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1500 meters of laid cables are not visible after the repair. Pictured is the bedroom
Before you continue the story, where I will answer comments, give photos of an apartment with furniture, the resulting electrical panels, and also talk about the difficulties that I encountered after I switched from openHAB to another home automation system - Home Assistant.
For those who hear this story for the first time, I will say that I had a dream to make the most complete automation in the apartment. This dream came to me as I began to get involved in "smart homes" in 2014. But until 2018, I could not start implementing it for a banal reason - there was no apartment.
В I write about the choice of technologies, I provide wiring diagrams, photos, I give a link to the source of the apartment configuration in openHAB (open source home automation software written in Java).
In the second part you are reading now, I want to start with responses to comments on the first part of the story, of which there were as many as 467, from which I realized that I might not have been able to fully convey my main idea that I wanted to make the most complete wired the preparation for later automation. This was necessary in order to use any controller in the future, without being tied to a specific manufacturer and combining different technologies. This is currently possible using .
Responses to comments
I have been in the field of home automation for several years now as an enthusiastic geek, so to speak - I have no commercial benefit from my hobby, but I like the process itself. Previously, while I did not have this one-room apartment, it was difficult for me to implement something at home. At home, like most people, there are wallpapers on the walls, no one knows who did the electrician (and no one knows when), but what if, for example, I want to hang an electric curtain rod? Their prices are quite moderate (~$100) if you order outside of Russia, but what about the wiring? It is impossible to control the curtains if there is no electricity supply. How to be? Throw a cable from the outlet to the window? Hang it with self-adhesive pads? Even if this option suited me, but other creatures live in the apartment with me - living creatures - my wife, children, pets. If cables hang from everywhere, then what will happen? How safe will it be for residents? In general, it always stopped me.
Because of my desire to hang each consumer on a separate cable, even an ordinary shield without automation has grown to 54 modular. The photo shows a power shield without automatics with Chinese 1 din difavtomats, immediately after assembly in 2018.
And in this apartment I had the opportunity to make full preparation for home automation. It's the preparation. Think through all the options, I had experience. Decide how best to do it so that later you don’t have to experience mental anguish due to the fact that the entire “repair” is already ready, but for this sensor I forgot to connect the cable. You can ask what cable for the sensor in 2017 (after all, all the design was in 2017, not in 2020)? Of course, I know perfectly well that there are ready-made and inexpensive wireless solutions, such as the same Xiaomi MiHome on batteries. Or Polish Fibaro (not so cheap anymore). Or Chinese sensors connected to factory products on ESP8266 from Espressif Systems with a Wi-Fi interface. But these need food. Everything related to batteries seems like a half measure to me - you still need to keep an eye on them, unlike wired solutions or even ESP8266. Even if they are battery-powered, they are actually installed in their places “forever” - it is unlikely that anyone will move them from place to place, changing, for example, the position on the door. In addition, the issue of price - wired sensors are many times cheaper and more reliable in operation. Plus, the cable is also inexpensive, but only if it is possible to bring it “without snot” and without spoiled repairs.
Electromagnetic radiation
Many in the comments to my article referred to "". It seems to me that if you really want to use the conveniences of a smart home, then the wired solution is one of the safest for human health, if you follow the logic of the article.
And in modern new buildings, Wi-Fi channels in the 2,4 GHz band are so "polluted", here is a real example from practice - the Internet works fine for relatives during the day, but it is impossible to use it in the evening. Switching to 5 GHz solved their problem.
The place where all one and a half kilometers of cables are brought together in a star topology in the corridor of the apartment. Three electrical panels for 54 din modules are hidden behind the doors
In relation to my apartment, I have made a really large supply for all the needs that just came to my mind. This means that out of one and a half kilometers of cables, at least 30% are not used and laid "in reserve". They are not connected anywhere and are simply collected in a “neat tail” in one place and distributed to different places by the other end of the cable.
