The Home Automation thread

[Rocket-Boy]

More info please. I would love to do some fiddling but just can't see any practical project inside the house... Unless there are some projects for working with the Amazon echo

Im going to put together some tutorials on stuff I have done and future ones I will be doing. 

Most of what I have done integrates into the echo, my wife loves being able to turn on and off lamps by asking Alexa to do it.

 

I will also list some kit that I use and some links on where to get it at reasonable prices.

[kosmonooit]

I use Arduinos a lot in my energy controllers I build and install for clients  - a lot of automation: sensors and timers, I/O boards etc, been at it for a few years now, and come a long way. I am heavily into the electronic interfacing and coding side of things, its actually my core profession if I can call it that, so yeah its a great world all this open source stuff and the all the on line resources.

 

I also have a boutique online shop going to share the love of all the goodies i bring in, with a emphasis on useful sensors and controllers.

[Capricorn]

I use Arduinos a lot in my energy controllers I build and install for clients  - a lot of automation: sensors and timers, I/O boards etc, been at it for a few years now, and come a long way. I am heavily into the electronic interfacing and coding side of things, its actually my core profession if I can call it that, so yeah its a great world all this open source stuff and the all the on line resources.

 

I also have a boutique online shop going to share the love of all the goodies i bring in, with a emphasis on useful sensors and controllers.

is it so boutique visiting this online establishment is by invite and appointment only?

[kosmonooit]

is it so boutique visiting this online establishment is by invite and appointment only?

 

Just saying ... I advertise elsewhere. But let me know if any of you are looking for anything or have questions about the Arduino range although I am more into the legacy stuph not so much the latest MKR range  or the Python thing.

[Rocket-Boy]

this is the best thing I've done with arduino , I just dislike them have had reliability issues with them forever 

 

I'd like to automate some stuff in our house , the question is just what ? Lights on and off is cool but the novelty will wear off in A day i think 

Are you using a DHT11/22 on that?

Automating stuff is great and all but I want to automate stuff that makes life easier for me rather than doing it for the sake of it being automated.

 

Like for instance I have certain lamps that read the weather from yr.no and turn on at sunset, its handy because sunset is a different time every day but yr.no always knows what that time is.

 

I also like having my outside spotlights controlled by my phone because if I hear a noise at night I cant turn them all on as a group and take a look quick.

 

Arduinos can be a bit unreliable if they arent monitored by something which is where Home Assistant comes in, it talks constantly via MQTT so its pretty good at letting you know if something goes down.

[Stretch]

this is the best thing I've done with arduino , I just dislike them have had reliability issues with them forever

 

I'd like to automate some stuff in our house , the question is just what ? Lights on and off is cool but the novelty will wear off in A day i think

I have one connected plug that our lounge lamp is connected to. I have set it to come on at a certain time and switch off at a time. It's also integrated with my echo so I can say light on and light off. Trust me... As arb as it sounds.. It's pretty cool

[Rocket-Boy]

I have one connected plug that our lounge lamp is connected to. I have set it to come on at a certain time and switch off at a time. It's also integrated with my echo so I can say light on and light off. Trust me... As arb as it sounds.. It's pretty cool

Nothing arb about that, the echo makes everything better.

My garage, front gate, a lamp and one of the outside spotlights are all controllable via Alexa.

 

My wife loves using them by yelling at Alexa.

 

The cool thing about the gate is that the distance is over 100m to it from the house and if you press a remote from inside it doesnt reach. I have another remote in the garage which is a lot closer and a single arduino controls the gate and garage so if I ask Alexa to open then its close enough for the remote to work properly.

[Rocket-Boy]

This has been my most useful automation yet, I often have to open everything up and take a walk through to the garage to see if I actually closed the door or not.

Often I forget that its open overnight which is really bad because its visible from the street and my bikes are in there.

 

This way the icon changes depending on the position of the hall sensor and magnet on the door.

 

I have also built an automation which tells me if the door is open past 9pm so I can close it.

 

[kosmonooit]

this is the best thing I've done with arduino , I just dislike them have had reliability issues with them forever 

 

I'd like to automate some stuff in our house , the question is just what ? Lights on and off is cool but the novelty will wear off in A day i think 

 

You would need to round to and displaying integers there on that environmental sensor given the accuracy which is often only around 5%. Handling chars and  formatting them for display can be challenging in C/C++ but its one of those hurdles.

 

I've given up on the DHT11/22 env sensors, wildly disparate and non-linear readings even after calibration. The Bosch BME/BMP sensors much more reliable although one can get more accurate temp / pressure / humidity if you are prepared to throw more money at the issue, there are other options say for a weather station.

 

I have not had Arduino hardware reliability issues, I have several clones running control systems 24/7. Reliability issues tend to be code issues and one of the great skills to acquire in this field is problem identification and resolution aka fault finding aka debugging.

