Smart House - Home Automation Thread

[Clark Addison]

Lately, I have been thinking that I want to connect and automate as much as possible on my home. This started because I like to keep my house cold at night. However, sometimes I wake up before the thermostat kicks the furnace on. So instead of waking up in the cold, I lie there and think how awesome it would be to reach over to my phone and turn up the heat from the comfort of my bed.

I am aware that a variety of wifi thermostats are available at Home Depot, but I figure, if I am going to link in my thermostat to my phone, I may as well go all out. So, addition to the thermostat, I would like the ability to:

• Turn Lights off and on
• Open and close the garage door
• Control and view footage from security cameras (I don't have any of these now, but may as well get them)
• Lok and unlok doors
• Report on energy usage
• Send electric shock to my wife's dog (this one is not a "must-have", but it would be nice)
• Control TV/Entertainment systems

Anyone done anything like this? Can I do it without killing myself? Are there multiple, competing home automation protocols or standards that I need to worry about? Is it best to buy a complete package, or separate components? I have naturally done no research on this myself yet, and am counting on you all to guide me to the right places.

[old_gregg]

doesn't vivint do all of this

[Uncle Ted]

Lately, I have been thinking that I want to connect and automate as much as possible on my home. This started because I like to keep my house cold at night. However, sometimes I wake up before the thermostat kicks the furnace on. So instead of waking up in the cold, I lie there and think how awesome it would be to reach over to my phone and turn up the heat from the comfort of my bed.

I am aware that a variety of wifi thermostats are available at Home Depot, but I figure, if I am going to link in my thermostat to my phone, I may as well go all out. So, addition to the thermostat, I would like the ability to:

• Turn Lights off and on
• Open and close the garage door
• Control and view footage from security cameras (I don't have any of these now, but may as well get them)
• Lok and unlok doors
• Report on energy usage
• Send electric shock to my wife's dog (this one is not a "must-have", but it would be nice)
• Control TV/Entertainment systems

Anyone done anything like this? Can I do it without killing myself? Are there multiple, competing home automation protocols or standards that I need to worry about? Is it best to buy a complete package, or separate components? I have naturally done no research on this myself yet, and am counting on you all to guide me to the right places.

Rock on, man...

Just stay away from that X10 sh*t.

[cougjunkie]

doesn't vivint do all of this

Yep. That's what I was thinking. They do whole home automation now. I would call them.

[Walter Sobchak]

Just stay away from that X10 sh*t.

I still use X10.

[Lost Student]

I still use X10.

Me, too! I use it to turn the XMas lights on and off and to dim some lights at night.

[Walter Sobchak]

Lately, I have been thinking that I want to connect and automate as much as possible on my home. This started because I like to keep my house cold at night. However, sometimes I wake up before the thermostat kicks the furnace on. So instead of waking up in the cold, I lie there and think how awesome it would be to reach over to my phone and turn up the heat from the comfort of my bed.

I am aware that a variety of wifi thermostats are available at Home Depot, but I figure, if I am going to link in my thermostat to my phone, I may as well go all out. So, addition to the thermostat, I would like the ability to:

• Turn Lights off and on
• Open and close the garage door
• Control and view footage from security cameras (I don't have any of these now, but may as well get them)
• Lok and unlok doors
• Report on energy usage
• Send electric shock to my wife's dog (this one is not a "must-have", but it would be nice)
• Control TV/Entertainment systems

Anyone done anything like this? Can I do it without killing myself? Are there multiple, competing home automation protocols or standards that I need to worry about? Is it best to buy a complete package, or separate components? I have naturally done no research on this myself yet, and am counting on you all to guide me to the right places.

Clark,

I have a friend that converted his home from X10 to Z-Wave earlier this year and he walked me through everything he had done.

