‰ NOW 30 WPM ‰ TEXT IS FROM OCTOBER 2018 QST PAGE 35 ‰ UNIX BASED SYSTEM, SUCH AS A RASPBERRY PI MICROCOMPUTER. MY HOME AUTOMATION SYSTEM RUNS ON A RASPBERRY PI, BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE MORE CONVENIENT TO RUN A SECOND INSTANCE OF OPENHAB ON MY RADIO STATIONS PC, AFFORDING DIRECT CONTROL OF THE ARDUINO THROUGH ITS USB PORT. THE FEASIBILITY OF THIS IDEA WAS REINFORCED BY THE EXISTENCE OF A SERIAL BINDING FOR OPEN HAB, WHICH ALLOWS COMMUNICATION TO ANY DEVICE CONNECTED VIA AN RS232 PORT OR EMULATOR. THE ACT OF CUSTOMIZING THE INTERFACE COULD THEN BE DONE SIMPLY THROUGH SOFTWARE BY MODIFYING THE ITEM, RULE, AND SITEMAP FILES THAT CONFIGURE THE OPENHAB GUI. HARDWARE THE HARDWARE FOR THE ACTUAL SWITCH IS QUITE SIMPLE. I USED AN ARDUINO MEGA 2560 MICROCOMPUTER FOR THE INTERFACE SEE FIGURE 1A. IT HAS THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF DIGITAL I/O INTERFACES AND IS AVAILABLE FOR LESS THAN 20 AT SEVERAL VENDORS. FOR THE RELAY BOARDS, I USED TWO SAINSMART 16 CHANNEL RELAY MODULES. THESE UNITS ARE COMPRISED OF 16 SINGLE POLE DOUBLE THROW SPDT RELAYS, PLUS ALL OF THE SWITCHING CIRCUITRY TO CONVERT A 5 V DIGITAL HIGH OR LOW SIGNAL TO THE APPROPRIATE SWITCHING STATE OF THE RELAYS. FOR ANY ‰ END OF 30 WPM TEXT ‰ QST DE W1AW ƒ