Recommendations for home sensor network solutions

[Andy Hayward]

After noticing ice on the inside of my daughter's window this morning (was -25C outside overnight) I've decided its worth looking at a home sensor network to monitoring the environmental conditions. However a brief look at the various (open source) solutions has me despairing. Whilst there are plenty of 'instructables' on how to wire up a single temperate sensor they're of laughable quality.

(Yes, I'm looking at you, Mr Uber "I need 3 arduinos to read a single sensor" Home Automation.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Uber-Home-Automation-w-Arduino-Pi/)

There's also plenty of more substantial open source home sensor projects (this page lists ~25 of them), unfortunately a lot of them are still alpha quality, v. low development speed or appear abandoned.

https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/175/open-source-home-automation-raspberry

So, here's my rough list of requirements:

Nodes

  multiple nodes (inside and outside)

    node information (type, id, firmware version)

    battery level / power connection

    temperature (-25C to 40C)

    relative humidity

    pressure? light? switch?

  some nodes will location is hard to reach locations, thus need to be battery powered (min 1yr battery life) and wireless;

  indoor nodes could be wired for power and connectivity (e.g. PoE) but should survive short power cuts to either node or controller.

  open question whether nodes queue data for a short period (1hr) if the controller is unavailable.

  injection molded or 3D printed cases for nodes. waterproof for outside nodes (Colorado winters are harsh).

  OTA firmware updates

  ~$30/node

Controller

  Linux based (Intel server or Raspberry PI)

  web based interface

    secure

    mobile accessible

    daily/monthly graphs

    easy backup of historical data (auto-upload to cloud?)

At the moment I'm concentrating on reading sensors; a nice-to-have would be extensiblity for sending commands to nodes (e.g. turning lights on/off).

Suggestions on where to keep looking?

Seems a lot of people have moved in this direction, but no one system has yet gained critical mass. (I'm aware of Gary's work with temperature sensors).

[Ryan .]

Are you aware of Gavin's?

I don't think there's anything off the shelf, yet, but there should be :)

There was noise about a hackathon or something in the new year to turn Gavin's thing into something more...

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Reading Hackspace" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reading-hackspace+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Andy Hayward]

Yes; I've been reading about Gavin's work (sorry, wrote Gary in the original email).

Ideally the entire process should be as simple as:

Setup controller

Entire by buying a pre-configured Raspberry PI; or by plugging some hardware (USB dongle) into a linux box and installing software.

Setup mobile app

Android/iPhone app downloaded from the appropriate app store. Assumption that the phone is on the same WiFi network as the controller.

Setup nodes

Fire up the mobile app; then scan the barcode pre-printed on each node to register it with the controller. Configure the node (e.g. by naming it), then place it where appropriate. (Alternatively, type the serial id from each node into a web form).

[Ryan .]

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/6e/b8/48/6eb8489885f8b9b6f3e378c30ccd68ea.jpg

Let's start with getting *someone else* to build the hardware, and document the state of the software at the moment, but yeah, that'd be awesome. 

[Ryan .]

And surely this just ends up as another #IoT standard then? Surely there's one we can choose from already? ;)

[Jeremy Poulter]

Hi, 

Have a look at OpenEnergyMonitor's EmonTH/EmonCMS solution (https://openenergymonitor.org/emon/), deffinately better than alpha quality and ready to go, infact they have just released a v2 of EmonTH with longer battery life and a better sensor.

And of cause also follow any work we do ;-)

Jeremy

[Ryan .]

And if you're up for helping out, with testing or development, we'll make sure you hear about it when we start doing anything :) It'll be on here!

R

[Ashish Passi]

I have been doing some research on something similar.

(inspired by Gavin's temp sensors)
Gavin's design is brilliant in the way it uses such low current. Its going to stay alive on a button cell for couple of years. Keeps the form factor so small.

For what i am planning I am thinking of going down the mysensors route.

Home-assistant as gateway node on a spare rasp pi (there is a auto installation script) which makes it uber easy to get started with..

There is no native mobile app, but you control the nodes via a webpage interface.

You can use a nano with some sensors as information node (temp, humidity, PIR, light).
Then trigger home automation actions via the Home-assistant gateway.

This option is probably not as sleek as Gavin's.

But scalability is quite flexible.

Check out this video on Home-assistant:
https://youtu.be/o_INXFjkKtQ

[Gavin Gavin]

Last time I saw Simon he was playing with some commercial sensors that may well fit the bill. Iirc they cost about £20, came in attractive plastic boxes, and used a ZigBee type protocol. Not sure how open or expensive the ‘base station’ end was.

The life of the coin cells on mine is quite variable. Seems that not all coin cells are created equal and I suspect that internal resistance(?) may play a role in how quickly they start to fail - unfortunately not documented in data sheets. I think the longest life I have had yet has been about 5 months but that could probably be increased with some programming tweaks.

