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Home Automation - Open Project
#1
07-04-2014, 10:51 AM
Hi Guys,
aeonmarky Junior Member Jr Apprentice Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 1
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 Tags: None
07-04-2014, 08:09 PM
#2
Re: Home Automation - Open Project Originally posted by aeonmarky
Boo-Semi-Retired Confirmed PHM Member
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.
Handyman
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.
Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 457
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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 ]DRILL IT![/COLOR][/B]
07-11-2014, 10:05 AM
#12
Re: Home Automation - Open Project
Boo-Semi-Retired Confirmed PHM Member Handyman Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 457
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 200 . 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
08-23-2014, 02:19 PM
#13
Re: Home Automation - Open Project
Boo-Semi-Retired Confirmed PHM Member Handyman Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 457
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/Produ...z-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!
08-23-2014, 03:00 PM
#14
Re: Home Automation - Open Project
nick Confirmed PHM Member
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?
Handyman Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 197
08-23-2014, 03:21 PM
#15
Re: Home Automation - Open Project
nick Confirmed PHM Member Handyman Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 197
found this at ebay... price around 6 US dollar... its cheap
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