"House-with-mind" or automation out of the box

Systems like "smart home" are becoming more sophisticated. And now they no longer seem to be something exotic, many houses and apartments are equipped, if not with a full-fledged system of a smart house, then at least with some of its elements. I often travel on business trips, leaving my home unattended, so I wanted to try out such a system at work. True, the priority for me is to monitor the house in my absence, so it is more about the security system (water pipelines, uninvited visitors, flooding by neighbors, etc.).

Protection from leakage, in my opinion, the main task, because the neighbors do not want to pay for repairs, and, leaving for a week, I consider it stupid to block the water. Next is access control and temperature control. Next are automation systems, such as turning on a heater or supply / extract air temperature. Automatic turning on the light in the dark by the movement. As well as remote control of various devices and video surveillance, for your own comfort. Having considered a number of options, I decided to try out a system called Dom-with-Mind in my work.

Now on the market a lot of things that are called "smart." Smart bulbs, sockets, and other things are certainly interesting, but they are separate devices. Each of them requires its own program, but the most important thing is that they do not know how to interact with each other. The House-with-Mind system from the company Dadzhet combines sensors and actuators, allows you to configure various actions under different conditions, as well as monitor all devices using one application. Simple installation and configuration allow you to automate the house without going into programming, circuit design and device development. Personally, I do not have free time to study Arduino and even more so the development of my devices and applications. That is why I was attracted to the Dom-with-Mind system.
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How it all works

The system consists of the following units:
- Central unit. It is the center of all devices.
- Wireless motion and light sensor. Allows you to manage devices depending on the level of illumination and the presence / absence of movement.
- Wireless temperature sensor. Allows you to control devices depending on temperature.
- Wireless leakage sensor. Determines the appearance of water.
- Wireless opening sensor. Controls the opening / closing of doors, windows, cabinets.
- Remote controlled relay. Allows you to remotely or on a signal from one of the sensors to turn on / off the load.
- Smart socket. It has two versions of the case and allows, like the relay, to control various devices, it is only framed in the form of an adapter between an ordinary socket and a controlled device.

Sockets and relays are also repeaters, which allows you to use the system in a large house, expanding the coverage area of ​​the central unit. All devices are very compact, which is very convenient when placing them.

Based on the device description, you can create several scenarios:

- A wireless motion and light sensor is installed in the corridor, a remotely controlled relay in the switch housing. When entering the corridor, when the light is low (it is dark outside or the light in the next room is turned off) the light turns on. We leave from the corridor, the light goes out.
- A wireless leakage sensor is installed in the place of the most likely appearance of water (under the bathroom or near a washing / dishwasher), remotely controlled relays are connected to a motorized ball valve (installed at the entrance of cold and hot water to the apartment). When a leak occurs, the taps shut off the water and send a message if necessary. There may still be an option with a smart socket instead of a relay, to whom it is more convenient.
- The wireless opening sensor is installed on the entrance door (window, balcony door), when activating the “Security” function, it will notify you of the opening, as well as it is fashionable to turn on any device, for example, a siren. If the "Security" function is disabled, then no action will take place.
- A wireless temperature sensor is installed in the room, a heater is connected to the smart socket. When the temperature exceeds the set range, the heater is turned on. This scenario can be repeated with an air conditioner, a fan and other devices that allow you to adjust the temperature in the room.

This is the main thing that comes to mind, you can think of something else at its discretion. Most importantly, all these scenarios can work in parallel with each other, be duplicated (the light can automatically turn on in any room) and are controlled by one device (PC, tablet or smartphone).

Connection

Central unit.



The kit includes:

• Device itself
• Power adapter
• Micro usb power cord
• Antenna
• Cord internet
• Instruction

The device itself is very compact, assembled with high quality, with a soft-touch plastic.

We connect an antenna, an internet cable and a power cord with an adapter to it. I took power from the USB connector of the router, so I did without an adapter. Placed it along with the router in the wardrobe niche.

After turning on the device, the blue LED began to blink, while it was sitting at the computer, the LED lit up constantly. We go to the site bigsens.com and register there. Registration is very simple, all you need to enter is an email address, password and device ID, which is written on its back cover. Next, fill in the profile and specify the phone number to which alerts will be sent if you select this item in the scripts.

The remaining devices are connected even easier - just insert the batteries and they automatically connect to the system.





Go to the setting. Configure the gateway (central device):



Everything is simple and clear. Next, the sensors. It is very convenient that each sensor reports information about the battery charge. All devices have low power consumption, so do not worry about the constant change of batteries. An example for setting the opening sensor:



Configure the sensors and go to the script settings.

Each sensor can be assigned its own group: the protection mode or the main group, so to speak, everyday actions. Select the value at which the action will be performed. The security mode is activated after pressing the "Arm" button in the upper right corner. While this button is not pressed, the actions from the sensors from the “Security mode” group are not executed.





There is also a mobile app for Android and iOS. In order to use it, go to the Play Store and download the Bigsens application.



In the application, you can enable or disable the protection mode, view the status of sensors and enable or disable scripts. You cannot configure scripts from a mobile application, at least on Android devices.

Summing up

The system "House-with-Mind" from the company Dadzhet allows the user to automate his house exactly to the extent in which he needs. Some people need to receive SMS messages when they open the front door, someone can limit themselves to automatically shutting off the water when a leak is detected, but someone can use the functionality of the system to the full. As I said, it all depends on the fantasy. The system is so easy to install and configure that everyone can handle this task.

The compactness of the sensors, the ability to easily expand and reconfigure the system allow you to use it without the skills of a developer and programmer, or simply saving time on the development and creation of their devices. The system has all the necessary devices to automate your home. How much this automation will be simple or difficult - everyone will decide for themselves.

Among the shortcomings, I would single out the lack of autonomous operation of the central device. When you turn off the light and the Internet, the whole system becomes useless, but this is solved by installing an uninterruptible power system and mobile Internet.

Someone may scare the price, but here the question is quite controversial. How much will have to be spent on creating a similar system on the same Arduin and it’s hard to put it all into a beautiful building, but I don’t think it is much cheaper. Everyone chooses their own way.

The system "House-with-Mind" from the company Dadzhet allows you to create your cozy, automated and to some extent smart home. For Geektimes readers, the company offers a 10% discount on the GEEKT-BIGSEN code .

Author: Anton Trifonov, Yekaterinburg

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