Help with home automation

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GeorgiaDad
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Help with home automation

Post by GeorgiaDad » January 11th, 2017, 2:30 pm

I'm looking to move into home automation and could use some help. What I have so far is an Echo Dot 2nd gen., 2 Ecobee3 stat's. (installing tomorrow), and a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B board that has wireless and Bluetooth. What I'm looking to do: I want a George Jetson house. :rotfl: Well, eventually. I've read up on OpenHAB and OpenSprinkler. My first priority was having OpenSprinkler running by spring. But the wife wants me to look into controlling the kitchen lights and bathroom heater first. She wins.

So let's start with OpenHAB on the Raspberry 3. Can someone walk me through getting this set up?

rtomek
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Re: Help with home automation

Post by rtomek » January 12th, 2017, 2:21 pm

Not just opensprinkler, but the rainmachine HD has a great API too and they open sourced a lot of their code. Can't help with the OpenHAB though, I just use simple motion sensors or timers from Lutron where I want automation. Everything else 'smart' I just use remote control apps instead of automation.

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j4c11
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Re: Help with home automation

Post by j4c11 » January 12th, 2017, 4:45 pm

I don't know about the other stuff, but in my opinion the holy grail of irrigation is moisture sensor based irrigation. Meaning you got wireless moisture sensors permanently in the ground and when moisture levels fall below a certain level, irrigation turns on. When moisture levels get back up to the configured threshold, irrigation turns off. No worrying about how many inches of water, how often, how hot it is outside, what kind of soil you have, whether it rained or not. This weather driven stuff is sketchy - I've had times when it pours 100 yards from my house and hardly get any rain on my lawn. I think the water and money saving potential is huge.

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Re: Help with home automation

Post by andy10917 » January 12th, 2017, 10:58 pm

GeorgiaDad, no insult intended at all, but I'd start with a couple of semi-meaningless projects to get my feet wet. Work your way into diagnosing and troubleshooting your mistakes before things "hafta work". Combining OpenHab, Raspberry Pi and HA all at once is a bit like saying "I like medicine - anyone know a good guide to liver transplants"?

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chrismar
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Re: Help with home automation

Post by chrismar » January 13th, 2017, 10:35 am

Following this thread...

I'm just starting my adventure into HA as well. I decided against going the Pi and OpenHAB or HomeAssistant route. As much as a love getting my hands dirty, I just didn't have the time or the patience to roll my own solution with this. I wanted something that was mostly ready to go out of the box, but still allowed for some flexibility.

So, I picked up a SmartThings hub and hooked it up to my Ecobee3s, my garage door and my alarm system (SimpliSafe). Oh, and exactly 1 z-wave light dimmer (so far). I'm happy to report that when my alarm is armed the lights on the dimmer will turn off (if they're on). That was my fist test, and it works, so I'm excited to start expanding and seeing what else I can do. Next up is to turn on a light (if it's off) in the mudroom when the garage door opens and it's dark outside. Like Andy said... baby steps.


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GeorgiaDad
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Re: Help with home automation

Post by GeorgiaDad » January 13th, 2017, 7:03 pm

rtomek wrote:
January 12th, 2017, 2:21 pm
Not just opensprinkler, but the rainmachine HD has a great API too and they open sourced a lot of their code.
I only did a quick search, but what I found I didn't like. The Rainmachine HD is $265. :shock: The only programming I found was to work with the HD. Too pricey for me.

j4c11, I have a programmable control box on the sprinkler system now. I can't remember the last time I just used the programmed times. I water based on look and feel of the grass. Plus when I need to water something in, it's a different each time. And being on water restrictions here makes it harder.
andy10917 wrote:
January 12th, 2017, 10:58 pm
GeorgiaDad, no insult intended at all, but I'd start with a couple of semi-meaningless projects to get my feet wet. Work your way into diagnosing and troubleshooting your mistakes before things "hafta work". Combining OpenHab, Raspberry Pi and HA all at once is a bit like saying "I like medicine - anyone know a good guide to liver transplants"?
:rotfl: I am not a computer programmer but I did stay....ok, that's an old joke. :blackeye: I understand what you're saying. But I'm not entirely new to computers. The first computer I learned on had a tape drive, floppy drive and ran command lines only. The computer I'm using now I built in 2002. It's still running the original motherboard, processor, keyboard and even still has a working floppy drive. I've dabbled in programming over the years so this isn't something that's completely new to me. I just need a little guidance.

I've gotten the stat's up and running. Had to install the PEK since I only had 4 wires. Not a problem. I fired up the PI board yesterday and installed Jessie Lite on it just to play around. It was quite interesting. This afternnon I installed Raspbian-Jessie. Wow. I like it. I'm going to spend a few days exploring it before I move on.

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