Re: Home Automation - Open Project

First of all, I'm a software engineer and looking into building DIY home automation system.
I'd be starting a new project and will be free for everyone (open source) but need help in electrical stuff as I do not have enough knowledge and experience on this.

To start off, I'd already have Arduino board, some relay switches and a running program to control switches via a mobile phone, web, and sms.

Mack, same with you, I'm also interested in home automation using micro controllers. I have'nt done any programming for the past 12 years now but I can still read/understand cobol programs up to now. Worked in IT for the past 30+ yrs and did my first program (linear regression) in UP using Fortran with punch cards instead of a keyboard/terminal, tanda ko na talaga :-). So, I think I can still hack it with arduino as it's basically done in C/C++.

My advice, treat it like any IT system (which in fact it is), focus and put a lot of effort first on the design. By design, what I mean is how do you want Home Automation to work in your home, how do you want to control it, and what are the things you want to be automated.

For me, my concept of home automation is to basically let the system automatically respond to the situation (thru sensors) and give me the capability to override it if I choose too. A simple example, a person walks into a room, the system detects it, if its nighttime, system turn on the wall light. If the person is still in the room for 30 seconds, system turns on the ceiling light and off with the wall light. Once the person leaves the room, the lights are turned off. No intervetion required for me to do, but the system just informs me (online or log) when the person went into the room and what time he/she left the room. There might be cases when you want to intervene, like if you program the arduino to also turn-on the aircon (mahal na ang kuryente sa PH), it will inform you, and if it did not get a response from you in say 5 mins, it will proceed with the process if the person is still in the room :-).

How do you want to control it? Whatever means you decide, one thing is needed, you need an old notebook/desktop in the house to monitor and control everything (24/7) - think of it as your server that will have all data/parameters and will also serve as a bridge to relay any info to your smartphone, ipad, or any of your handheld device and vice-versa (also receive input from your device to do any of your commands). It would be inefficient in terms of the design if you want to control each unit separately thru your smartphone.

What are the things you want to automate? The possiblities are endless :-). This is where the people who are reading this post can help us. They can give us their ideas of what they want to automate in their home. We can then prioritize all of it and start to do those things that the community really needs. We just need to bear in mind that in any project to be successful, the cost should be affordable and the benifit should be great 🙂

The technology (hardware and software) is already there for so many years, a lot have done it already and it's open-source (free), so we can basically just copy it and modify it to suit our needs. The strategy is to build it one module at a time and integrate it into the working system when its fully tested.

Boo

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

very interesting topic there

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

Arduino user here...sir although Arduino can do it,in terms of Home automation you can also consider PLC (Programable Logic Controller) basically it is just like a industrial type Arduino.

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

what type of PIA do you prefer to use?

I would prefer power electronics and get rid of mechanical relays and switches... my cent

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

Arduino user here...sir although Arduino can do it,in terms of Home automation you can also consider PLC (Programable Logic Controller) basically it is just like a industrial type Arduino.

Pre, honestly, hindi kaya ng budget to use PLC 🙂 he he he ... PLC would be an overkill :-). As you said, it is like an "industrial strength" arduino, which means it has been tested, certified, and backup by years of development for any industries to use it. To put it in better prespective, PLC (expensive) is what you will normally use for building automation - you want everything to be working properly all the time, with no unforseen downtime. For home automation by DIYers like us, then arduino or any 8051 microcontroller (MCU) will be more than sufficient to do the work. And always expect some downtime from time to time, as it will always be WIP all the time ... with the tinkering and enahncements that is expected from a DIYer 🙂 he he he ...
Post ko later some of new things I learned from the internet about home automation ...

Boo

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

Pre, honestly, hindi kaya ng budget to use PLC 🙂 he he he ... PLC would be an overkill :-). As you said, it is like an "industrial strength" arduino, which means it has been tested, certified, and backup by years of development for any industries to use it. To put it in better prespective, PLC (expensive) is what you will normally use for building automation - you want everything to be working properly all the time, with no unforseen downtime. For home automation by DIYers like us, then arduino or any 8051 microcontroller (MCU) will be more than sufficient to do the work. And always expect some downtime from time to time, as it will always be WIP all the time ... with the tinkering and enahncements that is expected from a DIYer 🙂 he he he ...
Post ko later some of new things I learned from the internet about home automation ...