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Reading Hackspace" group.

> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reading-hacksp...@googlegroups.com.

[Patrick Fleming]

Have you taken a look at Open Energy Monitoring?

Regards

Patrick

[Patrick Fleming]

Sorry Jeremy

I should read down through email chains.

Regards

Patrick

[Andy Hayward]

Was looking at XBee modules last night - simplest approach may to be use number of XBee series 2 modules in API mode with the sensors connected directed to the (analog) IO pins. Configure for sending readings every 10 mins (and deep sleep in between). All the heavy lifting is then done by the base station.

Found some industrial XBee based temperature/humidity sensors; but at >$100 a pop ...

> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reading-hackspace+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Reading Hackspace" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reading-hackspace+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Andy Hayward]

http://www.digi.com/wiki/developer/index.php/Designing_a_Sleeping_XBee_Sensor

[Eric Rowen]

Battery life may depend on the type of coin cell?   I had some LR44 (alkaline)  in my calipers fail quite quickly, only to find that SR (Silver Oxide)  have different characteristics but last a lot longer. 

> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reading-hackspace+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Reading Hackspace" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reading-hackspace+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Gavin Gavin]

Not sure about different chemistry but I’ve found significant variation in lithium CR2032s. This article is a couple of years old, but the results accord with my experience - in particular Panasonic cells (I believe genuine), which in my sensors died v quickly. The best I have found so far were made by Multicomp (much cheaper too)

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reading-hacksp...@googlegroups.com.

[G Albatross]

I'm looking at re-creating Gavin's designs, and hopefully will be bringing stuff together in the new year.
If they fit the bill for you, I'd welcome other people on a bulk part purchase :)

[Norro]

Possible to use a calculator size solar panel to recharge batteries?

[Rob Ayres]

Hi All,

Long time lurker on the mailing list, but I have been playing with home sensors so I thought I'd chip in.

I've been monitoring house temperatures and humidity for three years now. The equipment I've been using is:

Raspberry Pi
RFXTRX 433 - http://www.rfxcom.com/RFXtrx433E-USB-43392MHz-Transceiver/en
Hama TS33C sensors - https://www.hama.com/00104985/hama-ts33c-outdoor-sensor-for-weather-station
RFXCMD - command line interface to the RFXTRX - https://github.com/ssjoholm/rfxcmd_gc

Also a bunch of wired in AM2302 (DHT22) humidity & temperature sensors plugged directly into Pis. I wrote some scripts in python to put all data into mysql and then wrote some PHP to show graphs on a web server. The nice thing about the RFXTRX 433 is it talks to lots of things, so I also have an Owl energy monitor which I also log to mysql along with a various other 433mhz IR sensors, door sensors and remote power switches.

Cheers!

Rob

[M P]

I also use 'commercial' 433's DHT22's from amazon. You get 3 plus a
base station for about 40 quid, and it's easy to receive the data with
either a 433 module, or a TV stick and rfd_433.
Downside might be the battery life... wont be 2 years for sure!

M

[Stuart Ward]

Yes I am in. That will prompt me to get on with my home automation ideas.

Stuart

On 12/12/16 22:09, G Albatross wrote:

I'm looking at re-creating Gavin's designs, and hopefully will be bringing stuff together in the new year.
If they fit the bill for you, I'd welcome other people on a bulk part purchase :)

[Hugo Mills]

I'd definitely be interested in building some sensors, or having
the hardware made. I'm looking for temp and humidity (and optionally
PIR).

I've got my own data store, which I developed a while ago for a
research project that never used it. It's just the collecting of data
and getting it to the data store that I don't have. :)

Hugo.

On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 01:43:50PM +0000, Stuart Ward wrote:
> Yes I am in. That will prompt me to get on with my home automation ideas.
>
> Stuart
>
>
> On 12/12/16 22:09, G Albatross wrote:
> > I'm looking at re-creating Gavin's designs, and hopefully will be
> > bringing stuff together in the new year.
> > If they fit the bill for you, I'd welcome other people on a bulk part
> > purchase :)

--

Hugo Mills | It used to take a lot of talent and a certain type
hugo@... carfax.org.uk | of upbringing to be perfectly polite and have filthy
http://carfax.org.uk/ | manners at the same time. Now all it needs is a
PGP: E2AB1DE4 | computer. Nathan Spring, Star Cops

[Andy Hayward]

Unfortunately I can't use 433Mhz modules here in the US without severe restrictions (rules are complicated).

> email to reading-hackspace+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Reading Hackspace" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reading-hackspace+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Andy Hayward]

This seems close to what I'm looking for: $50 for the base station then $30 per sensor.

http://www.wirelesstag.net/index.html

[Andy Hayward]

And another; bluetooth beacons with temperature, humidity, pressure and accelerator sensors:

http://ruuvitag.com/

Possibly more interesting; as they're open source (both hardware and software as Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).

https://github.com/ruuvi