C++ programming pioneer hacks off-grid, DIY, smart home

http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/c-programming-pioneer-hacksf-grid-diy-smart-home/

by yason • 14 years ago

88 30 14 years ago

6ren• 14 years ago

Reminds me a bit of Paul Lutus http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1681247

Automated homes seem to be like video phones: common in science-fiction, we now have them, but they (curiously) aren't used that much.

koko775• 14 years ago

Don't know about you, but while I knew video phones existed a long time back, almost all of my calls with my parents recently have been over Facetime, now that there's a simple, intuitive way for us to use it (I bought them an iPad). Automated homes may just be a technology waiting to be designed right, not just solved. After all, home is our retreat from...well, anywhere, really. Design matters if you're going to be encountering it all your life.

bff• 14 years ago

Smart and automated homes are closely related to my research so I'll chime in on this. Even though the technology exists to do lots of cool things no one has built a modular system that you can mix and match pieces to.

Right now each "smart" feature would be completely separate from the rest so you can't amortize the cost of each one. So if you want a home security system, an automatic door and window locker, and an item tracking system you will need to pay for and install three separate systems. Since the utility of some of those systems just isn't that great people only install the system that has the highest economic benefit -- the home security system. Everything else costs too much for too little benefit.

Retric2• 14 years ago

Video chat has much better adoption for close relationships with people that don't live near by. Family moving away, long distance dating etc. Overall communication is a lot more nuanced than most people think. Just consider text messages.

What science fiction in 1920 thought people would hold phones that let them call other people and instead chose to write the message down and then send it. Yet, often people find text messages far more useful than a phone call.

cageface2• 14 years ago

and he wired it for pure DC lighting (which makes sense with solar, but Amelang also likes how “peaceful” DC lighting feels).

Congratulations are due to him for his resourceful unreasonableness but this sounds a little tinfoil-hat to me.

chao-2• 14 years ago

In what manner? I can't say I have an opinion about the way DC lighting looks, but if it made for easier work with the solar power of an already custom-beyond-reason job, why not?

cageface2• 14 years ago

He says it "feels" different. I think it's very unlikely that people can perceive AC power cycles.

yardie• 14 years ago

Most AC-DC converters are switching power supplies that switch on and off at very frequency (ie. 10kHz). When you have 2 switching supplies close together they can introduce some interesting harmonics, especially if they aren't shielded well.

Likely, he switched out incadescents for some other lighting type and if he was using flourescents you can definitely hear it.

read_wharf• 14 years ago

Listen to a house during a blackout. Nothing to hear.

grannyg00se• 14 years ago

Put into context, the initial drive to go off grid and build something like this was due to his employer bringing in fluorescent lighting and not permitting employees to use their own lights. He quit his job over this. So clearly lighting is a big deal to him and I wouldn't doubt that this environment feels much more peaceful than a cubicle with fluorescent lights. He also claims that he can see flicker in fluorescents as well as incandescents.

topbanana• 14 years ago

Some pics of his house: http://www.flickr.com/photos/faircompanies/sets/721576286741...

VMG4• 14 years ago

Burning wood isn't particularly "smart"

halfwave2• 14 years ago

Why ?

VMG4• 14 years ago

Unless he has high-tech stoves, it is pretty polluting. Smoke contains many toxic chemicals.

http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/is-burning-wood-f...

pcvarmint• 14 years ago

"C++ programming pioneer"? I'd never heard of him before. From the headline I thought they were talking about Bjarne or somebody like that.

And 10,000 lines is not a lot. What's so special about this guy's C++ code?

Sorry to be negative, but the article sounds full of hype.

ginko• 14 years ago

The 10,000 lines of code are for controlling the systems in his house.

I would guess he wrote a lot more in his career.

Loic• 14 years ago

Look at the pictures of the house (cf. comment by topbanana), the house is beautiful, just a pleasure to look at the clean minimalism.

This goes in the same direction than this house: http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm Corresponding HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=619511

C++ programming pioneer hacks off-grid, DIY, smart home

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