HOME AUTOMATION TOUR - BATHROOM

You know you've won when you manage to sneak a CAT 5 point into the bathroom!

Why fit a CAT 5 point into the bathroom ? Several reasons actually. As well as connecting medical sensors at some future point, the weighing scales could be connected to the network, so weight could be logged directly to a PC to keep a regular and accurate weight chart. I did think of fitting a load cell to the toilet seat, but that one has been vetoed.

I would like in the long term to have some form of health monitoring setup (shades of Star Trek), so a basic heart monitoring (a simple electrocardiograph for instance) could be achieved and again, the monitor connected via the network point to a PC, with a small LCD display of health status in the bathroom. I've seen a possible solution with an electrocardiograph electronics project in the June 2002 issue of Everyday Practical Electronics magazine which may need further investigation. I don't know what else one could easily monitor, but there must be other life signs that can be monitored.

Network Points

The room is equipped with 2 CAT 5e network points fitted in a single wall box.

1-wire Network

The 1-wire network extends into the bathroom via a DS1820 1-wire temperature sensor. At some point, hopefully a humidity sensor will also get fitted. This then gives some form of rudimentary envrionmental monitoring in the bathroom.

Current Status

The whole bathroom is finished with the exception of the Cat 5 network points which need to be plumbed in.