{"id":323,"date":"2024-01-30T18:55:25","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T17:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sii.ua\/blog\/?p=323"},"modified":"2024-02-16T18:15:49","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:15:49","slug":"smart-home-in-the-open-source-version-how-i-built-a-smart-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sii.ua\/blog\/en\/smart-home-in-the-open-source-version-how-i-built-a-smart-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart Home in the open-source version \u2013 how I built a smart home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Smart Home and IoT. Two phrases that have always been buzzwords to me. Overused, surrounded by mystery, and in most cases, they are all about simple communication between devices. Everything boils down to easier or more difficult configuration (I\u2019m not writing about the cost of equipment and knowledge \ud83d\ude09 ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the topic is surrounded by mystery and is a niche, I thought I\u2019d try to do it by myself. I wanted to see if I, as a tester, QA Architect with the knowledge of programming and DevOps, would be able to build my own Smart Home using open-source tools<\/strong> \ud83d\ude42 How did it work out? Why did I choose X and not Y? What would I have done differently this time? Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did the idea to create a Smart House come from?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with the fact that I\u2019m lazy. Productively, but still lazy. In the evenings, when I come out of the shower, I don\u2019t turn off the fan in the bathroom. And then either the fan is running until the morning or I get out of bed sleepy with great difficulty to click the switch. Pointless. Likewise, when going from the living room to the bedroom, I\u2019d like to turn off all the lights in the living room with just one click and turn on the lights in the hallway for a moment (let\u2019s say, for 3 seconds) so that I can go to the bathroom\/bedroom. Do you know how much effort it is to click all the switches? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is when laziness comes in handy! I heard about ready-made solutions related to light control, sockets, etc. But I thought, \u2018Meh! That\u2019s not for me.\u2019 Not only is this expensive, but also all the information will be made available to the outside world (that is, someone can easily connect to my network). I protect my privacy and I don\u2019t want my data to be shared unnecessarily, so I prefer a private cloud over a public one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if I don\u2019t want to spend a lot of money, and I want to keep my data secure, then the cost must be different, and it\u2019s my time. After all, I\u2019m technical so I\u2019ll easily manage because what isn\u2019t done in the name of development. And I\u2019ll gain additional experience! Probably painful, frustrating, but at the end I will be satisfied \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communication between devices<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before describing my adventures with configuration and choosing the right tools, I\u2019d like to mention how the devices communicate in the Smart Home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In communication, we have a sender and a receiver. In my case, the sender can be an application on the phone with programmed automation or a physical button. The receiver is the corresponding behavior (e.g., turn on the light in the kitchen. But how do they know that these roles are assigned to them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, with the help of a gateway. A gateway is a device that is a switchboard that manages all communication. And this is where I could have ended my article, if not for the fact that I wanted more freedom. I didn\u2019t feel the need to be limited by some company. Read-made solutions usually result in more difficult integration between various manufacturers, inability to modify them, or transmitting data I don\u2019t want to show to the world. Often, it also comes with a higher one-time cost or subscription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I decided to configure my own switchboard<\/strong>! I already had the basis: Raspberry Pi4, on which one system \u2013 OctoPrint<\/strong> \u2013 was installed. All I was missing was a device which would serve as a starting node (that is, something to which you will connect the other IEEE802-compatible devices).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advantage of such a solution is the freedom to configure and modify the behavior. Something the ready-made gateways won\u2019t provide me. Spoiler alert: now I\u2019d use docker images<\/strong> to configure the devices, but I chose a different path. As it turned out later\u2026 for the advanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What goal did I want to achieve with IoT?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Definitely lightning control! Yes \u2013 in my mind\u2019s eye I could already see myself lying on the couch and turning off the lights or checking the humidity in a room from my phone. I also considered the possibility of automatically turning on the fan when the humidity exceeds 60%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I started, as befits a true amateur-future expert, to educate myself! I read what could be done and how. And then came the revelation. And frustration too \ud83d\ude42 What would an IT architect do in a situation when they start a new project? Of course, they\u2019d drew out diagrams with stages. What, where and to what. This approach resulted in the diagram you can see below (already in the target tool \u2013 Node-Red, which I\u2019ll write about later), which is a transfer of my ideas to paper about how I\u2019d like to make my life easier. Thanks to that I already knew how many devices I needed and, more or less, what type of switches to look for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fig. 1 Stages of designing a Smart Home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I already had the goal, place and a scheme of action. All that was missing were plans how to do the project and what tools to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choice of tools – hardware<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After browsing Allegro, AliExpress and reading a few articles, the choice of the equipment was easy. Looking at the successes and failures of others, I decided on devices that support the Zigbee wireless protocol<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advantages of the protocol:<\/p>\n\n\n\n