Home Automation. What to use?

**geobaja** · 14th August 2014

Have you look into X10.com?

**Rick Sanchez** · 14th August 2014

Yes but x10 was bankrupt a couple of years ago! I think Bluetooth is the future

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**blacksheep** · 20th September 2014

Dont know how I missed this at the time but its something I'm quite into. http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/rf-module-range/ is where I get a lot of my bits they have code snippets, forum and are generally pretty helpful. As for front door lock - I though about that but has to be insurance approved or you're screwed.

Hardware firewall, just put your VM craphub into modem only mode and then use whatever you want as a firewall, could use a raspberry pi to do it easily enough although you'd have to get a usb to Ethernet dongle and another router.

**spraky** · 20th September 2014

Originally Posted by blacksheep

http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/rf-module-range/

Nice link m8, lot's of nice gizmos there. Might even get my Rasberry Pi to do something useful yet.

**Rick Sanchez** · 20th September 2014

Originally Posted by spraky

Nice link m8, lot's of nice gizmos there. Might even get my Rasberry Pi to do something useful yet.

I was thinking the same thing ha! I'm going to use Bluetooth 4.0 for my home automation system 😁

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**blacksheep** · 22nd September 2014

Also have a look at the spark core, bit like an arduino with wifi already onboard - really easy to use/setup code is arduino wire and theres a good forum

theres radio controlled relays (5v switching 240 ac) which tie in nicely to those radio chips. In the open (with the right antenna) people have been talking about getting serious distance with them (>1km) but thats with clear line of sight. Shouldnt have any problem in any normal house reaching anywhere. Easily have a relay in a box between the mains socket and any product like lamp, server, oven (dinner ready when you get home). Hook it up to light sensors to turn on lights as it gets dark, reboot routers every x hours if you've got a fussy one.

**Rick Sanchez** · 23rd September 2014

If you were starting a fresh, would you use Bluetooth it WiFi? I want to build a couple of motors to automate my blinds.

I want to automate my front door lock, lights, heating and maybe other things, just don't know what lol. Suggestions?

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**blacksheep** · 23rd September 2014

I'd use the xrf stuff i linked above just for range, they can also set polling time to save battery etc

**Rick Sanchez** · 29th September 2014

I don't need range mate as I can use the internet for range

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BM · 8th October 2014

I do all mine with an RFXCOM transmitter/receiver, IR, LightwaveRF, Arduino and RaspberryPi and Domoticz Server
Only really sockets and lights so far but Domoticz supports loads of devices.
The great part for me is it the system is really customisable. As long as the device can be controlled by Domoticz

**blacksheep** · 8th October 2014

I'd still go xrf/zigbee - loads of documentation, really easy to use and cheap stand alone boards that (depending on the polling time you set) will last well over a year on a little coin cell battery. Wifi is going to be a much larger power drain.

By by range I meant in your house without having repeaters, the radio based ones will do ~100m with their standard little arial or chip antenna.

Just thinking on the simplicity side you could have these dotted all round your house, garden etc with no need for wifi repeaters. Even the new low energy Bluetooth standard won't beat these for battery life.

**Rick Sanchez** · 10th October 2014

Can you connect Bluetooth to xrf? As I want to create a simple app for my tablet/phone.

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**Rick Sanchez** · 12th October 2014

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/15/59...t-thread-group

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**Rick Sanchez** · 29th November 2014

Originally Posted by blacksheep

I'd still go xrf/zigbee - loads of documentation, really easy to use and cheap stand alone boards that (depending on the polling time you set) will last well over a year on a little coin cell battery. Wifi is going to be a much larger power drain.

By by range I meant in your house without having repeaters, the radio based ones will do ~100m with their standard little arial or chip antenna.

Just thinking on the simplicity side you could have these dotted all round your house, garden etc with no need for wifi repeaters. Even the new low energy Bluetooth standard won't beat these for battery life.

What hardware would you suggest?