Turn lights on and off... ✔
Open and close the garage door... ✔
Control and view footage from security camera... ✔
Lock and unlock doors... ✔
Report on energy usage... ✔
Change Hue color of lights over kitchen island to Seahawks colors during game day... ✔
All from a phone/tablet interface... ✔

Last month I picked up a VeraEdge Home Controller which is the one my friend owns and highly recommends. It's based on the Z-Wave protocol. There are a gazillion devices that support Z-Wave including everything you mention above.

Personally I just started my home conversion and have swapped out 8 of my old X10 devices for new sexy Z-Wave counterparts. So far so good. Much more reliable than the X10 crap and the mobile interface is super convenient and easy-to-use. (I wrote my own CGI-to-Serial interface for my pre-existing X10-Cm11a system... which worked, but it was very utilitarian.)

Pairing the first device was a bit tricky as I discovered that I needed to move the controller to the vicinity of the device. However, the devices all act as repeaters. As I added more nodes to the system, the reliability of a signal generated from the controller increased significantly.

Creating a scene using the vera interface is quite robust. A vera scene consists of 1) a trigger... which can be device driven, periodic (e.g. daily at sunset), or manual; 2) device actions, e.g. turn light on or off, and 3) optional logical operators. For a simple scene like "turn landscape lighting on a sunset" and "turn landscape lighting off at sunrise" would need just parts 1 and 2. However, a more complex scene might check the status of a device (e.g. the temperature as reported by your home thermostat) and have it return true (run the scene) or false (do not run the scene). For example, a scene could be triggered when the garage door opens which would unlock the garage entry door to the house and then turn on the heat if is_night() and themometer_device.temperature < 70... and so forth.

I have a scene for my Xmas lights. The trigger is sunset + 15; the devices it would turn on are the 1st floor Xmas tree receptacle, the 3rd floor Xmas tree receptacle, and the exterior Xmas light switch; and the logical conditional is the return status of the following program, written in Lua:

local currentTime = os.date("*t")
local currentMonth = currentTime.month
local currentDay = currentTime.day

if (currentMonth == 12) then
  return true
elseif (currentMonth == 11 and currentDay >= 22) then
  return true
elseif (currentMonth == 1 and currentDay <= 10) then
  return true
else
  return false
end

If the functions returns true then the scene is run; if the function returns false then the scene exits. Obviously that is a very simple example. The forums are a great help if you need some tips on how to create/manage a complex scene. Here is a thread that has many other conditional scene examples.

Also, the device is really quite a nice little box. It does not require an Internet connection... no cloud-based crap like some of the other controllers (and no monthly fees)! You can completely disconnect the device from the Internet and access the interface using it's built-in wifi connection using a pre-configured SSID and password (printed on the bottom of the controller). The only reason to connect the device to the Internet is if you want to run scenes or manage devices when you are away from home, e.g. outside your home LAN.

(That's probably all you need to know, but... continue reading if you like.)

I mentioned that I had a bit of trouble setting up my first device. I paired (or "discovered" it) easily enough, but then moved the controller back to my office, which was sufficiently far enough that it couldn't talk to it any longer. The notification about the lack of communication popped up in the UI. I moved it back in close enough to be proximite, dismissed the notification, and added additional devices/nodes to my Z-Wave home network. Problem solved. However, after I moved the Vera Edge controller to a central location in the house, that original notification kept popping up over and over again (despite being able to communicate to the device)... a glitch.

So I did a little searching and found a solution on the forums that involved some kind of code insertion into the controller (via the GUI) that would run and clear it up... OR I discovered that I could ssh into the box, open up a log file (using vi), delete the offending entries, save/exit, and all would be well.

The controller itself runs MiOS (Linux). The root password is the same as the WiFi password (again, printed on the bottom of the device). So I ssh'd into the thing, fixed up my glitch, and then kicked the tires a bit.