Smart home and saving resources
I think a smart home is not about saving, but about comfort. In my apartment, the topic of ventilation is not shown at all, because it practically didn’t bother me at all, except that the hood in the bathroom turns on according to the level of humidity and there is an Ikea hood in the kitchen. This experience of mine is quite insignificant compared to what I have done , which one "”And he assembled a supply ventilation system, but as it turns out in the second part of the“ tale ”about the apartment, electricity bills are quite considerable even with control automation.
Finish photo of the apartment 41 sq. m. after renovation in 2018: a kitchen with sockets and a 0,96" OLED display (128x64) on the right on the wall with an integrated SSD1306 controller and I2C support.
If you do not have a smart home and want to save money, then an integrated smart home is absolutely no help in this regard. You can spend so much on designing, equipping and installing a smart home that if you replaced all your LED lamps with incandescent bulbs and kept them on around the clock, it would still be more profitable than installing a smart home.
In my opinion, a smart home is:
Convenient - yes.
Modern yes.
Technologically yes.
Savings, at least in the apartment - no.
How do you prepare for a future smart home - simple tips that I myself understood only in the process of work
I wanted to do everything as cheaply as possible, but this does not mean that I wanted to use incomprehensible solutions and solder on my knee. No.
I wanted to use only factory products so that there was no soldering and a connection to ready-made contacts was used. Also, I counted on the fact that it would be possible to use any home automation system that I want. As a result, I chose the most affordable option from factory solutions - a device from a Samara manufacturer, but at any time, if necessary, I can switch to other equipment or even painlessly remove the entire smart home (but not cables) from the apartment, including returning the usual control scheme lighting. Of course, the electrical panel with automation will have to be redone, but builders are not needed for this - an ordinary electrician can handle it, who, according to the scheme, will reassemble the connections in the shield.
Some tips for preparing the installation wired smart home regardless of manufacturer:
- Laying a separate electrical cable from each lamp, switch, socket (socket groups) or any consumer of electricity to the apartment electrical panel;
- Laying low-current cables to the installation sites of sensors and metering devices;
- Electrical panel with a size of at least 48 modules;
- Monostable (bell) switches;
Final photo after the renovation in 2018: a toilet with a bathtub, where a water heater is planned to be installed on the wall on the right and a 5x1,5 cable is connected to control the electric faucet
And tips for preparing for installation wireless smart home regardless of manufacturer:
- Distribution (soldering) boxes of large size (at least 150x100x70 mm) with the ability to access them;
- Connecting the lighting is not a classic scheme (using junction boxes where cables are switched from the switch, lamps and from the side of the shield), but modern - power is supplied to the switch, and from the switch there is already a separate cable to the lamp;
- Deep socket boxes (at least 65 mm);
- Do not put devices and controllers in metal boxes;
- Monostable (bell) switches;
I must say that it is better to choose between the 1st and 2nd points - the use of both points at once does not make sense, because if you put roomy junction boxes, then the modules can be installed there, and if you assemble the lighting connection with a modern circuit, then the distribution lighting boxes are not needed.
All of these tips are, of course, just my personal opinion.
Electrical panels and controller
Since the word "shield" in a one-room apartment sounds ridiculous - all the shields are installed in the corridor behind wooden doors, decorated in the general style of the apartment by a carpenter.
Shield #1. Power: here is a knife switch, a protection device, a contactor, 1 din difavtomatov. The insides of this shield were in the photo above.
Equipment boxes are the most important part of the apartment for me. The entire power part of electrics and automation is concentrated here. Everything is inscribed in 3 electrical panels for 54 modules, which are closed with wooden doors. When the wooden doors are opened, metal boxes become visible, each of which is signed.
Shield number 2. Here is the power part of the automation and the bell used as an input
The first power cabinet - the cable from the meter comes here. The electricity meter was replaced with a digital one, but left in its original place next to the door.
