DIY Home Automation?

[Matthew Berry]

I just moved and I want to start into some automation stuff at my new place. And I have a friend that wants me to help automate his whole apartment.

Crestron seems to be the goto standard...but isnt DIY/hacker friendly. also VERY expensive.
Id prefer to stick with wifi and TCP/IP...but its looking like X10 is the more popular solution.

anybody mess with this stuff? i wish i had ordered a raspberry pi now...

[Jerry Isdale]

The latest issue of MAKE (http://makezine.com/30/) has a theme of home automation.

Most of the stuff is also online.  Subscribers can get the digital version.

Jerry Isdale

isd...@gmail.com

[Matthew Badeau]

I have yet to read the Make articles but on a side note AT&T just announced their home automation product called "Digital Life."  http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/06/att-introduces-digital-life-ip-based-home-automation-and-security-system-with-247-monitoring-centers/

So home automation is another case where you can save a lot of money doing it yourself, or spend a lot of money getting someone else to do it for you. Raspberry Pis have been used so far for driving simple demos. As time progresses, we're going to see a lot more advanced programs come out from the community. The Pis have the unique advantage of being a *complete* operating system with a network connection vs. an Arduino with no network connection and a really basic bootloader.  With its small form factor and GPIO pins, you'll be seeing a lot more projects come out as a result. With a basic service running handling TCP/IP connections, you can drive the GPIO pins to drive motors for blinds controllers, light switches, entertainment systems and more.

Although I never really get to finish (or start) projects, this is one thing I've been wanting to do for a while. Hopefully I don't get distracted or sidetracked from this one too.

[Kyle]

I had some of the X10 stuff back in 2005. I haven't used it since
then. At the time, I had to hook into it using a Java library and Ant
task. I wasn't super impressed with the hardware, but it did the job
(turned a switch on and off via code).

Kyle

[Daniel Bui]

I've been thinking about using wifi enabled wall plates to power information as well as home automation but I'm not sure if any compnay has come up with this yet.

[David Cornejo]

I can't think of anyone that's done WiFi - I think you're probably
more likely to find Zigbee home automation. At least there are pages
from the Zigbee Alliance to that effect
http://www.zigbee.org/Standards/ZigBeeHomeAutomation/Overview.aspx

There is a list of Zigbee approved devices here:
http://www.zigbee.org/Products/CertifiedProducts/ZigBeeHomeAutomation.aspx

Zigbee has built in mesh networking which would make the thing more
resilient than a WiFi network would be (ignoring WiFi meshes which is
a good thing to do).

dave c

[Matthew Berry]

still have the gear? interested in selling it?

i subscribed to make and started reading the articles, think im going to be on the look out for cheap x10 or zigbee gear. Also some Arduinos.

not sure how the x10 is going to handle since its a very old house. So im trying to stick to the cheap side to test before i make the jump.

[David Cornejo]

Despite it's age X10 is still quite relevant. I have installed X10 in
many different places young and old with success. The biggest problem
you'll run into in any age house is split circuits where some are one
phase and the rest are on the other. Since X10 has been around so
long this problem and many others are well known and solved. If you
haven't found it yet, look at smarthome.com.

[Matthew Berry]

saw the smarthome link. home depot is a reseller of smarthome, they have a few switches in stock, but no controllers...

smarthome insteon is X10 and something else (it said in the MAKE article)

I found some old X10 stuff on ebay, think ill jump on that to try it out. apparently X10 the company is going out of businesses, so their kits are super cheap right now.

[Michael McCarthy]

I've been using Smarthome Insteon dimmers in my home for a few years now.  I really like them as they are affordable, and easy to program with or without a controller.  They are X10 and Z-wave compatible and work with many 3rd party controllers.  They have IP, IR, and GPI intefaces available as well as thier own "keypad" dimmers than can be paired to control just about any other device.  They even make a 3 speed fan motor controller now.

[Todd Blume]

Matthew,

I did a bunch of X10 automation years ago. Somewhere I have a stash of X10 gear that I bought and never installed. I'd be willing to sell it.

One thing that you have to watch out for besides the phase split issue, is that surge protectors suck up the signals. Hawaiian electric power is not very stable, so I've got surge protectors all over the place. That pretty much killed wired X10 for me. (unless you want to add shunts all over the place, but that's another story.) I also put in some wireless X10 sensors and they of course don't suffer that problem. But these days, as David mentioned, Zigbee is the answer. Low power and it has the mesh built in. That's what all of the new cheap wireless alarm systems and home automation systems are made out of.

Aloha,

Todd

[Ed]

Just saw this on Gizmodo. Electic Imp (http://www.electricimp.com/)
Looks like a WiFi enabled device that you attach to any existing non-
WiFi device and you'll get complete wireless control along with some
logic that you can program from a web browser. Maybe the successor to
X10 and Zigbee. Apparently it was designed and made by a iphone
engineering manager and a gmail designer. Looks pretty cool but
doesn't release until late June. It looks cheap too. 25 for each set
and basic circuit boards (so you can hack on it, it's encouraged)
starting at 10 bucks. When this comes out, it might be great to do a
hardware night with this stuff.

Link to the Gizmodo Article:
http://gizmodo.com/5910798/electric-imp-wants-to-connect-your-everything-to-the-internet

[Kyle Oba]

Electric Imp looks really interesting...

Here's another option (less technical skills required), that seems interesting:

http://supermechanical.com/twine/

Includes the following sensors:

Temperature (included)

Vibration (included)

Orientation (included)

Magnetic switch

Moisture sensor

Breakout board

Output: Talk to the Internet -

Pebble smartwatch

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