Hp Jetdirect Home Automation Device.

Did not contact X-10, but I did contact Insteon about getting some demo units to help sell their products. Since they turned me down, I will use the HP Jet directs instead. The jet directs can control a multitude of devices with minimum additional hardware cost.You should be able to get he jet directs at a fraction of the cost of the Insteon equipment.  What I wanted to do is to reuse old HP Jet directs with parallel ports for home automation. With the units that have three parallel ports instead of one. you can be a real powerhouse for control. This instructable is for techie oriented computer users who have done work with the parallel port.

Note: I will be updating this instructable as we go along. Still needs some polish. I do not condone Ebay or it's sellers, but you can get the jet directs for a reasonable price compared to insteon or X-10.

Note: We are going to experiment with an Airlink unit also.

For each port, you will need a 74ls04 or equivalent. A cmos 4009 (inverting)  dip might works also. You will have to adjust the wiring set up though. if you made the no solder break out cable (https://www.instructables.com/id/Mini-parallel-port-break-out-cable/ or https://www.instructables.com/id/No-solder-parallel-port-break-out/) , it will also be perfect for this project.

if you use a logic tester pin 9 on the 7404 shoud be high. (red)
if you use a logic tester pin 8 on the 7404 shoud be low.  (green)

Note: try this at your own risk. Older jetdirects may need a latch (74ls373) to hold the data bits.I will post an additional circuit to do this once I get it working and tested. On the test unit, we are using pin 1 from the db25 for +5.

There are already a zillion instructables on how to interface digital ports with external electronic devices. Did not add that part as  to not  reinvent the wheel. but I will later add an example of using gmail and your server to control the ports from outside your network.

https://www.instructables.com/id/External-device-control-ie-coffee-machine/

Preview:

(Exerpt from tweeting with linux)

You can also grab your gmail and save it as ascii and do the same sort of thing. It will be more private and you do not have to use twitter.

You could use the following as a starting point.

getgmail.sh
[code]
username="Yourusername"
pword="Yourpassword"
curl -u $username:$pword --silent "https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom" | tr -d '\n' | awk -F '<entry>' '{for (i=2; i<=NF; i++) {print $i}}' | perl -pe 's/^<title>(.*)<\/title><summary>(.*)<\/summary>.*?<name>(.*?)<\/name>.*$/\n$3\n\t$1\n\t$2/' >> currentmail
[/code]

Make it executable.
$ chmod +x getgmail.sh

Have it check for mail every hour
$ crontab -e

*  */1  * * * /home/eddie/bin/getgmail.sh

gedit/vim/nano currentmail

currentmal:
[text]
me
    inre. project.
    Marie: We have decided to go ahead with the project. Good luck
[/text]

Do not have an ms windows machine that can run this but you are welcome to try the code.
Call the output method specifying the port as ipaddress:port and the output value:

Here is the simple c#.net class which I use to access the print server. Say you wanted to turn on pins 2, 4 and 6. Combine the pin values

Pin2=1
Pin3=2
Pin4=4
Pin5=8
Pin6=16
Pin7=32
Pin8=64
Pin9=128

Required value to tun on pins 2, 4 and 6 is 1+4+16=21

(Most print servers use tcp port 9100, multi port JetDirects use 9100 for port one, 9101 for port two etc)

IpPortAccess.Output(192.168.1.10:9100,21);

using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace PowerControl
{
class IpPortAccess
    {
        public static void Output(string port,int value)
        {
            string[] ipport = port.Split(new char[] { ':' });
            string _ip = ipport[0];
            int _port = Convert.ToInt32(ipport[1]);
            Socket soc = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
            soc.Connect(_ip,_port);
            byte[] sendData = new byte[1];
            sendData[0] = Convert.ToByte(value);
            soc.Send(sendData);
            soc.Close();
        }
    }

Php code for server. Note if the wiring is not correct you will  get and error.

