You could just buy some powered USB speakers. Saves some soldering.

You don't need a book - but books are distilled knowledge and often speed up the learning process

I have to register an interest here - I am about to recommend my own book, but it has had a lot of good reviews when it comes to getting newcomers to Arduino Programming on the right track.

http://www.arduinobook.com

If the blinds are heavy, then its not going to be easy. A fairly powerful gearmotor winding the cord around a cylinder might work okay.

Its the kind of project where you will probably need to try a few things out - do some experimenting.

If there is a way to use a counterweight against the weight of the blinds, that will considerably reduce the power of gearmotor required.

I meant to also add, here are some of the things I have been doing.

More experiments than projects. http://www.doctormonk.com/search/label/raspberry%20pi

Si.

These are all just good toys for us to play with

The Pi is (as Mike says) pretty poor at anything real-time with Linux. The timing even makes a servo pretty jumpy (http://www.doctormonk.com/2012/07/raspberry-pi-gpio-driving-servo.html).

It also draws 500mA about 10x that of an Arduino Uno.

BUT. Its fun, and its a challenge, seeing just what it can do!

You might also like to look at the section on home automation using an Android Tablet talking to an Arduino using an audio link from my book 'Arduino + Android Projects for the Evil Genius' http://www.duinodroid.com

Disclosure: I am the author of this book.

Depending on your level of electronics skill, you could adapt the link from @steen to use a motor shield to drive the gear motors rather than the custom opto isolated driver approach that the author took.

Alternatively, I would experiment with servos and see if they have enough oomph to switch the blind position.

Simple Digital Clock using I2C 4-digit 7-segment LED and RTC from Adafruit

http://www.doctormonk.com/2012/08/review-4-digit-7-segment-led-and-rtc.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RhvTgmzUY3I/UB4WgySO1iI/AAAAAAAABCA/LQbR7A5hqio/s320/clock+copy.jpg

Arduinos with Ethernet?

Though I think the USB is the neatest option. With 2 Arduinos connected to a USB hub, I'm not sure whether you would get to /dev/tty devices, or one device with 2 Arduinos talking on it.

Either way I would imagine its possible, if they share a serial connection I guess you would have to use IDs to see who sends / gets the message.

Excellent idea Nick - I could do with one for texting on my mobile phone!

Sounds fine to me. I assume you mean something like a 4017 where each op goes high in turn.

You may be able to avoid op amp summing and just uses resistors to sum, as long as they are much higher value than the pots, but significantly lower than the input impedance of the analog input.

Time to get the breadboard and multimeter out!

RFD3055LE

You can't really argue with 20c a transistor!

Nice.

Sorry - book research again.

I have a favorite power MOSFET. The FQP33N10. They cost about 80p / $1 each, are ok for logic level switching and generally rock.

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/104979.pdf

However, while Mouser and Digikey do sell them, they don't seem to be that commonly used in the US.

Any one got a nice logic level N-channel Power MOSFET recommendation?


 MOSFET, N, TO-220
 Continuous Drain Current Id: 33A
 Drain Source Voltage Vds: 100V
 On Resistance Rds(on): 52mohm
 Threshold Voltage Vgs Typ: 4V
 Power Dissipation Pd: 127W
 Current Id Max: 33A
 Pulse Current Idm: 132A
 

You could use an Arduino with network shield AND a X-Bee, XRF or other long range RF link hardware next to your home hub. This could then communicate with other Arduinos with RF link. Your phone would then just browse a web page served my the master Arduino.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Pi not being an Arduino competitor.

I have a blog entry flashing an LED using Python as an alternative to C - http://www.doctormonk.com/2012/05/gpio-led-blink-from-python-using-slice.html

and also on using the Pi to talk to an Arduino through USB, again using Python - http://www.doctormonk.com/2012/04/raspberry-pi-and-arduino.html