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Ask Slashdot: Options For Cheap Home Automation?
New submitter goose-incarnated writes I'm looking at cheap and simple home automation. Unfortunately I'm not too clued up on what my options are. There are such a wide array of choices, none of which seem (to me) to be either cheap or simple. I'd like to:
Turn switches on/off (lights, wall sockets, general relays, etc); Read the status of on/off switches; Read analog samples (for example, temperature sensors); 'Program' switches based on analog samples/existing switches (for example, program a relay to come on at 30C and go off at 25C, thereby controlling the temperature); Similarly, program switches to go on/off at certain times; Record the samples of analog or digital inputs for a given time . I'd like to do the above using smartphone+bluetooth (for when I'm in the vicinity of the room), or smartdevice+WiFi (for when I'm in the house, somewhere), or even in a pinch, using HTTP to access a server at home from 600km away (which is what I'm willing to do). I'm definitely not willing to stream all my requests/data/responses through a third-party so third party cloud subscription solutions, even if free, are out of the question. Finally (because I know the Slashdot crowd likes a challenge :-)), I'd like something that is easily reprogrammable without having to compile code, then reflash a device, etc. What languages for embedded devices exist for home automation programming, if any. A quick google search reveals nothing specially made for end-users to reprogram their devices, but, like I said above, I'm clueless about options.
best part of DIY is spending three hours troubleshooting why the lights don't turn off when you could have just walked to turn them off
You could look at maybe getting a Raspberry Pi and/or an Arduino board. There a quite a few 'home automation' tutorials/youtube videos out there on the subject with specific examples for door locks, motion sensors, temperature/humidity monitoring, automatic lighting, etc... This would most likely give you the most custom and cheapest option but requires building everything yourself, including the code if you can't find a working example.
It's important to consider house insurance when doing this kind of hackery.
If your house catches fire and they dig a charred bundle of relays and a rasp pi rigged up to your mains you might have some explaining to do.
Sensors are one thing, but as soon as you go to actually control mains voltage, I think you are truly better off going for something more "mainstream".
why spend $1000 to save $5 a month in electricity costs?
Because he/she is a nerd. It is not about the money. It is about the technical challenge, and the ability to gain nerd cred by showing off an accomplishment to nerdy friends and co-workers. The advancement of civilization depends on people like this, who push the boundaries of technology, and drive down the costs for everyone else.
Because it is cool. You're measuring ROI in United States Dollars, when you should be measuring it in United States Coolness Units.
Seriously, this is the argument that people use on me with trying to convince me to buy a hybrid, or more fuel efficient vehicle. My car is horribly inefficient (seven seater SUV) but I either need something that big to haul around 4'x8' construction materials, I ride my bicycle, or I drive it like once a month out of town for a few hundred miles for work. It's entirely paid off, and the (relatively high for me) purchasing gasoline part of owning a car (unit cost per mile driven) is insignificant compared to the free/already paid for fixed costs of owning a car.
An ex-girlfriend and I had this discussion, and eventually it came down to the don't you want a nicer car to drive around? argument. No, I don't want one, if I have to pay for it. Having a cool car isn't that important to me. I have a different girlfriend now...
There is no financial, or logical, reason to automate a home to save electricity in your case, unless you want to be cool. If you want to show all your friends how "green" you're being (despite all the manufacturing, shipping, and other environmental costs used in producing the crap you're busy buying), write blog posts about your home automation project, take a bunch of pictures and post them to instagram, then it makes sense. OR If you plan on living in your apartment for more than 200 months (16 years) then you'd eventually break even on the project cost...
I wouldn't trust either to control any device with actual destructive capability.
X10 doesn't need a path to the internet. With such a primitive protocol all it takes is a dying fridge or UPS to make devices randomly turn on and off (this is actual experience talking).
I have about 20 dead Keypadlincs. Every one from my initial install has died. I tried arguing with them about replacements but they wouldn't do anything. That's $1,600 of dead units so it was not insignificant. The replacement ones I bought seem to be working. All of the old ones died in exactly the same way - buzzing from the power supply. Something was obviously wrong in their design. I would have been happy even if they had traded me two for one on new units but they offered nothing.