Edited April 20, 2019 by kosmonooit

[kosmonooit]

One unsolicited tip here in this regard is don't use that String object in your code - its a hungry for dynamic memory and cause many problems (and much agony) in the very limited memory space of the Arduino (Uno and Nano especially)  You had to use the char arrays and format / process character by character.

 

I've also done Arduino based controllers for pools and irrigation / pump controls / water tank  management.

[Rocket-Boy]

One unsolicited tip here in this regard is don't use that String object in your code - its a hungry for dynamic memory and cause many problems (and much agony) in the very limited memory space of the Arduino (Uno and Nano especially)  You had to use the char arrays and format / process character by character.

 

I've also done Arduino based controllers for pools and irrigation / pump controls / water tank  management.

Memory management is the fundamental core of C++ its definitely something you need to get comfortable to write good code.

 

There are easier ways for people that dont want to learn coding like Tasmota and ESPHome which allow graphical configuration of a lot of simple functions, they are limited with writing more intricate automation though.

[Rocket-Boy]

You would need to round to and displaying integers there on that environmental sensor given the accuracy which is often only around 5%. Handling chars and  formatting them for display can be challenging in C/C++ but its one of those hurdles.

 

I've given up on the DHT11/22 env sensors, wildly disparate and non-linear readings even after calibration. The Bosch BME/BMP sensors much more reliable although one can get more accurate temp / pressure / humidity if you are prepared to throw more money at the issue, there are other options say for a weather station.

 

I have not had Arduino hardware reliability issues, I have several clones running control systems 24/7. Reliability issues tend to be code issues and one of the great skills to acquire in this field is problem identification and resolution aka fault finding aka debugging.

Yup Im definitely not a fan of the DHT11/22 I use BME280's for most things but the weather station Im building has a DS18B20 in addition to the BME280 because then I can expose it to ambient temp where I wouldnt want to expose the chipset of the BME280.

[kosmonooit]

I use DS18B20's all over the place for  temp monitoring of modules and components monitored by alarm / alert system, like if there is overheating in your electrical distribution  box or  the fan has failed in your inverter you should be told. I have them in three form factors, the chip, on a small PCB with headers and inside a stainless steel rod. Data sheet claims 0.5C accuracy from –10°C to +85°C

 

About that memory management, its battle on the Arduino's when your code grows and you have to start squeezing it and doing tricks to reference from EEPROM - total drag but generally can make it happen but you don't have the luxury of lots of memory for dynamic memory dependent classes like with that String, I've had loads of hassles and badly behaving code until I dumped it, But working with char arrays takes great care as well.

 

Python gets rid of all that hassle and  C/C++ pointers and nonsense but haven't gone that direction myself as yet, The code, compile and burn world works for me right now.  There is also the fact that for most add-on's you will only find C++ Libaries

[Rocket-Boy]

I use DS18B20's all over the place for  temp monitoring of modules and components monitored by alarm / alert system, like if there is overheating in your electrical distribution  box or  the fan has failed in your inverter you should be told. I have them in three form factors, the chip, on a small PCB with headers and inside a stainless steel rod. Data sheet claims 0.5C accuracy from –10°C to +85°C

 

About that memory management, its battle on the Arduino's when your code grows and you have to start squeezing it and doing tricks to reference from EEPROM - total drag but generally can make it happen but you don't have the luxury of lots of memory for dynamic memory dependent classes like with that String, I've had loads of hassles and badly behaving code until I dumped it, But working with char arrays takes great care as well.

 

Python gets rid of all that hassle and  C/C++ pointers and nonsense but haven't gone that direction myself as yet, The code, compile and burn world works for me right now.  There is also the fact that for most add-on's you will only find C++ Libaries

Micro-python is an interpreted language so its always going to run slightly worse on a micro controller than something like C would. I like Python but its definitely not the answer for these applications.

 

Have you looked into the ESP32? compared to any of the Arduinos its got tons of storage capacity and faster processors. The wifi and bluetooth dont need to be used on it but its also nice to have them. Only limitation is the number of A2d and GPIO but a project seldom has all of the pins used so I have never found it to be a limitation.

[kosmonooit]

Micro-python is an interpreted language so its always going to run slightly worse on a micro controller than something like C would. I like Python but its definitely not the answer for these applications.

 

Have you looked into the ESP32? compared to any of the Arduinos its got tons of storage capacity and faster processors. The wifi and bluetooth dont need to be used on it but its also nice to have them. Only limitation is the number of A2d and GPIO but a project seldom has all of the pins used so I have never found it to be a limitation.

 

 

Yes, got a few ESP32's and stock the ESP8266 NodeMcu, which is great value for money but generally I need loads of IO pins that why I used the Mega a lot. Due is another option in that form factor but 3.3V

[Rocket-Boy]

I finally finished my parking sensor. Its using an uno, ultrasonic sensor and Adafruit neopixel ring.

Making the box for it took waaaaay longer than the project itself!

 

The video quality is terrible but it should give an idea on what it does...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWnyM8PdMvo

 

I really need a 3d printer, this took way too long to make :/