I don't think I could ever get used to XBMC on the RPi after using reasonably decent spec HTPCs.

It's not terrible.  The menus are laggy sometimes, but it plays 1080p files fine.

I second this post!

It's the laggy menus which get me annoyed. I've still not checked how good it is at deinterlacing. I use my HTPCs mainly for Live TV so that's essential.

Gotcha

I now have a motion sensor working nicely and a temperature sensor arrived today which works great too. Seems the little corner of the room my RPi is sitting is a bit cold right now...11C!

With a combination of the relay, camera and motion sensor I can take photos whenever motion is detected.

One day I'll use a combination of the temp sensor(s) and relay to turn on/off central heating. Seems quite a few people have done similar projects.

Motion sensor - £1.38
Temperature sensor - £2.11
Mini breadboard - £0.99
40 jumper cables - £1.75
Relay - £1.06

I like these cheap bits.

Great idea. Make it user controllable, maybe via a dial interface for ease of use.

You could make it wall mountable too.

And call it a thermostat.

:P

....then make it web accessible!

I think Apple has a patent on that, so he better be careful!

I want to start messing with Arduino, have you messed with them at all? Can you tie them into a system using the Pi for home automation things?

Not touched any Arduino stuff but may do in the future. The RPi is currently enough for me on the tinkering front at the moment.

I'm just about to pay for this.  Should get me started!

Got any project plans?

Well not yet.  I want to do a bunch of home automation stuff, like lights, enviro controls, security system, some type of keyless entry (either NFC, RFID, or something), etc.  So I am looking for something that can handle that or at least work with other products to do it.

I have a friend who is also interested in this stuff and he's agreed to buy all the hardware if I learn how to get it all working.  Sounds like a good deal to me!  But he's not buying this stuff, I just wanted to get started.

Using PiHAT off the RPi forums I can now control my RF remote sockets from my RPi. Strapped some PHP to it and I can turn off the sockets over the net.

I also bought 18 broken Canon compact cameras to play with. Currently got one hooked up to an RPi running off a 12V 12Ah SLA battery to see how long it lasts taking a photo every minute or so.

Why 18 cameras? Was it a job lot?

Yep, job lot of broken cameras. About 5 worked out of the box and I think at least another 5 can be mixed and matched to work.

Good stuff - gives you a fair few options for fiddling. Have you got a multi camera master plan?

"The graphitone beard monitor project"

Are you blogging any of this? I'd like to see what it is you're doing.

I want to somehow set mine up to /push/ audio and video to my tv from a laptop or phone.

I picked a couple of these up for a customer of mine and they work great, my laptop has WiDi so it talks right to it.  That's what I want my Pi to do!