Hi Folks,
I've been looking at getting myself a little PLC to muck around with at home, with the view to doing some home automation stuff.
Now we all know that you can really "spend the rent money" when it comes to stuff like PLC's, I've installed heaps of them over the years.
However, I happened upon a review of a mini-PLC on YouTube (that I will link to below), it is the Barth STG-600, it has 20 I/O, will operate on 7-32VDC, it's made for harsh environments and as far as cost goes, it is nowhere near the cost of a normal PLC of the same architecture.
But, the beauty of this particular device, is this, you don't have to know ladder logic or learn a new complex programming language, it uses a block based interface on a PC/laptop where you design what you want the inputs and outputs to do and then download to the PLC via a USB cable.

Check this out:

Martin Lorton review of the STG-600

I have been thinking more along the lines of a raspberry PI thing but it does surprise me that an old time computer guy like me never got into these little microprocessors. I still do things with 4000 CMOS and SSRs.

Greg,
They're simple, I mean if I can use stuff like this they're simple.
I have a Raspberry Pi here and have it running my workshop heating/cooling fan system, however the need to learn new code was a bit of a pain.
One thing I don't like about some of the Raspberry Pi fans, is the fact that they think it is the be all and end all of automation, which it isn't, it's ok, but it's nothing like C-Bus or things like that.

Oh and there is nothing wrong with 4000 series CMOS, I've done a lot of projects with that stuff.

I just have not had anything that complex and my wife really worries about me making things I am the only person on the planet who can fix. She played with 4000 CMOS in college and it doesn't scare her. In real life, the chips are all socketed and I have lots of spares. So far, 30 years in I have never had one fail but I guess you should never say things like that. I did blow an SSR in the spa heater but that was a shorted element. It looked perfect but it was zero ohms. (should be around 23)