Home Automation\Instrumentation

[flm_savage]

Anybody else dabbling in this area?

I am looking to monitor some stuff around the house such the duty cycle on my well pump, water pressure, air conditioning inlet and outlet temps, pool temp, mains power draw and who knows what else.

The second stage is dumping this into a cloud dashboard.

The third stage is long-term archiving of the data for historical analysis.


I am looking at XBee modules however the initial decision is important because each series only communicates with other modules in the same series. Wifi, 2.4Ghz and 900Mhz are all available but you have to consider distance, power consumption and data rates of each to determine what best fits your project.


Before i jump off into all of the other options i wanted to see if anyone else had looked into it or if i would be talking to myself.

 

[WoodiE]

@flm_savage I've goofed around with the Samsung SmartThings hub and Amazon Echo. Used it to pair a couple light switches and my thermostat and it works pretty well.

Sounds like you're going all out - I'd like to see the end result!

 

[flm_savage]

I was looking for some freedom to work with a variety of sensors and perhaps integrate a bit of logic into the mix with an Arduino so I am pretty much stuck with a DIY approach rather than an off the shelf.
I have a decent home wireless network with a TP-Link C5400 as the primary router and a pair of Ubiquiti Bullets to extend my outdoor range.
After reading around 200pages of material yesterday, I think I have decided on the XBee Wifi Modules. I was concerned about using these at first because they have a rather high power draw which doesn't really make a battery operated module realistic unless it has an ultra-low duty cycle. My two primary sources of data will need to be monitored in real time so batteries weren't an option anyway. For the remote stuff, I am planning to use a pair of 18650's and a 30 minute or 1-hour update rate.
The beauty part is that these modules integrate with the Digi Cloud seamlessly so I can get the data from my house and to the cloud in a weekend.
I have some more planning to do but so far the idea is to mount the Wi-Fi module to a regulated breakout board powered by a 3.3V switching supply.
I will solder 22awg stranded wire to the board and then wire it to a mini terminal block rack.

That's the plan so far anyway.....

 

[hamz9561]

I played with the old BSR/Radio Shack X10 stuff back in the day and enjoyed it. The new stuff is light years beyond that.

 

[flm_savage]

I put this project on a slight hold since I made the mistake of browsing the for sale section and a brushless erevo caught my eye.

I scrapped the original plans because the Arduino platform is far more robust when considering sensor options and the ability to write logic based on the IO.
The Xbee modules only have a 0-1.2V analog input. bleh.

I am back offshore with both the Pi and Arduino so I am hoping to get some of framework done out here so its just a matter of connecting sensors when I get home.

So the plan moving forward is to use the Arduino+EthernetShield to gather the sensor data and then use a JSON request from a Raspberry Pi to retrieve the sensor data and store it in a local SQLite database. I still need to figure out how to get the data from the database to a cloud dashboard but I'll worry about that another time.

 

[flm_savage]

Plans changed again.

I wanted a local database but after playing with the mydevice platform from Cayenne I was hooked on a cloud solution.
Their dashboard, web gui, phone app and Arduino library are just awesome. I set it all up in a few hours and once i am home i can easily attach a couple sensors and make this project a reality.

 

[JoanneFraser]

I don't have one at home yet, but at work we've switched to automation of production.

 

[HPIguy]

This thread is almost four years old, locking it down.