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Ask HN: DIY Home Automation

19 points by arathore ↗ HN
I want to try my hand at a self rolled basic home automation system. I am looking to have very basic automation like turning the lights on/off, playing some music on the speakers etc. I am not very keen on using IOT devices that connect to the internet, but am open to hear about secure solutions for that as well. Would love to hear how other people have gone about with DIY solutions for this?

15 comments

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moksly
I know this isn’t the most informative post, but a lot of the IT guys in our operations unit do a lot of DIY “home-improvement” projects. It’s stuff like controlling lights, automated blinds, monitoring their indoor plants,3D printing tools for their expensive bikes.

It’s all self-made and most of it is self programmed and hosted on whatever hack solutions they use, and they mainly use YouTube videos for DIY electronics to make it happen.

Like I said, not that informative for a HN reply, but I would start there.

arathore
Thanks, I have been looking at subreddits and youtube videos like you have mentioned. I posted this here because I feel responses here would help me have a better filter for stuff I can find online since there can be a lot of things that can be done horribly wrong :)
machinecontrol
Check out Home Assistant, it’s exactly what you’re looking for. Open source, easily extensible, plugins for every iot device out there. Get a Raspberry Pi, install Hassbian and components for your IOT devices. It can run entirely on your home network without connecting to the internet and be easily extended via Python.

If you’re comfortable with Arduino, get some $5 Sonoff switches and flash them with custom firmware.

arathore
This is great. Also gives me an excuse to try out the new raspberry pi 4!
o-__-o
Also consider OpenHAB as it is less configurery and gives you a basic front end and backend ui out of the box. It has a drag and drop ui builder for fancier dashboards, and supports a full backend scripting system. It’s based on java and integrates with tons of automated products. It has a cloud connect function for your own server or their own cloud service. The mobile apps work (but missing functions I would like, such as translating hardware volume controls to automation actions), provide security cam integration, and support internal and external URL’s based on your WiFi.

I found openHAB much easier to setup with my zwave devices, DCS security integration, stereo controls, and custom actions based on external data (I have security cameras running through OpenCv that fire alerts)

Also openhab supports MQTT so you could even integrate home assistant and openhab together!

deepsy
Hey! I've made https://github.com/deepsyx/home-automation about 2 year ago, it might give you some inspiration :) It controls the lights, ac, heater and displays the current temp on mobile app
arathore
Wow! I am sure that I would want to integrate some of the ideas from your project especially the servo motors and IR emitters since I don't want to replace the existing hardware in my house.
djbelieny
You said you are not too keen on internet connected devices but look into the qolsys IQ Panel 2, it ca integrate z-wave, rf and more and you can control it with an alarm.com account. this would be a mix of DIY and commercial app but I can tell you it's a solid solution. The comms between panel and iot devices is not over internet and you would have only one point connected which is the panel.
oceanplexian
If you plan on taking it seriously at some point (Own your own place and want hard-wired gear, switches, and outlets), I would highly recommend Indigo (https://www.indigodomo.com/) and Z-Wave. The OSS tools are not something I'd trust my property or life to, especially if you need to manage things like Water Valves, Garage Door Openers, Locks and Gates. They're also full of bugs and once you start to add hundreds or thousands of devices most solutions start to break down or become unmaintainable (constantly editing JSON or XML files, etc)
mikebos
I'm using homeseer. It offers a lot of integrations, there are plugings for functionality, but you can also write your own or add scripts. It enabled me to smart small. The experimenting and small steps ensured the WAF (wife acceptance factor) to be high.

I tried several open source solutions but they just needed to much work or upgrading broke stuff. Nog good for the WAF.

Odenwaelder
Check out the relevant Reddits r/homeassistant and r/homeautomation.

I started using Home Assistant a year ago and it has become a fun hobby.

Samon
As a nodejs dev, NodeRED appealed to me. I have lights, curtains, irrigation, aquarium, etc all controlled from my phone/tablet via a raspberry pi.
tehlike
I have homeassistant running on a pc with cameras attached. Dont have a great solution for cameras, but xiaomi sensors and switches with zigbee interface works solid.
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