Here is the login banner:

squid:~$ ssh 10.0.1.15 -l root
root@10.0.1.15's password: 


BusyBox v1.19.4 (2015-01-30 01:47:09 PST) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M

 ---------------------------------------------------
      BARRIER BREAKER (Bleeding Edge, r39638)
 ---------------------------------------------------
  ***      MiOS LTD. ( www.mios.com )        ***
  ***                                        ***
  ***               WARNING :                ***
  *** Any changes made to the system without ***
  *** guidance from MiOS support will VOID   ***
  *** your future Support requests           ***
 ---------------------------------------------------

Some system information:

root@MiOS:~# cat /proc/version
Linux version 3.10.34 (alecs@builder1204.mios.com) (gcc version 4.6.4 (OpenWrt/Linaro GCC 4.6-2013.05 r39638) ) #16 Tue Jun 23 05:10:41 PDT 2015

root@MiOS:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo 
system type             : Ralink MT7620A ver:2 eco:6
machine                 : Sercomm NA301
processor               : 0
cpu model               : MIPS 24KEc V5.0
BogoMIPS                : 385.84
wait instruction        : yes
microsecond timers      : yes
tlb_entries             : 32
extra interrupt vector  : yes
hardware watchpoint     : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0000, 0x0ff8, 0x0ff8, 0x0ff8]
isa                     : mips1 mips2 mips32r1 mips32r2
ASEs implemented        : mips16 dsp
shadow register sets    : 1
kscratch registers      : 0
core                    : 0
VCED exceptions         : not available
VCEI exceptions         : not available

root@MiOS:~# cat /proc/meminfo 
MemTotal:         126688 kB
MemFree:           59244 kB
Buffers:               0 kB
Cached:            31792 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
Active:            20132 kB
Inactive:          19284 kB
Active(anon):      10120 kB
Inactive(anon):      572 kB
Active(file):      10012 kB
Inactive(file):    18712 kB
Unevictable:           0 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB
SwapTotal:             0 kB
SwapFree:              0 kB
Dirty:                 0 kB
Writeback:             0 kB
AnonPages:          7640 kB
Mapped:             5660 kB
Shmem:              3068 kB
Slab:              16040 kB
SReclaimable:       9348 kB
SUnreclaim:         6692 kB
KernelStack:         544 kB
PageTables:          440 kB
NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
Bounce:                0 kB
WritebackTmp:          0 kB
CommitLimit:       63344 kB
Committed_AS:      54004 kB
VmallocTotal:    1048372 kB
VmallocUsed:        2020 kB
VmallocChunk:    1036892 kB

root@MiOS:~# df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs                    9728      2604      7124  27% /
/dev/root                 9472      9472         0 100% /rom
tmpfs                    63344      3100     60244   5% /tmp
/dev/mtdblock6            9728      2604      7124  27% /overlay
overlayfs:/overlay        9728      2604      7124  27% /
tmpfs                      512         0       512   0% /dev
/dev/mtdblock10          66304      8712     57592  13% /storage
/dev/mtdblock10          66304      8712     57592  13% /etc/cmh-firmware
/dev/mtdblock10          66304      8712     57592  13% /etc/cmh-backup
/dev/mtdblock9            6144      6144         0 100% /mios