[code]
<hr>
<center>
<h2> Jet direct control page <h3>
</center>
<hr>
<br>

 <?php
 
/***********************************************************************************
 * Network Something - php script.
 * Original idea from Praxis Doktor Andy
 * (http://www.doktor-andy.de/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=52)
 * This script was created by Jason Hensler (www.colddarkness.com)
 * This script is released under the GNU/GPL License.
 ********************************************************************************/
 
 
 // error_reporting ( E_ALL ); //turn on error reporting for debugging this can be commented out
 
 /*if(isset($_POST[&#39;Submit&#39;])) {
 *      echo "<pre>";
 *      print_r($_POST);
 *      echo "</pre>";
 *}
 */
        //generate user input form
 ?>
 <form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="">
 <p>Bits to send to print server:<br>
 <label><input type="checkbox" name="bit8" value="true" /></label>
 <label><input type="checkbox" name="bit7" value="true" /></label>
 <label><input type="checkbox" name="bit6" value="true" /></label>
 <label><input type="checkbox" name="bit5" value="true" /></label>
 <label><input type="checkbox" name="bit4" value="true" /></label>
 <label><input type="checkbox" name="bit3" value="true" /></label>
 <label><input type="checkbox" name="bit2" value="true" /></label>
 <label><input type="checkbox" name="bit1" value="true" /></label>
 Reset all <label><input type="checkbox" name="resetall" value="true" /><label>
 <br>
 IP: <input name="ip" value="192.168.1.98">
 <input type="button" value="default" onclick="document.form1.ip.value = '192.168.1.98'"><br>
 PORT: <input name="port" value="9101"><br>
 
  <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Send" />
  <input type="reset"/>
 
 </form>
<br>
<br>
<hr>
Messages:
<hr>
<br>
<?
 if(isset($_POST['Submit'])) //check if user submitted form
 {
 //if user has submited data
 // The raw port number for the print server
 $service_port = $_POST['port'];
 // The network address of the print server
 // This can be an ip address or a network name
 $address = gethostbyname($_POST['ip']);
 
 echo " ";
 echo "Creating socket...";
 $socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP); //create the socket or fail
 if ($socket === false) {
 echo "<br><b>socket_create() failed: reason: " .
 socket_strerror(socket_last_error()) . "</b>\n";
 die();
 } else {
  echo "OK.<br>";
 }
 echo "Connecting to print server: " . $address . "...";
 $result = socket_connect($socket, $address, $service_port); //connect to the print server
 if ($result === false) {
  echo "<br><b>socket_connect() failed.\nReason: ($result) " .
 socket_strerror(socket_last_error($socket)) . "</b>\n";
  die();
 } else {
 echo "OK.<br>";
 }
 $out=0;
 //check to see if which boxes have been checked and add thier bit value to $out
 // bit num: 8   7  6  5  4  3  2  1
 // value:  128 64 32 16  8  4  2  1
 //if(isset($_POST['resetall']){
 //    $out = 0;
 //}
 //else{
      if(isset($_POST['bit8'])) {
           $out +=1;
      }
      if(isset($_POST['bit7'])) {
           $out += 2;
      }
      if(isset($_POST['bit6'])) {
           $out += 4;
      }
      if(isset($_POST['bit5'])) {
           $out += 8;
      }
      if(isset($_POST['bit4'])) {
           $out +=16;
      }
      if(isset($_POST['bit3'])) {
           $out += 32;
      }
      if(isset($_POST['bit2'])) {
           $out += 64;
      }
      if(isset($_POST['bit1'])) {
           $out += 128;
      //}
 }
 if(isset($_POST['resetall'])){
    $out = 0;
 }
 echo "Sending to print server...<br>";
 // since php does not have byte type varables and wants to send ascii over sockets
 // we use chr($out) to send the char with the matching value of the value we want to send
 socket_write($socket, chr($out), strlen(chr($out)));
 socket_close($socket); // close the socket
 echo "Sent!<br>";
 }
 ?>
[/code]

Linux

[root@balrog root]# gcc -o hphack hp.c
hp.c:28:12: warning: multi-line string literals are deprecated
[root@balrog root]# ./hphack 192.168.1.14  "Irongeek"
HP Display hack -- sili@l0pht.com
Hostname: 192.168.1.14
Message: Irongeek
Connecting....
Sent 54 bytes
[root@balrog root]#


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See atachment.

MsWindows:

C:\>hpnt npi769e71 "Irongeek"
HP Display hack -- sili@l0pht.com
Hostname: npi769e71
Message: Irongeek
Connecting....
Sent 54 bytes

C:\>hpnt 192.168.1.14 "Irongeek Also"
HP Display hack -- sili@l0pht.com
Hostname: 192.168.1.14
Message: Irongeek Also
Connecting....
Sent 59 bytes

C:\>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Must be compiled under mswindows.
See attachment.