How to automate home processes with the help of modern technology
Country life is full of routine that I really want to automate. And if you are a software engineer who has fallen in love with the automation processes, you just can’t just walk past the auto watering, pet feeders and open the garage doors while sitting at work.
Greetings to all the inhabitants!
Today we will talk about how using non-tricky electronics, you can automate home processes and watch this action with interest while sitting in a chair and drinking coffee.
Looking ahead, I want to ask the community not to perceive the system as “smart house \ home”, as many people like to do. These are all beautiful marketing words. All this is beautiful - for sale, but not in real life. Smart automation - yes! Smart and most importantly - BUDGET. Automation with low cost. Throwing away hundreds of $ expenses aside and see how, with the help of low-cost devices, you can deploy a whole automation system at home.
')
A month ago, I happened to win a competition with a description of several ideas that were in the process of implementation. And taking the second place, I was offered to implement the ideas in the framework of the LJ + "Nootekhnika" contest, which is engaged in the production of wireless devices. On the system noolite written many interesting and detailed articles.
The accumulated experience that I want to share, I hope, will help many pioneers in this interesting area.
Home automation is a very exciting process and takes the lion's share of time. Constant optimizations and improvements, make the system be constantly growing and updating.
In the house I do not have a single mechanical switch. I did not design them at the time of cable laying, as I already knew for sure that the whole house would be in Noolite control units together with switches. Convenient, fast and good.
Switches noolite can be placed where it is convenient to all.
The control units themselves are hidden in the walls in the junction boxes. The antennas of the blocks are neatly laid in the wall, in an empty twisted pair, which was previously laid before plastering the walls. Signal acceptance distance = 50-70 meters.
Having received new control units from noolite: SR211-2K0 - I decided to play around with them. You can use dry contacts in several places at once:
SR211-2K0 for automatic watering control
So, auto watering, an important thing for a country house. My two-year-old lawn gradually grows and requires a sufficient amount of water for irrigation.
Before the advent of SR211-2K0, I solved the problem as follows:
I have 8 ds2408 control keys (1-wire) - which give about 3-5V output. And to control the solenoid valves for irrigation, control voltage of 12-24V is required. I had to cheat and erase a simple control board with a relay.
The moment of designing the voltage control board
Once assembled, the voltage control board looks like this:
The logic is simple: the logic “1” is set to the DS2408 circuit and we get 3V controllers, which in turn switch the relay and 12 (24) V are applied to the solenoid valve. Let me remind you: budget decisions are very important, I am sorry to give tens of $ and not to think with my head how to solve the problem. On the other hand, we do not stoop to the option: “to make a fuss”. We adhere to the golden mean.
Further, 12 (24) V are fed to the solenoid valve, which “sits” on the pipe and opens, supplying water to the nozzles (hunter mp-rotator). The video below will show the process of turning on and off watering.
Solenoid valve in the analysis
Electromagnetic valves that sit on the irrigation pipe
But as soon as I saw the modules with noolite dry contacts , I connected one of them and tried it in my system. Since noolite devices have been added to me for a long time, it was not difficult to tie them to the PC1116 USB adapter and control the SR211-2K0 in both manual and automatic mode, sending the ON \ OFF \ SWITCH signal using the elaborate pyNooLite library.
Well, as without a video. Better to see once than hear a hundred times:
SR211-2K0 for managing garage doors
I bought myself a Chinese “an-motors” drive - and I am extremely happy! But progress does not stand still, the constant panic of losing the chip from the drive and the binding of the trinkets does not impress me. Yes, and I want to open my neighbor's garage from work, not coming home in the middle of the day or open my garage if they have forgotten their keys at home (you can enter the house through the garage).
It was decided to crash into the electronics of the gate. The benefit of the 21st century and any equipment associated with the drive of the gate, allows you to connect any other external devices to control.
The connection for the video was quick to show the opportunity. Later I will connect normally with cable laying. In general, the principle is simple, there are 2 contacts, closing them, the drive controller executes the command: open \ stop \ close.
Nothing new has been discovered, but the parties look great!
The idea is tested and implemented. Works. Let's go further!
