Smart home Noolite. Sensors and gateway. Java API

Hello, dear% username%!

Today we will consider relatively new devices of the Belarusian company Nootech - sensors and Ethernet-gateway. A Java library for working with the API will also be provided.
For details - under the cat.

Noolite for dummies

If you are already familiar with Noolite, you can safely skip this section.
For the rest - start from the beginning. What is the Noolite system, what are its pros and cons, and what is all this about?
Noolite is a system for automating your home. Sensors, for example, are made in such a way that they can function practically independently, without user or PC participation, according to a predetermined algorithm.
Initially, kits were released, consisting of a power unit that directly controlled the load, and a radio console in the form of a wall switch.
In general, it looks like this:
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The touch switch is quite ergonomic, you get used to getting on the buttons very quickly, even by touch. Thin enough, and the dimensions allow you to close the hole in the wall from the previous switch :) There are variations, depending on the controlled load and so on. All this stuff works at 433 MHz (433.92 MHz to be more precise).
Let's now consider the nuances of use and differences from other systems for building a smart home.

Let's start with the pros:

• Undoubtedly, this is the price of end devices - it is, by the standards of a smart home builder, quite low
• Developer and manufacturer - a company with fraternal Belarus. Purchase and delivery, thanks to a network of dealers, ceases to be a headache (take this opportunity to say hi EMS, bljad).
  By the way, you can chat with developers on Skype - all very adequate, friendly, and without pathos
• Easy setup, installation and connection to a single network
• Open and documented protocol

Of the disadvantages:

• The most important thing for a smart home, in my opinion, is the lack of feedback. Those. the device has either a transmitter or a receiver (with the exception of the Ethernet gateway, but we'll talk about it below). Thus, we will not be able to find out if our team has reached the actuator or find out at a certain point in time about the state of the actuator. There is one crutch about which we will talk further
• Small range of end devices. Specifically - sensors. The entire series, at the moment, is represented by temperature, humidity and movement sensors. Well, here, I think it will come to fruition.
• Low noise immunity. I, unfortunately, the team is very rare, but there are lost

In my opinion, the pros outweigh the cons if mass automation is needed. Moreover, the main drawback is the lack of feedback, we can partly overcome.
This is where PC adapters come in: a transmitter and a receiver.





As you can see, they are ordinary USB dongles, which are defined by the OS as a HID device. Initially, there was only a version of the transmitter, which later, after numerous requests from workers, supplemented with a version of the receiver. Why not make a single device? I do not know. Perhaps it’s about the price, it’s possible that “historically it’s like this”. However, a single device is still there, but more on that later.
By the way, after the appearance of the sensors, the receiver, due to a different version of the API, could not receive data from them. The company has released an updated version and changes old receivers for new ones free of charge, which already says a lot.
So, we can get some kind of feedback using the receiver on the PC. In such a case, commands transmitted from radio controls will be received in the same way by this receiver. Of course, we will not be able to learn about the state of the device at an arbitrary point in time, but this is still better than nothing.

We now turn to the novelties.

Sensors

Noolite sensors currently exist in three types of devices. It:

PT111 temperature sensor

PT112 temperature and humidity sensor

Thermal motion sensor PM111 (+ level of illumination)


The devices are made quite decently, nothing staggers, does not fall apart. Included are batteries, which is also nice :) The design will be appropriate in any apartment / house.
Let's take a closer look at them (all photos are taken from here: link ):

PM111 Motion Sensor

It has onboard PIR-sensor and light sensor. Unfortunately, it works only as a radio remote control, i.e. when triggered, sends an on / off command to the associated device. Thus, it is not possible to obtain illumination data from it.



On the back of the device there are 3 rotary adjusters and a service button. They regulate sensitivity, turn-on time and light level. With the help of these controls, we can, for example, automate the switching on of light in the dark when movement is detected, even without the participation of any other control system.

Temperature and humidity sensor PT111

On the back, we see, again, two regulators and a service button. With the help of regulators set the mode of operation and the threshold.

PT112 temperature sensor

That's all, as in the PT111, except that there is no humidity sensor.

All temperature sensors send their readings once per hour, or when the temperature changes by 0.5 ° C or humidity by 1%. The motion sensor sends an on / off command 2 times for reliability.

Ethernet gateway

This is the latest (sort of) development of Nootechnics, which is a box similar to a normal Wi-Fi router and provides the ability to control 32 devices and receive data from 4 sensors.
There is also a simple web interface to manage all of this.



Available features:

• control of power units of the nooLite system;
• displaying information from temperature / humidity sensors (up to 4 sensors);
• 32 independent control channels;
• distribution of channels and sensors in groups (up to 16 groups);
• 8 independent week timers;
• automatic update time;
• import / export custom settings;
• upgradeable firmware and web management interface;
• Cross-platform and cross-browser web-interface, adapted for use on mobile devices with the Android platform, Apple iOS, Windows Phone, Bada;
• API support for sending control commands via HTTP requests.

The price is also quite high, but, as the company explained to me, it very much depends on the number of devices released. Those. the more it is sold, the cheaper it will cost the end buyer.

I summarize what was said above: in my opinion, Nootechnika managed to produce a decent collection of devices that can compete in the smart home market with such recognized leaders as, for example, ZWave.
The manufacturer has plans to release the next generation of devices - with support for feedback and encryption.
Sounds promising, we will follow.

Java API

For those patient who could finish reading to the end, I present a library for working with Noolite devices for Java: github.com/Neuronix2/Noolite4J

Test on all devices did not work, due to the lack of some positions, so pool requests are welcome.
Also, taking this opportunity, I once again invite enthusiasts of the “smart home” to join the development on Java github.com/Neuronix2/IRISv2