Home automation. The best available solutions with Amahi

[sanfelix]

Home automation


There are some options to have home automation, with open source software, with a decent price in the components. The decission of the platform depends of what type of hardware you are plan to use. There have a some protocols, that's the reason for that the mostly solutions support diferent protocols and technologies.

One of the most important events in the moon of the cheap electronic DIY is the arrive of the arduino boards. This boards are inexpensive ( the new model arduino leonardo cost 16€) and could comunicate with generic sensors that make the dream of home automation inexpensive. the sensors cost about 3€ from LM35 temp sensor, or a pir sensor to see the movement of the persons above the house.

Open Hardware solutions

Arduino

Arduino is Open Hardware, this means that you are free of download the schema's of the board and make yourself. The only that you have to specifically buy is the ATmega328 chip (all the components of the board cost +-9€)



Raspberry pi

The Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of stimulating the teaching of basic computer science in schools.
The Raspberry Pi has a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC), which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU,[9] and 256 megabytes of RAM. The Foundation's goal is to offer two versions, priced at US$ 25 and US$ 35.

The intention of have a raspberry pi it's to have a failsafe system in case of the home automation agent in amahi have a trouble.





Open Source Software solutions

OpenRemote





video to design in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXyzm61_eZE

Features:

• Control Panels: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Web, computer

• Protocol Integration: Infrared, X10, KNX, Lutron, Insteon, Z-Wave, 1-Wire, Russound, TCP/IP, UDP, HTTP, Telnet, UPnP, Denon AVR, DSC IT-100

• Sensors, Scenes/Macros, Rules and Scripting

• Fully Customizable User Interface via Drag and Drop Online Tools

the good:
- good comunity
- the raspberry pi compilation is in progress
- the personalization and interface
- support of infrared ( control remote TV's, air aconditioner ) with a infrared gate

the bad:

- Don't have a arduino driver*

dificult to integrate in amahi: "easy" --> is based in apache tomcat (java)


OpenDomo



Video to see the interface: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93tikai4ChA

Features:

• Control Panels: Web, moovida media center

• Protocol Integration:X10, TCP/IP, UDP, HTTP, Telnet, UPnP,

• Sensors, Scenes/Macros, Rules and Scripting

the good:

- arduino driver (domino)
- the raspberry pi compilation is in progress
- sell his own hardware (with profesional look, but a little expensive)
- there are receptive from integrate in amahi


the bad:
- little comunity
- simple interface ( there have a concourse in progress to have better interface from the final user)
- don't have mobile interface ( it's still in proyect for me)

dificult to integrate in amahi: hard (it's based in scrach, from debian)

MisterHouse



Features:

Protocols:1-wire, EIB, Insteon,Serial (RS 232),Universal Powerline Bus,X10 Infrared,X10 Powerline,X10 Radio Frequency (wireless),xAP,xPL,Z-Wave,Zigbee



dificult to integrate in amahi: medium (it's bassed in perl)






Features:

- It calculates and displays current moonphase, sunrise and sunset and populate global program variables with these values.
- Same for weekend, weekdays, time of day (evening, afternoon etc), season, dark/light based on sunset/sunrise.
- It switches my porch light on and off at preset scheduled times. (via Xanura CTX35)
- It displays current temperatures and humidity values measured by my 6 Oregon sensors placed around the house and in the garden. (via RFXcom receiver) as well as the sensors of neighbors
- It receives UV level from my Oregon UV138 sensor placed in the garden. (via RFXcom receiver)
- It monitors the temperature of the 4 harddrives placed in my server, and notifies me per e-mail if it reaches the - threshold I have set. (via hddtemp)
- It monitors the status of my AIBO 'Rakker' and set device value accordingly.
- It keeps an eye on the status of my APC UPS, and displays status (Online, On battery etc) and the voltage of the line input in Volt. (via nut/upsd)
- It shows if it detected motion/no motion reported by the MS13E sensors, it also displays dark or light status these devices reports. (via RFXcom receiver)
- It monitors server room temperature measured by the DS18S20 sensor mounted on the Midon TEMP08 interface. (via Midon TEMP08)
- It monitors Mailbox status detected by an DS90 sensor, same for door/window open/closed. (via RFXcom receiver)
- It stores temperature and humid values inside rrd databases, and create statistic graphs on the fly to be displayed. (via rrdtool)
- Same for RFXCom RFXPwr sensor to store power usage. (via RFXcom receiver)
- You can view, edit and store all program settings via the GUI inside database.
- Manage and view video capture images taken from IP9000 video server and stored inside the MySQL database.
- Add, delete, change list of products by EAN barcode. (it can generate a shoppinglist for example)
- Edit all devices via the GUI.
- Bluetooth Browser; shows which BT devices are around.
- If devices have reported battery status low, the program will sent you an e-mail.
- It knows when you or others are home, because it detected your/their Bluetooth device/phone is within reach, which is linked to user names.