SR211-2K0 to control the feeder \ drinker for pet
I love my dog: Meet: "Sandy"
What to do if you are not in the daytime, and the dog needs to pour and feed the water (dry food) - well, the dog is pleasant and helpful, and it is pleasant to you. My father helped me to make the feeder, because at the time of writing this article, I had not enough time. If we talk about the auto-drinker, then you have already seen the auto watering the lawn. The logic for the drinker is the same, only instead of the nozzle - the straight pipe will go immediately to the dog in the aviary (it is currently under reconstruction) and according to the scenario for a few seconds, fresh cool water is fed.
The auto-feeder requires a more serious engineering approach and you can’t get off with a simple valve. As a result, it was decided to take a janitor from a relative's car, add some iron and paint, add a dispenser and we would have a demo version of “auto-feeder v1.0”. In the process of testing, it became clear that you need to use the auger. Initially, a screw and a janitor with a pipe were considered, but the complexity of manufacturing the auger made me consider a pilot project with a turning mechanism.
See what we did and how it works.
There is something to criticize, there is something to correct and improve. The principle is to wipe the dosage blade, which is controlled by the rotary janitor. The period of discharge dose - 3 seconds (turn the blade + return to its original position)
This design will be closed in a sealed box, so that the moisture does not spoil the feed. Most likely, version 2.0 will consist of a screw, where the dosage of the feed will be more accurate and without the possibility of catching the "wedge" of the blade.
At this I have everything - let me leave. In conclusion - I suggest to look at a small overview of the house, where I show the evidence of using the noolite technology.
I still have a lot of unrealized ideas that will be implemented in the near future.
Thank you all for your attention and watching the video!
______________________________________________________________
Articles (links to sources) on the preparation of the material:
Greetings to all the inhabitants!
Today we will talk about how using non-tricky electronics, you can automate home processes and watch this action with interest while sitting in a chair and drinking coffee.
Looking ahead, I want to ask the community not to perceive the system as “smart house \ home”, as many people like to do. These are all beautiful marketing words. All this is beautiful - for sale, but not in real life. Smart automation - yes! Smart and most importantly - BUDGET. Automation with low cost. Throwing away hundreds of $ expenses aside and see how, with the help of low-cost devices, you can deploy a whole automation system at home.
')
A month ago, I happened to win a competition with a description of several ideas that were in the process of implementation. And taking the second place, I was offered to implement the ideas in the framework of the LJ + "Nootekhnika" contest, which is engaged in the production of wireless devices. On the system noolite written many interesting and detailed articles.
The accumulated experience that I want to share, I hope, will help many pioneers in this interesting area.
Technologies that are used in my house
Server
Normal PC server running: Flask, mongodb, celery, python 2.7, noolite python, 1-wire
Customer
web client + mobile (windows phone 8.2 lumia)
Sensors and video
Video surveillance: xeoma
Sensors \ control: 1-wire (ds18b20, ds2408), PIR sensors, solenoid valves, noolite control units, various 220V control relays
Normal PC server running: Flask, mongodb, celery, python 2.7, noolite python, 1-wire
Customer
web client + mobile (windows phone 8.2 lumia)
Sensors and video
Video surveillance: xeoma
Sensors \ control: 1-wire (ds18b20, ds2408), PIR sensors, solenoid valves, noolite control units, various 220V control relays
Home automation is a very exciting process and takes the lion's share of time. Constant optimizations and improvements, make the system be constantly growing and updating.
In the house I do not have a single mechanical switch. I did not design them at the time of cable laying, as I already knew for sure that the whole house would be in Noolite control units together with switches. Convenient, fast and good.
Switches noolite can be placed where it is convenient to all.
The control units themselves are hidden in the walls in the junction boxes. The antennas of the blocks are neatly laid in the wall, in an empty twisted pair, which was previously laid before plastering the walls. Signal acceptance distance = 50-70 meters.
Having received new control units from noolite: SR211-2K0 - I decided to play around with them. You can use dry contacts in several places at once:
SR211-2K0 for automatic watering control
So, auto watering, an important thing for a country house. My two-year-old lawn gradually grows and requires a sufficient amount of water for irrigation.
