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Forum Index : Solar : home automation and solar
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yahoo2 Guru  Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
Isn't it amazing how fast things change when we look away for just an instant? I have been bumbling around, spouting off as to how home automation is still KIDS TOYS and it doesn't do anything useful, unless you go to industrial systems and that is big bucks or everything is proprietary and we have to have all our stuff on the same system to make it work.  I may have even done some loud talking and aggressive finger pointing, that's not a good sign, it is usually followed by some humble pie and mumbled apologies #looksatfloor #sulking.It was time to do some actual research and not rely on my own experience. OOOOH BOY!!! was I wrong. I have followed the development of the ESP2866 wifi chip for some time now and was very surprised to find out that it had enough kehonies to be reflashed with its own operating system and code. a wifi chip running a version of python was exciting. I have seen it develop into boards, node MCU and connectable functioning products at some incredibly low prices. I could see the potential for intelligent control systems but I could not see a way to stitch it all together. Then along comes raspberry pi. This can be set up as an always on headless network hub for about $60. Then....Home Assistant from the website blurb.Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3. Track and control all devices at home and automate control. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi. Now I should say, this is not plug and play. There is literally endless hours of downloading and compiling and tweaking to get this into a state that is easy to manage and reasonably bulletproof. But if you have done unix networks before that's about normal, plus it will rapidly get better and easier. However the upside is massive! its cool  its geeky  I luv it  and it can control anything  OK maybe not ICBM's, perhaps leave that to the professionals, Kim jong and Donald T.  We can hook pretty much anything that is controllable into this and pull sensor data from almost anywhere. We can push or trigger events dependent on conditions. That means voice control, phone control, automated control, remote buttons that are not wired to anything.   The biggest eye opener here is cost and flexibility. I can retrofit a $15 433mhz or wifi relay to switch something where 2 years ago I would have to tear the wiring out and reroute things to a central switch-box. Then .... I spotted /components/sun it looks like home assistant can poll google maps and use that data to show sun azimuth and elevation and time to sunrise and sunset. Handy! Trawling around I also found code that people in the community have posted that will take the data from an energy monitor (or solar controller) and post it within home assistant. Instantly we have a home run!! I can read the output of a simple light sensor, monitor battery levels, compare that to the time of day, detect if people are home, calculate the potential spare power available maybe even check the weather. Then INTELLIGENTLY use that spare electricity to maximum effect because I can control a huge number of appliances, not just dumb heaters. WOW! The possibilities are quietly blowing my mind. DOWNSIDES There are a couple. Firstly the quickest and easiest way of grabbing data is to patch into cloud services, if we want robust functional stand alone systems complete with manual overrides then some of this stuff needs to be done the hard way, it means quite a few extra hours tinkering with settings, wiring pushbuttons to gpio pins and maybe installing our own DIY sensors not relying on the internet for everything. To do this properly with cheap parts there is a lot of boring old constructing of mains rated enclosures, proper earth wiring, waterproofing and cable strain relief to get done. The payoff is fully code compliant systems for a fraction of the normal cost. The software install and configuration. There are times, staring a a command line or a yaml file syntax error you are thinking "what the hell do I do now!". Blank spaces are critical in the code for some stuff, it is very easy to have 3 blanks instead of 4 on a line and that stops the code running. security and backups. It has all the tools for good encryption, passwords and backup images but we need to enable it and use it, it is not going to pester us with reminders like we are a 4 year old. To sum this up, I am very upbeat about this, I have not seen this level of integration possible before now. I have always looked at the trendy colour changing LED style home automation or 24/7 music anywhere as pointless wanky garbage. Now there is something I can really get my teeth into. Proper autonomy and serious remote control on a shoestring budget. Bring it on! I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Yes, I have a bird bath that automatically refills every few hours. I did it using only a two core Pentium running at 3.5 Ghz. Times are certainly changing. And I am currently working on a 5Ghz secure, and fully encrypted microwave radio link between the push button near my front door, and my doorbell located about two metres away. Cheers, Tony. |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
I had a bit of a play this weekend. I used node-red to practice building some dashboard components. All the stuff on the left is javascript coded templates by peter scargill, I just plonked it in, set up the directories and fiddled with it a bit. It still took me ages to get it running. I had to modify a file or three by hand and load stuff from a command line. The right hand side is 10 minutes with node-red myself just chucking stuff together to see what happens. I guess the next step is driving some outputs from the screen and showing states of the switches and perhaps grabbing some real data.  I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| Mulver Senior Member  Joined: 27/02/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 160 |
Nice work Yahoo!! |
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Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
Can you graph the wife's mood? There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
Sure, just point me to the correct web application programming interface (API) and I will add it in! I cant guarantee any remote control from the screen. I did have a chuckle at one guys home automation system, He has it set up to log who's phone is currently on the wifi home network and adjust the automation depending on the people there. He made special mention of the "girlfriend compatibility mode" She is still old school and likes a light switch to turn on a light so he has it set to manually overide stuff when she is there and limit the automation and voice control to things like the entertainment system. The reason I use crazy headings is that it is tough to see what effect something has if I cant remember where the hell I wrote that input. So for the gauge and the chart I have 4 buttons that pass a value to both, push a button and the needle swings and the chart updates. It is drag and link then fill in the details on a drop down menu for each node.  I could have added the buttons to the dashboard page and triggered them from there or linked it to one of the sliders but I had run out of puff at that stage. You can see the nodes on the left, they just drag and drop on the page. I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
I have seen open source security camera software with text recognition to identify vehicles entering your property to do things like alerting you on your phone if it is a stranger. Never thought of it but changing the system's behaviour to fit in with different peoples personalities is an interesting possibility. What platform will you run it on? There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
Node-red is preloaded on raspberry pi3 so I can run a couple of headless pi's while I am playing around with different things. For the peripheral devices and controllers it is probably going to be some hacked ESP32 and ESP8266 wifi boards running python3 some z-wave stuff and some arduino units. The great thing about the ESP boards is that if the have enough space in the memory to load an upgrade while operating on the old version it is possible to do over the air (OTA) wifi upgrade, the great thing about that is that I can mount stuff permanently, I dont have to isolate it from the 230 volt AC and reach in with a 4 pin plug to reflash them, upgrades can be rolled out over the network. I think the ESP32 development board is going to take some beating it has heaps of pins plenty of memory, the newer ones have a decent antenna and bluetooth and wifi built in. It can run pretty much anything directly from the chip, I have seen one send a live camera feed 600 meters.  All the Itead sonoff wifi switches can be reflashed so they no longer need the cloud and can be controlled/ served MQTT locally behind the firewall.  this model, TH16 will switch 16 amps on the relay has not bad isolation in the design, can input a couple of sensors output everything to wifi and can be had for twenty bucks. I can even wire the old manual switch to a pin or maybe a capacitive button to toggle the relay. There is a thermostat right there! or a motion sensor! I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| davef Guru Joined: 14/05/2006 Location: New ZealandPosts: 499 |
yahoo, I think that is a humidity sensor. I have been following the ESP/Sonoff scene, but haven't integrated those items into by RaspberryPi-based home automation system. Check out CNX to keep up with the play. Keep up the interesting work! Dave |
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