root@MiOS:~# root@MiOS:~# ps auxww
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root         1  0.0  0.5   1360   648 ?        S    Sep25   0:05 /sbin/procd
root         2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [kthreadd]
root         3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   6:15 [ksoftirqd/0]
root         4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:03 [kworker/0:0]
root         5  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [kworker/0:0H]
root         6  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [kworker/u2:0]
root         7  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [khelper]
root         8  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [kworker/u2:1]
root        69  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [writeback]
root        71  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [bioset]
root        73  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [kblockd]
root       105  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [kswapd0]
root       150  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [fsnotify_mark]
root       239  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [deferwq]
root       287  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [khubd]
root       303  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [jfsIO]
root       304  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [jfsCommit]
root       305  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [jfsSync]
root       320  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [xfsalloc]
root       321  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [xfs_mru_cache]
root       323  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [xfslogd]
root       368  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        SN   Sep25   0:17 [jffs2_gcd_mtd6]
root       441  0.0  0.2    888   280 ?        S    Sep25   0:13 /sbin/ubusd
root       442  0.0  0.1    768   212 ttyS1    Ss+  Sep25   0:00 /sbin/askfirst ttyS1 /bin/ash --login
root      1274  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep25   0:00 [cfg80211]
root      1275  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:13 [kworker/0:2]
root      1364  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        SN   Sep25   0:07 [jffs2_gcd_mtd10]
root      1548  0.0  0.5   1532   752 ?        S    Sep25   0:23 /sbin/netifd
root      1694  0.0  0.2   1104   376 ?        Ss   Sep25   0:01 /usr/sbin/ntpclient -i 600 -s -l -D -p 123 -h 0.openwrt.pool.ntp.org
root      2201  0.0  0.5   1560   656 ?        S    Sep25   0:05 /sbin/logd -S 256
root      2580  0.0  0.3   1720   444 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 udhcpc -p /var/run/udhcpc-br-lan.pid -s /lib/netifd/dhcp.script -f -t 0 -i br-lan -C
root      2663  0.0  0.3   1732   476 ?        S    Sep25   0:06 /usr/sbin/crond -f -c /etc/crontabs -l 5
root      2690  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [RtmpCmdQTask]
root      2691  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 [RtmpWscTask]
nobody    2829  0.0  0.4    964   536 ?        S    Sep25   0:01 /usr/sbin/dnsmasq -C /var/etc/dnsmasq.conf -k
root      2988  0.0  0.3   1716   468 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 /usr/sbin/ntpd -n -p 0.openwrt.pool.ntp.org 1.openwrt.pool.ntp.org 2.openwrt.pool.ntp.org 3.openwrt.pool.ntp.org
root      3002  0.0  0.4   1724   520 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/Start_LuaUPnP.sh
root      3025  0.0  0.3   1712   436 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/Start_serproxy.sh
root      3428  0.0  0.3   1716   456 ?        S    Sep25   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/Start_NetworkMonitor.sh
root      3478  0.0  1.2   4312  1528 ?        S    Sep25   1:57 /usr/sbin/lighttpd -f /etc/lighttpd.conf
root      3507  0.8  2.2   7168  2884 ?        Sl   Sep25  78:51 /usr/bin/NetworkMonitor
root      9265  0.0  0.3   1148   420 ?        S    17:08   0:00 /usr/sbin/dropbear -F -P /var/run/dropbear.1.pid -p 22
root     17190  0.8  6.3  48400  7984 ?        Sl   20:13   0:27 /usr/bin/LuaUPnP
root     17331  0.0  0.2   1024   356 ?        S    20:13   0:00 /usr/bin/serproxy 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 xxxxxxxx
root     18499  0.0  0.4   1892   600 ?        S    17:20   0:01 /bin/sh /usr/bin/cmh-ra-daemon.sh 127.0.0.1 80 vera-us-oem-relay41.mios.com 27716 0A3B50F1594F9506DFC94DB3ACD1B4822C7D2B
root     18528  0.0  0.4   1232   564 ?        S    17:20   0:00 ssh -p 232 -T -y -i /etc/cmh-ra/keys/cmh-ra-key.priv -R 27716:127.0.0.1:80 cmh-ra@vera-us-oem-relay41.mios.com
root     22733  0.8  0.4   1212   536 ?        Ss   21:03   0:01 /usr/sbin/dropbear -F -P /var/run/dropbear.1.pid -p 22

[Walter Sobchak]

