Recently I was given a reviewer's copy of BeagleBone Home Automation from the publisher Packt Pub. The fact that I was given a copy of the book in exchange for a written review has in no way influenced my rating of the book.
BeagleBone Home Automation by Juha Lumme didn't live up to what I thought the book should be.
While I liked the book as an overall book on how you can work with the BeagleBone Black, it didn't seem to cover home automation. It does give lots of ideas that you can build out though. Juha also provides a fair amount of python code for running on the server and an Android based Java application as well.
The reason for the low rating is that I was hoping to see how to integrate the BeagleBone system into the house so you could use it to dim/brighten lights or raise/lower shades based on inputs fed into the system, but that was missing.
I did like chapter 6 which walks you through building an Android app to interface with the BeagleBone remotely. Being able to connect and control the BeagleBone when connected via the internet was a nice addition to the book.
If you want a good introduction to using BeagleBone with some accessories, this is a good book. If you want to build a home automation system, this will give you ideas on how to start things out, but doesn't finish the process in my opinion.
For those who like to see actual ratings, I give the book a 3 out of 5 stars.
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