Boo

hehehe!yes sir expensive nga po ang PLC,pero last year may nag conduct ng seminar dito sa school namin about PLC and home automation,highly recommended nya ang PLC for reliability at affordability daw at simple lang(sabi nya) at ang basic PLC na pinakita nya samin na Siemens ay nagco-cost lang daw po ng 11k without any accessories...at sabi nga po nya e Arduino daw po ay toy lang compared to PLC:(

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

at sabi nga po nya e Arduino daw po ay toy lang compared to PLC:(

People (even me for that matter 🙂 he he he) may think of Arduino as a "toy" because Arduino was meant to be a prototyping platform for people who have little knowledge of IT hardware/software to test their concept/design and see if it will work. From that prespective, then it looks like a "toy" because panay lang yun test/experiment of new and better ways of doing things. But what a "toy" it is talaga, grabe!!! It opened a flood gate of new ideas of how things can be done. Kasi, people from different background, started looking at things from a different prespective and testing new concept/design ... In the PLC/business world, this is like "Thinking Outside the Box". All this activities are done in the R&D phase of a PLC system, which is basically like also playing some toys :-).
Once the concept has been proven to be doable, then how you design and implement the system in the real world is already outside of Arduino for that matter. Any system will be a good system if it meets its objective with no/minimal unforseen disruption. To do this will require a lot of planning and design in the system to ensure enough feedback mechanism and redundancy are built into the system to anticipate any possible problem. PLC are expensive because they need to perform under strict requiements. DIY system are not that expensive because our requirements are not really that strict and critical 🙂 ... Kaya yun 11K na base ng PLC without any accessories eh talagang super high tech na sa DIY system ... pati yung amoy sa banyo puedeng ma monitor para to trigger yung airfresher machine to squirt a few times para ma neutralize yung masamang amoy 🙂 ha ha ha ... it can be done for a price, the technology is available in the market ...

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

People (even me for that matter 🙂 he he he) may think of Arduino as a "toy" because Arduino was meant to be a prototyping platform for people who have little knowledge of IT hardware/software to test their concept/design and see if it will work. From that prespective, then it looks like a "toy" because panay lang yun test/experiment of new and better ways of doing things. But what a "toy" it is talaga, grabe!!! It opened a flood gate of new ideas of how things can be done. Kasi, people from different background, started looking at things from a different prespective and testing new concept/design ... In the PLC/business world, this is like "Thinking Outside the Box". All this activities are done in the R&D phase of a PLC system, which is basically like also playing some toys :-).
Once the concept has been proven to be doable, then how you design and implement the system in the real world is already outside of Arduino for that matter. Any system will be a good system if it meets its objective with no/minimal unforseen disruption. To do this will require a lot of planning and design in the system to ensure enough feedback mechanism and redundancy are built into the system to anticipate any possible problem. PLC are expensive because they need to perform under strict requiements. DIY system are not that expensive because our requirements are not really that strict and critical 🙂 ... Kaya yun 11K na base ng PLC without any accessories eh talagang super high tech na sa DIY system ... pati yung amoy sa banyo puedeng ma monitor para to trigger yung airfresher machine to squirt a few times para ma neutralize yung masamang amoy 🙂 ha ha ha ... it can be done for a price, the technology is available in the market ...