the good:
- Personalization
- Works in the Raspberry pi
- There have a big number of options and functions. it's like 4x4 car

the bad:

- seems a little unfinished product. Requires to improve the interface ( is ugly)

dificult to integrate in amahi: "medium/hard" (it's based on gambas)






the good:

- seems a proyect that are a future promise
- Works in the Raspberry pi

the bad:

- a very little comunity. The proyect it's very active but the people is missing.


dificult to integrate in amahi: "easy" --> is based in apache tomcat (java)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

* PD: Seems that OpenRemote have a XPL protocol ( there have to verify). There are a XPL driver from arduino and boards with this interface http://code.google.com/p/xplduino/ and this solution http://www.panstamp.com/announcements/o ... spanstamps. The best solution to have a cheap and good start point to have arduino in openremote is investigate this shop and her wireless RF solution. It have a very good documentation and it's possible that could help http://jeelabs.com/

[sanfelix]

Avalliable protocols
Home automation depends on communications protocols which are created to control the various electrical and electronic systems in your house. There are few main home automation players out there, each a little different, and they're not all compatible with each other.

X-10

X-10 is a well-established home automation technology more than 30 years old. With X-10, there's no need for new wiring because it transmits signals over electric power lines. However, this can make it susceptible to interference. One good thing about X-10 is that its control devices are available many places and at reasonable rates.

Z-Wave

Z-Wave is a wireless networking communications technology that was developed by Zensys. It is specifically designed for residential home automation as opposed to big business use. Z-Wave uses radio signals to send commands via a remote control to chips embedded in home automation devices such as door locks, thermostats, and lighting modules. Routing of the signals from one chip to the next makes the range limitless.

UPB

UPB was invented by Powerline Control Systems in 1999 and is an open protocol. It is a digital technology that transmits signals over power lines and was designed to replace X-10. Since it's relatively new, the modules and controllers are just now starting to appear on the market.

Insteon

Insteon is the newest player, invented by Smarthome Inc. and just introduced in the summer of 2004. Insteon uses a combination of existing home wiring and RF technology. It works much faster than X-10 and is backwards compatible with older X-10 control devices. Insteon is designed to be incorporated in HVAC equipment, appliances, and garage door openers.

[PatrickDickey]

Do you have links to all of those available? Especially to their source code, if they're open-source. Maybe someone could take the best of each, and combine them into one "Super Home Automation App" (and design it to work with Amahi in the process).

Have a great weekend.
Patrick.

[sanfelix]

Do you have links to all of those available? Especially to their source code, if they're open-source. Maybe someone could take the best of each, and combine them into one "Super Home Automation App" (and design it to work with Amahi in the process).

Have a great weekend.
Patrick.

