Atari 800 Home Automation

[StickJock]

So here's a gadget that I built back in 1985.  It is based on a Byte Magazine article from July 1983.

 

It is a box (used to be a strobe light) that has four 110 volt outlets in it, along with an toggle switch.  There are two cables coming out of the box.  One has a 3-prong plug and plugs into a 110V outlet in the wall.  The other ends in a DB9 plug, and plugs into the joystick port on the Atari.  The Atari can individually control each of the four outlets in the box to turn them on & off.  The toggle switch on the box is a global power control on the box itself.

 

I wrote a program back in '85 to control the box.  It had two alarm clocks, along with four digital inputs and 2 analog inputs, and four timers.  I finally found the control program (after looking for it for over a month!), and I am still trying to figure out how it all works.  It's written in uncommented assembly....  It appears that each outlet has an "on" column and an "off" column, and priority can be set between them.  You can list inputs in each column for each device.  Each input can be used as active high or active low.  For example, you can have outlet 1 turn on when input A goes high and turn off when input A goes low.  Or you can have use different inputs, like input A going low turns on outlet 1 and input B going low turns off outlet 1.  If they are both low, then this is where the priority setting is used.  I tested it out using a joystick as the input device and a lamp plugged into one of the outlets.

 

For the inputs, I had made my own AtariLabs-like joystick port breakout box that has jacks for each of the four direction inputs, the two pots, the button, and it also has a smaller jack to supply 5V power.  It is actually made from the cardboard from the back of a notepad, duct tape, and a bunch of recycled phono plugs that I had scavenged out of old radios, walkie-talkies, etc.  Hey, I was a broke kid, ok?  ?

 

I remember running this back in 1985, where I had wires running to a button by my bedroom door so that when the door opened, a light turned on.

 

Anyway, it was a pretty cool project that I built in my youth, and I thought that I would share it with the community.

 

 

[+Allan]

Are you familiar with the X-10 system? It's been around for a long time. But they had it for the Atari 8-bit computers. The program was released by a small company but was picked up by Antic magazine and sold through their catalog.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-x-10-power-manager_30974.html

 

I copied the disk and posted here on the boards somewhere. I just forget at the moment.

 

 

[Geister]

That's pretty cool, but an idea well ahead of it's time.  I remember thinking at the time, "who's going to use a $1000. computer to operate a few lights."  Today's Arduinos and RaspberryPies are a much easier cost to justify. 

[+mytek]

Reminds me of an automated chiller test system I created back in 1986. I was a bit older than you were (31), so my project was more ambitious. I had interfaced a serial output temperature meter via a couple of joystick pins, and used the remaining I/O pins to control sensor input relays, and to also control the basic operating modes of the chiller. There was a configurable control program, a pop-up mini word processor to enter time/date stamped notes, and an auto temperature cycler, all written in a combination of Basic and assembler. It was pretty cool at the time. Unfortunately I no longer have either the hardware or the software, so consider yourself lucky.

 

[StickJock]

4 minutes ago, Allan said:

Are you familiar with the X-10 system? It's been around for a long time. But they had it for the Atari 8-bit computers. The program was released by a small company but was picked up by Antic magazine and sold through their catalog.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-x-10-power-manager_30974.html

 

I copied the disk and posted here on the boards somewhere. I just forget at the moment.

 

 

I'm familiar with X10, but I didn't know that there was an Atari controller for it.  I think that my older brother had an X10 controller running on his Apple II in the early 80s.  I had forgotten all about that.

 

I actually had my entire house wired up with X10 switches, sensors, remote controllers, cameras, etc.  I converted over SmartThings a few years ago, and now all of my light switches are Zwave and I have an assortment of Zwave & Zigbee sensors all over the place.

 

I've got two or three boxes full of new & used X10 stuff that I really should take pics of and put up on CraigsList....  ?

[BillC]

7 hours ago, StickJock said:

I'm familiar with X10, but I didn't know that there was an Atari controller for it.  I think that my older brother had an X10 controller running on his Apple II in the early 80s.  I had forgotten all about that.

I believe the X10 interface being referred to is the CP290. There was no Atari 8-bit software provided with it, but there was the Powermanager software/joystick interface from Terrific Corp costing almost as much as the CP290. I thought there was also software released in ANALOG or ANTIC but can't find any mention of it

 

https://www.atarimagazines.com/v7n4/powermanager.html

[TGB1718]

Nice project, reminds me when I got my ST's and the poor old 8 bits were resigned to a cupboard, I toyed

with the idea of using my 130XE as a home security system, but never got that far with it (too many games to be played on the ST)

[StickJock]

Here's the Byte Magazine article that I used to build this project.

 

https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-07/page/n427/mode/2up

 

The pic in the OP is from a photocopy of the article that I found in a filing cabinet.  I must be a true packrat to still have it in my files from when I was a kid 35 years ago!  It also has the receipts for some of the parts stapled to it, which is how I know that I built it in 1985.  ?

 

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

The British magazine Atari User had a similar project.  They even published a letter I sent asking some questions about it later.  But I never did anything with it.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

[_The Doctor__]

there was two free solution one possibly type in for the x-10 and the Atari 8 bit also there was an ST one as well that and the trs80 coco's probably everyone had something

Edited January 22, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 9/8/2020 at 6:24 PM, Mathy said:

Hello guys

 

The British magazine Atari User had a similar project.  They even published a letter I sent asking some questions about it later.  But I never did anything with it.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

 

I remember that issue - the controller was one of two things from that magazine that I built, the other being the speech synthesiser that plugged into the joystick ports.  From what I recall, at the least one of them needed supplementary notes from a subsequent issue to get working properly.

 

There's a ton of (110V) X10 stuff I've collected over the years that I really should clear out.  It's still great equipment, but I've moved on to newer home automation protocols.