Tamang tama po ang nabanggit nyo....Last January nga po e may nag patulong samin dito sa office na mga highschool graduating students para sa Investigatory Project nila sa Physics, ang idea nila e gumawa ng security alarm using laser at kapag na trigger e mag te text sa may ari ng bahay na may intruder sa bahay nila, ang problema e meron silang na search na circuit re laser trip alarm na cheap pero wala silang idea kung paano mag te text kapag natrigger..so Arduino ang unang pumasok sa isip ko dahil ito na yung pinaka mura at madaling i-impliment..kaso umabot din ng 3.7k for the whole circuit including Aceduino and GSM shield pero at least naimplement namin at natuwa naman yung mga bata.:)

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

hehehe!yes sir expensive nga po ang PLC,pero last year may nag conduct ng seminar dito sa school namin about PLC and home automation,highly recommended nya ang PLC for reliability at affordability daw at simple lang(sabi nya) at ang basic PLC na pinakita nya samin na Siemens ay nagco-cost lang daw po ng 11k without any accessories...at sabi nga po nya e Arduino daw po ay toy lang compared to PLC:(

Sounds like a dealer or contractor for (Siemens?) PLCs. 😮

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

Hi Guys,

I'm new here and also a new home owner looking for tips around the forum.

First of all, I'm a software engineer and looking into building DIY home automation system.
I'd be starting a new project and will be free for everyone (open source) but need help in electrical stuff as I do not have enough knowledge and experience on this.

To start off, I'd already have Arduino board, some relay switches and a running program to control switches via a mobile phone, web, and sms.

If there are programmers here that would like to help with the project and release this as open source (free for all), please let me know. Thanks.

Regards,
Mack

Hi Mack!

We will be delighted to see the schematics and source code of your project so far.

It will be a good "jump off" point for any further suggestions.

Just indicate the specific item you are having trouble with.

Pictures would also be great.

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

I just wanted to share with everyone what I read/learned over the week in the internet related to this topic ... Cheers

An ideal DIY home automation system is one that is wireless, wherein the Host (Master) and the multiple Nodes/Sensor (Slave) communicate wirelessly. Think of it as just like the cordless phone you have at home, you have a Base (Master) and you have multiple handsets (Slave). I think this is also what Mack has in mind when he posted this thread.

After another week of late night reading/reviewing of what's available now in the internet for a home automation project, the good news is that the technology (hardware/software) is already available for the past few years. Other (DIYers) have done it already in one way or another - some aspect of their project/s can already be applied in home automation. The bad news is most of these was done thru a wired connection, which are really awesome, nakaka bilib talaga. But at the end of the day, you can only do so much with a wired connection. Others who did it wirelessly, use either the Arduino or Raspberry Pi platform with WiFi or some other form of RF. It does works and some of the designs are really quite good. The problem I see here is really the COST. Having an Arduino (last check ko eh around P1.5K each) in each of your node is too costly for my taste. For prototyping and testing the concept/design of your system, this is OK. But that's as far as it can go, you simply cannot implement this kind of setup in the real world - very few will be interested to do it, kasi nga mahal :-).

From what I have understand and seen on how others were doing it, the most critical aspect of the system, to make it feasible and practical in the real world is the design of the node (slave). Specifically, it's MCU (microcontroller, e.g arduino) and the wireless communication module (e.g. 2.54GHz RF) - the cost issue is really more on the hardware and not the software. The target I'm aiming at is a cost of about P1K pesos per Node (Slave) depending on the type of sensor/switch you want to put in the node. I did an online check at Mouser and the MCU+transiver+sensor would already cost you around P600-750.

