EasyDAQ is the creator of a wide range of relay controllers with USB, Ethernet, Serial, and XBee interfaces. EasyDAQ partnered with ioBridge to web-enable their serial relay control modules. The integrated system includes web-based control of up to 16 opto-isolated relays, a custom serial cable that interfaces the serial relay controller to the ioBridge IO-204 module, and an international / universal power supply.
EasyDAQ and ioBridge Serial Relay Controller System Overview
Web access is provided by the ioBridge.com platform via widgets and the Static Widget API. The API provides a conduit for commands sent by HTTP or HTTPS POST/GET requests. HTML, LabVIEW, Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP and Ajax are access/programming options. Refer to the ioBridge Wiki for protocol and information on controlling the EasyDAQ SER8PRMx and SER16PRMxN relay cards using the ioBridge.com platform.
The system components are available for sale and worldwide distribution directly from EasyDAQ – visit EasyDAQ.biz for more information.
Every year CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) publishes a forecast of the 5 Technology Trends to Watch. The 34-page report for 2010 includes insight into what trends will play a part in the technological landscape for consumers. 2010 trends include The Evolution of Digital Content, The Home Ecosystem, The Future of TV, Connected Cars, and The Smart Grid.
CEA writes about ioBridge technology in relationship to the home ecosystem. 2010 will be the start of the home becoming “smart”, where things start to speak and home automation, monitoring, and control collides with the web, mobile devices, and social networks. The ioBridge platform allows for a secure link between your house and the web – allowing sensors and controls to become a web service. 2010 will bring the integration of our technology into household devices, industrial controls, and enterprise resource management systems.
Those that “Do-It-Yourself ” can get started now and build cloud-based data logging apps, social network controls, and website applications with the ioBridge IO-204 and the ioBridge.com web services. Developers and integrators are already experimenting with and creating next generation products centered around the core technology behind ioBridge. CEA predicts that consumer products of this sort will be ubiquitous in 2010.
To read the entire report, visit CE.org producers of CES.
Have you ever wanted to keep track of your fussy chickens? Watch them, listen to them, monitor their temperature? This project is beyond home automation, it’s Coop Automation.
ioBridge user known as “Automatr” posted in the ioBridge Forum about his project to automate his chicken coop so he could watch, listen, and monitor the chicken’s environment 24/7 from anywhere in the world via the web.
Coop Automation - Live Video and Audio
This is the first chicken cam for sure. The project is very well done. Complete with a day/night infrared web cam, microphone, automatic door, light sensor, temperature sensor, and the ioBridge IO-204 connecting the project to the Internet for remote monitoring. Automatr can track temperature, light levels, listen in, and watch his chickens on his dedicated website, FussyChickens.com. He also gets messages posted to him when his automatic coop door opens and closes.
If you want to tune in and watch/listen to the chicken coop, head over to FussyChickens.com where there is a live audio and video stream from uStream.
Thanks for sharing your coop with us. These chickens are not getting away with anything now.
Christmas lights are one way to celebrate the holidays. If you want to take the tradition further, why not web-enable your your xmas lights and let the world watch, control, and interact via the Internet. A couple of ioBridge users did just that -- they took their holiday lights to Griswold levels.
Nathan Kennedy of Pacific Lights and Kennedy Technology has created an interactive display of reindeer and Christmas Star stakes covered in Christmas lights. You can watch his display all the way from New Zealand and switch them on or off on his website. He uses the ioBridge IO-204 connected to an arduino to control the lights on his website. It’s lots of fun controlling someone else’s holiday display.
Christmas Lights Controlled via a Web Page
Noel Portugal of Oracle has created an interactive holiday lights display using a mix of technologies. The result is Christmas lights synchronized to songs that are selectable on a web page, www.xmas-box.com. Inside the box are solid-state relays to control the lights, an Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit, and of course, the ioBridge IO-204 module to add some interactivity to his website. Noel details the procedure to create your very own Christmas Light Controller Box on Instructables.com and on his blog. On a related note, Noel also won third-place for his Dropping Spider ioBridge project featured on Instructables this Halloween! His neighbors must love him!
ioBridge offers a web-based platform for interfacing the physical world. You can connect sensors, switches, and controls to the IO-204 module and send email, update your Facebook status, or let your friends know what your power usage is on your blog without touching a single line of code. If you can click, you can create.
The IO-204 connects to your network and establishes a link to the ioBridge web services in the “cloud”. From there you can control, monitor, and share by using a point-and-click design interface or through open APIs.
We have released a new firmware called C4.0 which allows you to go beyond the cloud. C4.0 is an explosion of new features. You can create projects and products that work with the network cable unplugged. Using the ioBridge.com interface, you design rules and synchronize those rules to the module. Now, with or without the Internet connection, the module can make on-board decisions, turn fans on, control your lights, and sound buzzers.
The C4.0 firmware also includes high-frequency pulse counting. You may be asking yourself, “Why does pulse counting matter?” Well, pulse counting allows you to track inputs that are going on/off, around, or up and down. You can count the revolutions of your power meter. If you know how many times it spins around, you know how much power you have used. You can count the revolutions of a windmill to calculate wind speed. This feature keeps counting even if your network connection is not available.
Here’s more great news…If you already have the IO-204, you can upgrade your module to the new firmware by clicking upgrade on the module section of the ioBridge.com interface. All new orders ship loaded with C4.0 so you get all of the new features right out of the gate.
Details regarding the new firmware are available in the ioBridge Wiki. We are excited to see what you come up with!
Richard MacManus of ReadWriteWeb wrote an article about ioBridge and Matt Morey’s home automation project via Twitter. Matt created a system that allows him to not only get messages from his office, but to control lights and devices using Twitter. He now has a real-time, two-control system for automating some processes at his office using the ioBridge IO-204 monitor and control module.
“ioBridge enables sending data to -- or controlling objects from -- social networks, email, text messaging.”
Thanks to Oprah, Twitter is a household name. You can’t avoid it. But, Twitter uses are starting to flourish thanks to an API and dedicated developers. Matt Morey has developed a two-way, home automation application using Twitter to control lights and LCDs and monitor temperature and light sensors. His app interfaces Twitter with the ioBridge IO-204 by using the PHP Widget Control API.
Follow MattsOffice on Twitter
Matt’s Twitter application allows him to make updates to his Twitter feed and send commands to his IO-204 to turn on lights, send messages to his serial LCD screen, and get temperatures and light sensor readings. He also has a nifty extension that allows you to see a view from his office by sending him a tweet, which takes a snap shot from a digital camera and posts it on TwitPic.
