{"id":410751,"date":"2024-06-29T21:34:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T21:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/savepearlharbor.com\/?p=410751"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T21:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savepearlharbor.com\/?p=410751","title":{"rendered":"How to make your home \u2018smart\u2019 without going crazy<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Smart furniture, which keeps your house in order, is a must for almost any futuristic set. In fact, an auto-regulating climate, automatic lights and voice control over household devices \u2014 all this can be done and configured now. But it will take a little experience, basic knowledge of technology and sometimes programming, as well as a whole sea of \u200b\u200bfantasy. In my case, I did in the way that just fantasy will be enough, but first things first\u2026
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I became interested in the idea of \u200b\u200ba \u201csmart home\u201d about five years ago. I made the simplest system at first. It controlled lights in my hallway and bathroom via motion sensor, the air drawing via humidity sensor, and also the weather station \u2014 everyone was crazy about them at that time. Every self-respecting DIY enthusiast had to make a weather station.<\/p>\n

First of all, I equipped the apartment with a controlled relay to automatically turn on the light in the corridor and bathroom. It was simple \u2014 I had one sensor in the hallway, and one in the bathroom.<\/p>\n

If someone went to the bathroom, then the corridor sensor would detect movement and immediately turn on the lights in the hallway and in the bathroom. At the same time, if no one entered the bathroom, the sensor inside the bathroom would indicate that and 15 seconds after the lights would turn off. If someone entered the bathroom, the hallway lights would turn off in a minute.<\/p>\n

I also thought about cases such as if someone was too preoccupied with his own thoughts while sitting on a \u201cwhite throne\u201d in the bathroom (I had a combined bathroom). For this, the light in the bathroom was divided into two groups. One turned off 3 minutes after the sensor in the bathroom stopped detecting movements, and the other group would do the same 5 minutes later. So if you sit motionless for more than 5 minutes the light would turn off. Very disciplining. However, you could always move your hand and continue your thought journey.<\/p>\n

The bathroom also had a humidity sensor, which would automatically start the air drawing if humidity exceeded 50%. As soon as the room was ventilated to 45% humidity, the drawer would turn off.<\/p>\n

All this was management (or rather tried to be) through the Arduino platform.
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Almost immediately, it became clear to me that this platform was not all about creating a smart home. The main disadvantage of working with Arduino was that the platform worked without using the network, and without it, no truly unified ecosystem could be created. Of course, I could add network support, but why do so? I\u2019ve made an easy choice and changed the platform to another.<\/p>\n

Having played enough with Arduino, I reconnected the house to the ESP-8266 board. In fact, this is the same Arduino, but with Wi-Fi support + it is more compact in size. This module is still popular among smart home gadget manufacturers.<\/p>\n

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In parallel, I tried to make the smart home even smarter. For example, I solved the problem of 24 hours underfloor heating or an always-on air conditioner. I bought a Chinese Beok Wi-Fi thermostats in order to do this. They allowed me to turn off the floor heating remotely, but I had to do it through a dedicated phone app.<\/p>\n

I solved the problem of remote controls for the air conditioner using the Broadlink RM Pro infrared signal emulator. Nothing too complicated here: you record a signal from the air conditioning remote controller (or it can be any device with remote controls) to the emulator, and so when you press a button in the application, the emulator plays the previously recorded signal. In this case with my air conditioner, I had the opportunity to turn it on and off, set the operation mode and set other parameters remotely.<\/p>\n

I also installed Livolo switches. With their help, I could also turn the lights on and off remotely. <\/p>\n

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On the contrary: I had to install a separate application again for control, and it had no feedback, so that I could not see whether the light was on, and if it was manually turned on\/off by someone using a conventional switch.<\/p>\n

My smart home also grew with various controlled Wi-Fi relays such as Sonoff or Tuya, and even the expensive Danalock for locking the apartment, which also required a separate application. I bought almost all of those little things (except Danalock) on Aliexpress, where they only cost a penny, which allowed me to experiment without serious investments.<\/p>\n

One of the first relatively serious purchases was the Tion breezer. It coped with automatic CO2 control more or less, but the temperature had to be constantly adjusted throughout the winter. And again \u2014 it required a separate application.<\/p>\n

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I can\u2019t even remember all the sensors and controllers that I tried back then. My smartphone was clogged with apps to manage them all. It was like a zoo, which you had to look after. I tried to combine these applications through all sorts of aggregators like HomeBridge \/ MajorDomo, etc. But all of them came with significant shortcomings:<\/p>\n