Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 98 posts

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#51

Post by pbhjpbhj »

pjungwir wrote: post #24

This looks like a lot of fun! Using a RaspPi is really attractive to me because you can make everything interoperate, and nothing depends on some company's servers. I've done two Pi projects now that I keep meaning to blog about. One was a sprinkler control system. My old system was dying, and not very flexible, so I decided to run everything off a Pi. The tricky part was driving 13 sprinkler lines with 24V AC curren…

>I still need to work out how to copy the images up to S3 or a Linode. I'm using MotionEyeOS and it doesn't seem to know how to do that itself //

Can you just make the folder it copies to a link to a mounted remote filesystem, mount your server folder over SSH, for example.

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#52

Post by soneil »

pjungwir wrote: post #24

This looks like a lot of fun! Using a RaspPi is really attractive to me because you can make everything interoperate, and nothing depends on some company's servers. I've done two Pi projects now that I keep meaning to blog about. One was a sprinkler control system. My old system was dying, and not very flexible, so I decided to run everything off a Pi. The tricky part was driving 13 sprinkler lines with 24V AC curren…

> and nothing depends on some company's servers.

Exactly my motivation. I have an mqtt broker at a heart of everything. homekit2mqtt for homekit/siri integration, lirc2mqtt so my harmony remote can join in, node-red providing some automation logic, etc.

But where it gets interesting is being able to support devices that won't otherwise. Homekit support for Philips Hue means €50 for a new hub - or mqtt-hue so I can support it myself. Belkin Wemo doesn't support homekit, and has no plans to - but I've done it via node-red regardless.

DIY looks messy from the outside. But once the ball is rolling, anywhere a vendor won't support the features I require, I'll support them myself. The ability to do so makes it all worth it.

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#53

Post by Karrot_Kream »

soneil wrote: post #52
pjungwir wrote: post #24

This looks like a lot of fun! Using a RaspPi is really attractive to me because you can make everything interoperate, and nothing depends on some company's servers. I've done two Pi projects now that I keep meaning to blog about. One was a sprinkler control system. My old system was dying, and not very flexible, so I decided to run everything off a Pi. The tricky part was driving 13 sprinkler lines with 24V AC curren…

> and nothing depends on some company's servers. Exactly my motivation. I have an mqtt broker at a heart of everything. homekit2mqtt for homekit/siri integration, lirc2mqtt so my harmony remote can join in, node-red providing some automation logic, etc. But where it gets interesting is being able to support devices that won't otherwise. Homekit support for Philips Hue means €50 for a new hub - or mqtt-hue so I can su…

> DIY looks messy from the outside. But once the ball is rolling, anywhere a vendor won't support the features I require, I'll support them myself. The ability to do so makes it all worth it.

Pretty sure the messy part isn't about writing code, it's about maintaining it. What happens if one of the APIs you're talking to changes? What happens if you want to add a new device into your ecosystem? If there's a power outage and one of your hubs doesn't come back up, how much time/energy does it take to figure out which one and to bring it back up?

Not saying that it's not a worthwhile project, just that it takes a lot of effort. That said, I have my own growing list of bots that helps me automate repetitive tasks in my life that I maintain...

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#54

Post by deepsy »

ohitsdom wrote: post #44
deepsyx wrote: post #15

Hello and thanks for the post! I'm the author of this repo. I would be happy to answer any questions :) Also any feedback/ideas are greatly appreciated!

Nice work! Did you consider building this on top of Home Assistant?

Thank you! Actually I did. However I wanted to try out new technologies and since I haven't used React Native, I decided to try it out. I really like doing things from scratch, the whole networking and the bare bones. I could probably buy cheaper ready solutions, but electronics/software are some of my hobbies.