Hi patrick

Yes, I can put links to all the solutions, and I can find the source code.

in this moment i'm searching people that could have help us with this proyect, that's increase Amahi to next level, speaking about type of functions thats the system cover.

respect to your query, yes!, the idea it's take all the good concepts and try to fuse in the best and easy solution to implement in amahi. It's hard to mix source code of some of this solutions, that's not all have the same type of language. I'm have the best concept in my mind, but i'm waiting of some good proposals of the comunity. In some solutions, it's neccesary to write a driver that could make to "interpreter" between the software and the hardware , that's not all the "good ideas" are planned with the base system.

If There are a user that like to collaborate, please send me a PM.
cheers

[cpg]

Hey guys, I found this article interesting on how to do a little DYI home automation. Has Arduino, etc., though it looks a little too much fun

The thing about automation is the connectivity. It's not really easy to get various things around the home connected these days. Meaning, off-the-shelf components, standards items (no real standards are emerging yet), etc.

That's the main limitation in my mind, however, when that comes along, Amahi is well suited for it, being a central control, with easy connectivity and wifi/web access and even remote access via VPN, so I think it will be a great fit.

In the mean time, playing with the Raspberry Pi will be great. I wonder how the IO for it will pan out. Arduino is so easy to access today, that it will be a tough competition. Openremote looks so nice that it looks more like a furniture commercial than anything else ... but i do not know well what it _really_ does.

[sanfelix]

Hey guys, I found this article interesting on how to do a little DYI home automation. Has Arduino, etc., though it looks a little too much fun

uhhm. i'm dont know that exist the RN-XV WiFly Module. another alternative

The thing about automation is the connectivity. It's not really easy to get various things around the home connected these days. Meaning, off-the-shelf components, standards items (no real standards are emerging yet), etc.

That's the main limitation in my mind, however, when that comes along, Amahi is well suited for it, being a central control, with easy connectivity and wifi/web access and even remote access via VPN, so I think it will be a great fit.

yes. it's the perfect fusion to home automation proyects, that whith amahi ,it's possible to take access outside the home network easy and secure for programing events

In the mean time, playing with the Raspberry Pi will be great. I wonder how the IO for it will pan out. Arduino is so easy to access today, that it will be a tough competition. Openremote looks so nice that it looks more like a furniture commercial than anything else ... but i do not know well what it _really_ does.

yes! but raspberry pi seems a perfect complement i'm think. It's a good way to taking a emergency home automation controller if amahi server have a hardware failure. OpenRemote seems the best solution (it have infrared control of a very large number of infrared household appliance, for example, to control the air air conditioner without the need of use special hardware

[sanfelix]

I'm made more investigation about the solution that it will be the best solution to implent in amahi, and the open remote facebook admin share's me the link of a start up company that sells arduino boards that is colaborating with open remote to bring a comunication protocol that understands with arduino.

if anyone like to colaborate. I'm will stay a little busy packaging open remote

[PatrickDickey]

I'm made more investigation about the solution that it will be the best solution to implent in amahi, and the open remote facebook admin share's me the link of a start up company that sells arduino boards that is colaborating with open remote to bring a comunication protocol that understands with arduino.

if anyone like to colaborate. I'm will stay a little busy packaging open remote

I'd be interested in checking out the link and other information. Although at this time, I'm not in a position to buy a bunch of components, I would like to see what's available (especially in the US).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

[sanfelix]

Hi patrick

Im thinking like you. Its a good idea to study all the variables before buy anything. The most usual in the automation world is that the proprietary solutions are expensive and don't communicate with anything. You are tied to the company . The big problem is that in case that the company discontinue the product you have a useless thing.

Arduino is a open hardware platform. What is it? Its a board that the schematics are public available (like open source software), so you could make it your custom boards with a welder and buying the components. The problem that I ccmmented before is that open remote don't have any protocol that understands with arduino, but the men of this link are working on this, and it have a online store that sell the boards. The best of arduino is that if you think that its expensive you could made it or order to another company

Take a look at this thread. http://www.openremote.org/display/forum ... +(lagarto)

I'm think that open remote is the solution that is more easy to package for Amathi, it haves the most beautiful, complete and personalised designer and it have a good community. You like it the video?