My custom home automation system

https://hackaday.io/project/195309-my-fully-custom-home-automation-system

by rolph • 2 years ago

17 5 2 years ago

It's a beautiful work of art but I would probably scream if I had to work on it! That's an incredible amount of fully custom hardware.

I don't think I'd want to live in a place powered by that much handmade, one-of-a-kind tech, but it's really amazing to see something that just doesn't take any shortcuts and does everything according to the designers vision.

urbandw311er• 2 years ago

Imagine buying the house then discovering you’ve inherited the sysadmin.

fy20• 2 years ago

For anyone in Europe wondering what commercial options there are for this, the answer is KNX.

It's existed for more than 20 years and maintains compatability with old equipment. In my country basically every new commercial and multi-residence buildings uses it for control of lighting, heating, ventilation, etc.

It's not that cheap, but mainly as the market is commercial use. A presence sensor is around €100 instead of €20 for a "smart home" version, but you are getting much higher quality and guaranteed compatability - however I'd imagine it's cheaper than a full on DIY system like OP, especially if you value your time.

The big advantage of KNX is it is effectively decentralised. A switch and a light in a room communicate directly over the bus wire - so your Home Assistant server going down doesn't stop your kitchen lights working.

You can learn the basics in a couple of weekends and install the physical part yourself, or at least how to instruct an off the shelf electrician to do it. You do need to pay €600 for the software to program it, but there are regular discounts on enthusiast forums.

ahaseeb• 2 years ago

Great work and lovely wiring skills. Always a treat to watch clean wiring.

Already__Taken• 2 years ago

the audio setup is pretty clever. I was looking at how to do the same and it's surprisingly hard to figure out an audio switch. some niche very expensive bits of kit but even those aren't really any input-output combinations.

My custom home automation system

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