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#55

Post by deepsy »

Freestyler_3 wrote: post #50

Ok, Here is what I have been thinking of: a PI, many sensors and controls. the pi to do the things the pi always does. the sensors to sense room temp. in each room. And this is the hardest one, flow control per radiator. I want that I can set room temp schedules, and can go off schedule using the app (manual intervention) When the current temp in any room is below the set temp for that room the heater system turns on…

Actually, this is on top on my to-do list. I've been thinking about it for some time. Currently I'm planning to do it via motor and a reductor with ~1:1000 rate. The other issue is to find a cheap way to connect all radiators without putting cables everywhere. I'm open for suggestions :)

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#56

Post by deepsy »

dnadler wrote: post #25

Cool! I'm doing something similar, but more from the data-analysis side of things for my condo's efficiency. I've been trying to keep a blog of my progress, if anyone is interested, though please forgive the poor grammar / stream-of-consciousness in the posts... I've been writing quickly to get caught up. https://dan-nadler.github.io/

Looks interesting, bookmarked it for later reading :) I noticed that you have sensor in all parts of the house from the images. I wonder how did you solve the wiring issue? I mean I'm looking for a cheap way to connect all sensors, but avoid putting wires everywhere.

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#57

Post by deepsy »

z3t4 wrote: post #42

any ideas how to run cables ? im currently using radio but it can be noisy with many units.

This is one of my main issues as well! At this point the whole hardware is located close to each other, so the cable management is fine, but I would like to put sensors in other parts of my flat. One of my thoughts is to use UTP/FTP cable, as it has 8 wires and it's pretty thin (and not that ugly).

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#58

Post by soneil »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #53
soneil wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and nothing depends on some company's servers. Exactly my motivation. I have an mqtt broker at a heart of everything. homekit2mqtt for homekit/siri integration, lirc2mqtt so my harmony remote can join in, node-red providing some automation logic, etc. But where it gets interesting is being able to support devices that won't otherwise. Homekit support for Philips Hue means €50 for a new hub - or mqtt-hue so I can su…

> DIY looks messy from the outside. But once the ball is rolling, anywhere a vendor won't support the features I require, I'll support them myself. The ability to do so makes it all worth it. Pretty sure the messy part isn't about writing code, it's about maintaining it. What happens if one of the APIs you're talking to changes? What happens if you want to add a new device into your ecosystem? If there's a power outa…

If an API changes, I can catch up with it in a quiet afternoon - instead of buying whatever hardware they tell me their next update requires.

Catching dark hardware is really easy - just allow each component to die if it can't reach the hardware, and then catch their 'last will' messages in mqtt (mqttwarn is great for this, I can get an email whenever a 'last will' is published). Also a problem the vendors won't solve for me ..

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#59

Post by bloaf »

Freestyler_3 wrote: post #50

Ok, Here is what I have been thinking of: a PI, many sensors and controls. the pi to do the things the pi always does. the sensors to sense room temp. in each room. And this is the hardest one, flow control per radiator. I want that I can set room temp schedules, and can go off schedule using the app (manual intervention) When the current temp in any room is below the set temp for that room the heater system turns on…

I have a lot of similar ideas. The one constant problem I keep running into is the amount of work it would be to get power to all those devices. I'd absolutely love if it were possible to power + network all the devices via PoE, but those adapters are so expensive.

If anyone knows of a good Pi-like board that runs off PoE out of the box, let me know.

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 based home automation with Node.js and React Native

#60

Post by twothamendment »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #53
soneil wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and nothing depends on some company's servers. Exactly my motivation. I have an mqtt broker at a heart of everything. homekit2mqtt for homekit/siri integration, lirc2mqtt so my harmony remote can join in, node-red providing some automation logic, etc. But where it gets interesting is being able to support devices that won't otherwise. Homekit support for Philips Hue means €50 for a new hub - or mqtt-hue so I can su…

> DIY looks messy from the outside. But once the ball is rolling, anywhere a vendor won't support the features I require, I'll support them myself. The ability to do so makes it all worth it. Pretty sure the messy part isn't about writing code, it's about maintaining it. What happens if one of the APIs you're talking to changes? What happens if you want to add a new device into your ecosystem? If there's a power outa…

I roll my own home automation with a combination of things. Once it is up I don't know that it I'm any worse off than anyone else. The worst I had was the weather API I was using dried up. 20 minutes later I had weather from somewhere else. I like that if I end up with a pile of useless junk it is my fault, not the decision of company that decided to stop supporting their hardware and shut down their cloud servers [1]. I don't need the cloud and I don't need a 3rd part to have control of my garage door opener. I'm still waiting for the hack that opens a half million garage doors around the country! (I have no idea how many doors these big companies control, but it would make great news.)

This may be the biggest reason I go DIY on my automation - it gives me a chance to learn things that I wouldn't get into at work.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-de...

Post reply on HN