Our newest “My Automated Home” story comes from Ian Gardner as well as his Domoticz powered wise home.
My house automation journey started around 12 years back with a single PC running Fedora Linux, motion and a single USB webcam viewing over my driveway.
It was all thanks to a good friend as well as work associate (Steve L) who influenced me to provide everything a try.
Over time I played with X10, utilized an original RFXCom receiver with xpl-perl as well as experimented with different HomeEasy devices. Over the years my configuration has altered as well as developed and currently appears like this…
HP N36L Microserver running VMWare ESXi (The heart of the system)
Several multi-purpose online machines running Ubuntu 14.04LTS
VM running Domoticz as well as OpenZwave
USB RFXCom (433MHz)
USB connection from Cyberpower UPS
USB noise Card with USB powered speakers for notifications
USB Aeotec Z-wave controller
Philips Hue Controller
5x Philips Hue Lux bulbs
Philips Hue Bloom lamp
Owl Intuition Controller
Owl Intuition-C – utilized to manage my heating – I don’t bother controlling hot water
Owl CM180 power clamp as well as display
Billion Bipac 7800DXL router, different switches, powerline AV adapters
Trendnet IP310TV cameras for safety and security (PoE)
Synology Diskstation DS115j (for CCTV archive footage)
Another Cyberpower UPS for the cameras
Z-wave Devices
Fibaro FMSS001 PIR
Aeotec Multisensor (not currently in use)
Fibaro FGSS101 Smoke Alarm
TKB SM103 Door Sensor (detect when front door is opened)
Vision ZD2102 Door Sensor wired as a doorbell
Fibaro Binary Sensor (later utilize planned)
TKB TZ88E energy measuring power sockets
RFX controlled/detected devices
Oregon scientific Themo/Humidity sensors
Oregon scientific rain Gauge
Oregon scientific Anemometer
Byron PIRs
Home simple remote managed sockets
Home simple light fittings
Home simple PIR
X10 RF PIR
LightwaveRF Remote Controls
LightwaveRF mood Switches
Energenie LAN Power Strip
Wunderground to improve regional weather condition information
Sonos Play 1 – a relatively new addition as well as excellent device!
Obi 110 VOIP Adaptor – this enables me to get phone call history from my landline from a website as well as more…
BlinkStick
Logitech harmony Hub/Remote
Raspberry Pi as well as Camera
Parts of the system have shown some genuine benefits as well as proven the “business case”:
Being off-the-sewage-grid (septic tank) I have a rather costly pumping station as well as although the heavy cast iron pumps can last years, one just recently burnt out.
I saw a sustained 1.2kW boost in home power usage as reported by the Owl CM180 which I traced to be one of the pumps however there was bit I might do to avoid its eventual demise – it’s thermal cut out didn’t save it as well as then bang.
So after costs £800 on a new pump I chose to invest £35 in a Z-wave power metering socket (TKB TZ88E) which instantaneously shows any type of modification in power usage i.e. when the pump is running – if the pump stays active for longer than 1 minute an email alert (I mean to modification to a push notification) is sent as well as I can remotely switch it off as well as examine the problem (e.g. a stuck float switch) decreasing the danger of one more £800 shed out! I might likewise script it to power down however I will do that one more day…
Some people on the Domoticz forum cautioned that high power gadgets like pumps can overload such sockets however after numerous months of quite much everyday on/offs I have had no problems at all. I selected the plug-in 13amp choice as I wished to be able to quickly eliminate it later. I likewise utilize TZ88E’s somewhere else on a lamp as well as the TV/AV kit.
As well as remote power control, temperature sensing, etc. I utilize my configuration for the following:
The Trendnet IP cameras take excellent high quality 3MP snapshots when movement is detected on the driveway (Byron PIR) or when the doorbell is pressed. While these IP cameras have built-in movement detection as well as constant recording to the NAS it is really helpful to get the notifications offered from the PIRs. This is all triggered by a Domoticz lua script which in turn phone calls a shell script to get the snapshots.
The doorbell push plays an mp3 as well as sends a push message to my iPhone.
Philips shade is now offering my safety and security illumination while I likewise utilize a LightwaveRF mood controller to switch them on as well as off through Domoticz.
The Domoticz VM plays a dog-bark.mp3 on the USB noise card when movement is detected on the driveway – helpful to understand when organized or unplanned visitors arrive!
Related to the above I have a shell script that checks if home power usage is high soon before going to bed i.e. indicating a high power gadget has been left on – right here I play an mp3 data as a cautioning however once again might quickly modification to a push message.
The UPS’s do a excellent task of dealing with minor power outages as well as one reports when power is lost as well as brought back into a log data while the other protects the Synology.
I have implemented a easy static HTML condition page to save the requirement to login to Domoticz when all I desire to do is inspect recent driveway photos or inspect a sensor.
So What’s Next?
I may replace the ESXi hold with a newer low power server running Ubuntu natively to simplify things
Modify the script to power down the pumps instead of just telling me about them!
Look into node.js as well as nodered (thanks to my good friend as well as associate Brian B. for the guidance here)
Implement Fibaro Binary sensor with beam / break sensors on drive as PIR can falsely find motion
Get the Aeon Labs PIR working – on battery power it isn’t trustworthy so I requirement to link to a PSU
Implement scripts on my router to discover when our phones are house as well as linked to WiFi – existence detection!
Integrate Owl Intuition-C – at present I can manage only through the Owl application or website
I have likewise started to play with Bluetooth low energy beacon gadgets to find existence e.g. put one in the car
Use Sonos Play 1 for notifications
Implement BlinkStick for notifications
Perhaps make utilize of Raspberry Pi as well as Camera
On a final note I’d like to state thanks to the Domoticz forum individuals as well as different other Web resources for making this all possible.
domoticz.com : Read much more ‘My Automated Home’ Posts
Want More? – Follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, or sign up for our RSS feed. You can even get these news stories delivered through email, directly to your inbox every day.
Share this:
Facebook
Twitter
Reddit
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Email
More
WhatsApp
Print
Skype
Tumblr
Telegram
Pocket