How to build a LAMP project: Home Automation / Home Security

A 'How to' book for those wishing to build a Home Automation / Home Security system.

A LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) design for a Web-Based Home Control / Security Application is provided (source code included).

This book is applicable to both the seasoned Embedded Software Engineer and to the Hobbyist who just wants to learn a little bit about writing code.

But what of the novice?

What of the person who wants to gain some understanding in making an embedded software product?

Do they need a Computer Science or Electrical Engineering degree before they can even begin to learn how to program an embedded system?

All too many books discuss such programming from an advanced level.

Well, this book is not like that at all.

The idea is to get anyone that is interested in embedded programming up and running in a short period of time. The language of choice today is C or C++. For an easy entrance into this world of programming the C language was chosen for the code examples presented within this book.

A home control lighting and security system is the ideal application and by the time you have finished you would know how:

• To install LAMP (Linux, Apache (Web Server), MySQL and PHP) on your PC computer
• To backup/restore your Linux hard drive
• To automatically execute your application at system startup
• To apply Java Script, MySQL and PHP to your own Web page
• To build C applications that communicate over serial ports
• To build C applications that use MySQL
• To write a complete Home Control / Security application
• To have your application send email messages with WebCam images
• To have your Home Control / Security application speak messages
• To compute and utilize sunrise and sunset times for each day of the year

Oh! And there's one added bonus. With this system you do not require any monthly monitoring fee. Since your Home Control / Security application simply sends you an email when it detects an intruder, you can immediately go home or call a friend or neighbor to check on the house. No need to fork out money each month for some 'service' charge.

They say that knowledge is power. That may be true, but to sit at home using your iPAD or iPHONE (or some other Tablet, or even a web page on one of your computers) and to bring up your Home Control web page and click on a button to turn on a light or to initiate a sequence of events for evening television viewing, well, that is really neat.

And this book presents all this information to you in an easy to read form.

So now is the time to get into some fun and start programming an embedded application!