Before the advent of SR211-2K0, I solved the problem as follows:
I have 8 ds2408 control keys (1-wire) - which give about 3-5V output. And to control the solenoid valves for irrigation, control voltage of 12-24V is required. I had to cheat and erase a simple control board with a relay.
The moment of designing the voltage control board
Once assembled, the voltage control board looks like this:
The logic is simple: the logic “1” is set to the DS2408 circuit and we get 3V controllers, which in turn switch the relay and 12 (24) V are applied to the solenoid valve. Let me remind you: budget decisions are very important, I am sorry to give tens of $ and not to think with my head how to solve the problem. On the other hand, we do not stoop to the option: “to make a fuss”. We adhere to the golden mean.
Further, 12 (24) V are fed to the solenoid valve, which “sits” on the pipe and opens, supplying water to the nozzles (hunter mp-rotator). The video below will show the process of turning on and off watering.
Solenoid valve in the analysis
Electromagnetic valves that sit on the irrigation pipe
But as soon as I saw the modules with noolite dry contacts , I connected one of them and tried it in my system. Since noolite devices have been added to me for a long time, it was not difficult to tie them to the PC1116 USB adapter and control the SR211-2K0 in both manual and automatic mode, sending the ON \ OFF \ SWITCH signal using the elaborate pyNooLite library.
Well, as without a video. Better to see once than hear a hundred times:
SR211-2K0
SR211-2K0 for managing garage doors
I bought myself a Chinese “an-motors” drive - and I am extremely happy! But progress does not stand still, the constant panic of losing the chip from the drive and the binding of the trinkets does not impress me. Yes, and I want to open my neighbor's garage from work, not coming home in the middle of the day or open my garage if they have forgotten their keys at home (you can enter the house through the garage).
It was decided to crash into the electronics of the gate. The benefit of the 21st century and any equipment associated with the drive of the gate, allows you to connect any other external devices to control.
The connection for the video was quick to show the opportunity. Later I will connect normally with cable laying. In general, the principle is simple, there are 2 contacts, closing them, the drive controller executes the command: open \ stop \ close.
Nothing new has been discovered, but the parties look great!
Drive Control # 1
Drive Control # 2 (continued)
The idea is tested and implemented. Works. Let's go further!
SR211-2K0 to control the feeder \ drinker for pet
I love my dog: Meet: "Sandy"
What to do if you are not in the daytime, and the dog needs to pour and feed the water (dry food) - well, the dog is pleasant and helpful, and it is pleasant to you. My father helped me to make the feeder, because at the time of writing this article, I had not enough time. If we talk about the auto-drinker, then you have already seen the auto watering the lawn. The logic for the drinker is the same, only instead of the nozzle - the straight pipe will go immediately to the dog in the aviary (it is currently under reconstruction) and according to the scenario for a few seconds, fresh cool water is fed.
The auto-feeder requires a more serious engineering approach and you can’t get off with a simple valve. As a result, it was decided to take a janitor from a relative's car, add some iron and paint, add a dispenser and we would have a demo version of “auto-feeder v1.0”. In the process of testing, it became clear that you need to use the auger. Initially, a screw and a janitor with a pipe were considered, but the complexity of manufacturing the auger made me consider a pilot project with a turning mechanism.
See what we did and how it works.
Auto Feed # 1
There is something to criticize, there is something to correct and improve. The principle is to wipe the dosage blade, which is controlled by the rotary janitor. The period of discharge dose - 3 seconds (turn the blade + return to its original position)
Auto Feed # 2
This design will be closed in a sealed box, so that the moisture does not spoil the feed. Most likely, version 2.0 will consist of a screw, where the dosage of the feed will be more accurate and without the possibility of catching the "wedge" of the blade.
At this I have everything - let me leave. In conclusion - I suggest to look at a small overview of the house, where I show the evidence of using the noolite technology.
Using noolite technology
I still have a lot of unrealized ideas that will be implemented in the near future.
Thank you all for your attention and watching the video!
______________________________________________________________
Articles (links to sources) on the preparation of the material:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/394875/
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