The good news uli 🙂 ha ha ha is that there are already a lot of chips in the market that can handle all this - you just need to pick the best (capability/price) that suits your purpose. One chip that really caught my attention was the Nordic NRF24LE1 chip (current retail price is $9 USD each at Mouser ; the chip rolled out in 2008). Its a 4mm x 4mm chip that already has a builtin RF Transceiver (2.54GHz) and an 8051 microcontroller all rolled into 1 small chip. I'm really amazed with the technology right now, biro ninyo, 4mm x 4mm is just about 1/4 inch square area, ang liit kaya nun noh :-). Going back as to why I prefer to use this chip:
1. A lot of Arduino users are already familiar with programming this chip. Which means, madami ng free codes/sketch out there to cut and paste to create the program for the node. All of them were using (testing) the NRF24L01+ chip (RF module without the MCU) for the wireless communication to work with their Arduino. Check out ninyo the blog of ManiacBug in the internet. This person has already done a working prototype of how I see a slave node should work in 2011 pa. Which means that the technology is already quite stable by now. Halang din ang bituka ng taong yun talaga when it comes to programming and prototyping 🙂 ha ha ha, bilib ako sa kanya.
====> http://maniacbug.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/sensor-node/
2. This chip (NRF24LE1) already has an 8051 MCU (16KB of program flash memory) which is really more than enough processing power for the things that a node will be doing. You practically remove the Arduino board in the slave node and replace it by 1 small chip na 4mm x 4mm ang size :-). This means, you can really make a wireless slave node that is just the size ng isang small box ng posporo running on a 3V coin battery - not bad di ba :-). In addition, 8051 programming (C Language) is widely known by now. This is the stuff that is being taught in colleges sa PH for the past 20 years - madami kang puedeng pag tanugan kung di mo kabisado ang ibang areas ng 8051 :-). Also, Arduino came out from the 8051 design, which is why ManiacBug was able to do his project in 2011 using an ATmega328 MCU, which is really just a bigger 8051 MCU. In his blog, he said it cost him around $12-$15 USD to do that setup, including the ATmega328 MCU. That whole thing he did then can now be done by 1 small chip at a cost of $9.

To end this update, there is one small bad news again 🙂 ha ha ha. Looking at the size of the chip (4mm x 4mm), sus ginuo, I'm a bit daunted if I can really do the task of soldering that chip into a prototype PCB. I'm not an engineer or an experience electronics DIY guy, which is why baka hindi kaya ng powers ko to do such a task. I have seen a number of videos in YouTube, it can really be done manually. Well, that's the next issue I need to resolve before I can start testing the chip ...

Boo

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

Sharing again with everyone what I read/learned over the past 5-weeks in the internet on this project. It's taken me more time to understand the concept given that I'm not an engineer nor an electronics DIY, but learning new things is quite exciting ... Cheers

1. It's really cheaper and more flexible to use a separate MCU and RF module for each node.
2. For the MCU, using Arduino is an overkill, MCU with 4-8KB program memory is enough for a node. For the host, 16KB is I think just right.
3. For the RF, NRF24L01+ is better because of the existing codes that are already there.
4. A much better understanding of the wireless communication using the NRF24L01+. Credit to ManiacBug for all the things he has already done/shared.
5. Check out ManiacBug RF24Network for Wireless Sensor Networking which he did in 2012.
6. Already found a solution to make the MAC address unique for each of the nodes.
7. For PCB, silkscreen printing is the cheapest way a DIYer can mass produce it.
8. For interface with the internet/smartphones, OpenHAB (open source) is out there. Just need to use a message handler (e.g. mosquitto) to interface with it.
9. On the software side, the basic framework of the home automation is done, finalyzing now the communication interface (15 bytes max) which will be the backbone of the whole system.
10. On the hardware design, learning Eagle Lite is a challenge right now. Having a hard time understanding/creating the package/device/symbol. With enough practise, I can design my own PCB.
11. Below are some usefull sites where you can get more info on wireless communication:
Nordic NRF24L01+ pdf documents that you can download.
URL => https://www.nordicsemi.com/kor/Products/2.4GHz-RF/nRF24L01P
ManiacBug @ GitHub where you can download the RF24 source programs.
URL => https://github.com/maniacbug
Nordic @ GitHub where you can download their sample source programs.
URL => https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor
Texas Instrument MSP430 Series
URL => http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/slau259e/slau259e.pdf
Texas Instrument CC2500 pdf documents that you can download.
Source URL => http://www.ti.com/product/CC2500/technicaldocuments

Boo!

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

Hi Boo, I can do all the electronics parts of this home automation project... i'm an electronics engineer and a DIYer or electronics hobbyist... if you can just send me schematics and parts to make the stuff you want I can do it for you. Pero hindi nga lang ako magaling magrpogram... maybe we can combine ideas 🙂 sound good?

Re: Home Automation - Open Project

found this at ebay... price around 6 US dollar... its cheap 🙂