The power part of the multifunctional controller MegaD from Samara was wired in the second shield. A few years ago, this controller had an open firmware and, theoretically, everyone could, using physical components, assemble a device of the same functionality on their own. But in recent years, the firmware has not been disclosed and you can only buy a factory-made product.
Product support is provided mainly on the device forum. Did I say that if you hear about this device for the first time, then despite the low price, you will have to spend a lot of time to figure it out?
Shield number 3. Cables from all sensors come here.
The third shield is a place for connecting cables from all sensors to the executive controller from Samara.
Home Assistant
For a whole year I used and in general I was satisfied, despite some roughness of interaction with MegaD 2561 - its work with openHAB is implemented through a special and is a web server for incoming commands from MegaD to openHAB. The main function of MegaD Binding is to parse commands received from MegaD and form commands from openHAB.
openHAB interface in April 2019
You can add MegaD to Home Assistant using standard tools, without using separate integrations. With openHAB, about a year later, in 2019, there was a delay in pressing physical buttons and I probably should have figured it out and fixed it, but by this time I already had an interest in Home Assistant. They started talking about Home Assistant and I was interested in trying it.
Home Assistant interface in March 2020
Home Assistant and openHAB are actually ideologically similar in many ways, although they are written in different programming languages. Both of these software hubs:
- independent of manufacturers;
- allow you to combine various home automation technologies into one;
- have an advanced rules engine;
- comes with web interfaces, and also have their own applications for iOS and Android;
- completely open source;
- supported by the community.
Aleksey Krainev helped me a lot with setting up Home Assistant in my apartment , who switched the automation in this apartment from openHAB to Home Assistant and added some of his devices, such as a Philips AirPurifier air purifier, a Roborock S5 robot vacuum cleaner, and even an additional Vera Plus controller, which he was also able to integrate into the overall Home Assistant control system.
The process was not quick and it all started with the familiar Home Assistant interface:
The usual Home Assistant interface in the summer of 2019
And one of the options for receiving information and sending commands to the Samara MegaD-2561 controller:
Home Assistant settings editor via web interface in summer 2019
As a result, the interaction of Home Assistant with MegaD-2561 in was found in different versions:
- By MQTT.
- External HTTP GET requests to MegaD:
- polling specific ports of the device, for example:
http://192.168.48.20/sec/?pt=35&scl=34&i2c_dev=htu21d;
- downloading a line with a summary state of all ports, and then breaking it into specific values \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbthat correspond to each of the ports:
http://192.168.48.20/sec/?cmd=all.
As a result, setting up the combination of Home Assistant and MegaD took about three months, although taking into account the fact that Alexei had no experience with either Home Assistant or MegaD before.
When everything was set up, Aleksey decided to go further in terms of design and eventually brought everything to a dynamically updated without rebooting Home Assistant interface, based on the work of a passionate person from the Netherlands:
Unusual but beautiful Home Assistant in 2020
If you want to repeat this experience and change your own Home Assistant interface in a similar way, you can refer to the work of Jimmy Shings (Netherlands):
.
If you think that the topic with the apartment has not yet been disclosed, then let us know about it in the comments - what would be interesting to hear about
Сonclusion
I believe that the experience with the full automation of a one-room apartment was successful. For two years now, the apartment has been functioning and pleases those living in it. No serious shortcomings were identified.
The apartment configurations are posted on GitHub:
- ;
- .
Author:
Illustrations: Mikhail Shardin.
Illustrations related to Home Assistant: Alexey Krainev .
February 5 - March 10, 2020
Only registered users can participate in the survey. , you are welcome.
What is your impression of the non-standard Home Assistant interface and the apartment in general?
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25,0%Too many wires99
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9,1%Too much for a geek36
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41,9%I would live here
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7,1%What is Home Assistant?28
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12,6%Where is my tinfoil hat?50
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4,3%Something else (write in the comments)17
396 users voted. 91 user abstained.
Source: habr.com