Some software information:

root@MiOS:~# /usr/sbin/lighttpd -v
lighttpd/1.4.32 (ssl) - a light and fast webserver
Build-Date: Sep  3 2014 05:14:43

root@MiOS:~# /usr/bin/ssh
Dropbear SSH client v2013.59 https://matt.ucc.asn.au/dropbear/dropbear.html
Usage: /usr/bin/ssh [options] [user@]host[/port] [command]
-p <remoteport>
-l <username>
-t    Allocate a pty
-T    Don't allocate a pty
-N    Don't run a remote command
-f    Run in background after auth
-y    Always accept remote host key if unknown
-y -y Don't perform any remote host key checking (caution)
-s    Request a subsystem (use by external sftp)
-i <identityfile>   (multiple allowed)
-A    Enable agent auth forwarding
-L <[listenaddress:]listenport:remotehost:remoteport> Local port forwarding
-g    Allow remote hosts to connect to forwarded ports
-R <[listenaddress:]listenport:remotehost:remoteport> Remote port forwarding
-W <receive_window_buffer> (default 24576, larger may be faster, max 1MB)
-K <keepalive>  (0 is never, default 0)
-I <idle_timeout>  (0 is never, default 0)
-J <proxy_program> Use program pipe rather than TCP connection
-c <cipher list> Specify preferred ciphers ('-c help' to list options)
-m <MAC list> Specify preferred MACs for packet verification (or '-m help')

You will note that in the process list that there is a ssh tunnel config'd back to a vera server, presumably for away-from-home device access/control.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the my new Vera/Z-Wave system and I highly recommend it.

[Uncle Ted]

But does Vera work with Apple Homekit? I want to say crap like: "Hey Siri, shock my wife's dog." and it will do it.

[Clark Addison]

Thanks Walter. Good info, and perfect timing right before a rainy conference weekend.

[Walter Sobchak]

Thanks Walter. Good info, and perfect timing right before a rainy conference weekend.

Looks like Vera just lowered the price of the Vera Edge by $50 to $99.95 (maybe yesterday?). I bought mine about 3 weeks ago for $149.95.

For basic dimming (and non-dimming) switches and receptacles, I'm using the GE/Jasco version that is sold at Lowe's... e.g. this switch and this receptacle. $35 per receptacle/non-dimming switch; $40 for dimmable switch. My local Lowe's also carries Z-Wave security products, cameras, garage door controllers, door locks, etc. Home Depot has some other crap (Zigbee?) that I didn't want to mess with.

All my kitchen receptacles/switches are black. So for the controlled switch in my kitchen, I used one that is made by Linear (this one) and bought the black color change kit (this one)... other colors are available (if required). I also bought this little mini remote from Aeon Labs.

The Philips Hue lights (and starter kit) are available at Home Depot. I haven't bought the lights yet, but my friend has them and they are pretty sweet. Aeon Labs makes an RGB light that looks nice... and doesn't require a separate controller like the Philips system.

[Walter Sobchak]

But does Vera work with Apple Homekit? I want to say crap like: "Hey Siri, shock my wife's dog." and it will do it.

No, but the Amazon Echo might. Echo does not support Vera "luup" requests natively, but perhaps you can contribute your expertise to this Amazon Echo bridge project on github and add the functionality you require?

[Uncle Ted]

No, but the Amazon Echo might. Echo does not support Vera "luup" requests natively, but perhaps you can contribute your expertise to this Amazon Echo bridge project on github and add the functionality you require?

It looks like I don't have to... looks like someone hacked HomeKit into this Vera stuff:

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.p...msg229688.html


Here is a video demo'ing how Siri is used to do sh*t:

[Walter Sobchak]

It looks like I don't have to... looks like someone hacked HomeKit into this Vera stuff:

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.p...msg229688.html

How long do you think Apple will allow these open-source homekit bridges to work with "Apple certified" devices?

[Uncle Ted]

How long do you think Apple will allow these open-source homekit bridges to work with "Apple certified" devices?

I doubt Apple really cares about someone reversing the lower level protocols. Usually the reason they don't just publish it is that they want to be able to change it (the lower level protocol; not the upper level documented API) without developers all getting bent out of shape that their app doesn't work any more when they hit the compile button.