Regards Laurie