Intro:
I admit that I'm somewhat of a geek, and one of my many intersts is home-automation, robotics and IoT, so ofcourse I NEED to have this in our house.
The only problem is that:
- I don't really want to pay all that much for it
- Don't want to be locked into one vendor/technology
- Would like it to do so much more than any commercial solutions I'v found so far can do.
- I would like to integrate with what we already got/have at home.
So far I been using a raspberry pi with some 433Mhz transmit and receive modules (
link).
The TX module works ok, but the receiver is bad, and only works within ~3 meters. So I upgraded the receiver to a RXB6 (
link), and now the range is at least 30 meters (even without any antenna soldered onto the PCB).
So what do I control?
- Power-sockets (link):
We have a bunch (+20) of 230V power-sockets (3 sockets cost less than 20$ US, including a remote).
These control some of our lights.
- Some relays (link):
These help toggle other lights, and other stuff that either just needs a small flick (as they only turn on for a short time, and back off again), or don't run on 230V.
On the software side, here's how I controlled it
- rc-switch (link)
To send and receive codes.
- IFTTT (link)
To automate some of the lights, so the outside lights turn on at sunset, and off at sunrise.
- PHP to implement some webservices, so IFTTT could talk to rc-switch, and also our smartphones could be used as a remote.
- Simplepush (link) to push out notifications from my system to phones
What about input/sensors?
Oh yes, I've got that too:
- PIR sensors (link)
For motion detection.
Though we have a 6 kg cat, it's never triggerd a false alarm from these, which is quite nice.
- Door/Window sensors (link):
These a magnetic sensors, and are placed on doors and windows.
Now there are some problems with this setup/system
- Automation is hardcoded, or not easy to change.
- There's no nice interface.
- I'm missing a whole lot of features.
I would like a better interface, and a mobile client.
I would also like to control and monitor more of the stuff that I already have.
For instance, I would like to monitor the temperature/humidity in our basement, so we can avoid any potential problems with moisture.
I also have several RGB led strips that are currently controlled by a crappy IR remote, so they aren't really used, even though they are really good at setting a mood.
The smoke detectors we have it this house are linked, so if one ones, they all sound. They emit on 433Mhz as well. I want these integrated as well.
And while we're at it, why not use these as sirens if/when the alarm goes off.
Our doorbell, why not also integrate that (433 wireless as well)?
While I like developing the backend, and device stuff, web and mobile interfaces aren't really my thing, so I've been looking for something to help me in this deparment.
A note on the price
Well, as I said in the beginning, I think the solutions on the market today are too expensive.
Here in Denmark (and most of europe) there an alarm company called Verisure, that also frequently calls me. They offer Smoke detectors, PIR's, door/window sensors, camera's and remote power sockets.
They don't mention prices on their website, but they offered me a package containing (the home plus):
- 2 camera's (with PIR)
- 2 smoke detectors (with temperature and humidity logger)
- 3 door/windows contacts
- 1 remote power socket
- 1 voice box
- 1 keypad
- 1 keyfob
- 1 central unit (with battery backup)
And the price you ask?
986 US$ (yes, almost one thousand US dollars - and no, I'm not missing a comma).
And then you of course also need to pay for the installation: 281 US$
And lastly (whch is the "best" part), it's not when you equipment! You're just renting it, and if you cancel your subscription you'll have to deliver it all back.
Now the subscription is "only" 45 US$ pr. month.
Ouch!
Okay, you'll never have to worry about changing the batteries, because that's included in the subscription.
Their website does not mention any prices, but always just offers a "lets call you" option (which is why they keep calling me, as I did this once).
During one of these calls I asked what an extra smoke detector costs, and this is what I got: One-time fee of 140 US$ (999 dkr.), and a monthly free of 5 US$.
They have good rating on trustpilot, seem like serious, and know what they talk about, but for those prices, they really also should!
So lets take a look at the prices, for a home-made alarm (of course all prices are one-time, and the equiptment is yours afterwards, and there's no mondtly fee. You just need to change the batteries once a while):
- Smoke detectors: Oddly expensive, but I have yet to find these "linked" ones on ebay) - link: 16 US$ - 109 dkr.
- PIR - link: 4 US$ - 28 dkr.
- Door/window sensor - link: 3 US$ - 17 dkr.
- Temperature/Humidity sensor - link: 6 US$ - 37 dkr.
- RFID/NFC tags - link: 4 US$ - 27 dkr (for 10!) or less than 0,5$ each.
- Power socket: - link: 14 US$ - 94 dkr. (for 3, including remote!) or 4$ each.
And you the controller you'll need:
- Raspberry Pi (I'm using a RPI2) - 35 US$
- Micro-sd card (or plain if you use a RPI1) - 5 US$
- Power adapter - 5 US$
- 433 RX module (RXB6) - 2 US$
- 433 TX module (link) - 1 US$ (for a TX/RX pair)
So a comparable system would be:
- Smoke detectors: 2x16 = 32 US$
- PIRS = 2x4 = 8 US$
- Door/windo sensors: 3x3 = 9 US$
- Temperature/Humidity sensors: 2x6 = 12 US$
- Power sockets: 1x14 US$
- Controller:
- Raspberry pi3 - 35 US$
- SD-card - 5 US$
- Power adapter - 5 US$
- 433Mhz TX/RX modules - 3 US$
In total: 123 US$ (if you need all of the things)
SD-card, power adapter, and if you're reading this, raspberry pi, you might already have.
Now of course they are not 100% comparable.
For instance I'm using a old google nexus 10 tablet (with nfc) as control panel.
Otherwise you can use your phone as control panel.
One important thing the our home-made system is missing are the camera's, but I'll come back later and show you how to integrate these (any ip-camera will do, or you can even use a old usb webcam, and connect it to the rpi).
Again the whole point is to use sensors that are cheap and what you already got at home.
Meet Home-Assistant:
As I don't like playing around with web-interfaces as much as other software I've been looking for open-source solutions to help me out.
I've found two interesting projects:
openHab and Home-Assistant.
openHab is implemented in Java, and HA in python.
I haven't used python before, but HA seems to have more momentum, so I choose this.
Out-of-the-box it does not have the capability to receive 433 codes from rc-switch, you I'll show how to implement a component for this.
Here's my notes on setting it up.
HA Setup-Guide:
Requirements:
- 433Mhz modules (RX6B receiver is best)
- Raspberry pi
- switches/pir's/more
Software install:
Install arch linux
Go to https://archlinuxarm.org/ and follow the instructions to install arch linux on your pi flavor (I'm using a RPI2).
After arch linux for ARM is installed on the SD-card, boot the rpi, and ssh into the booted device (or login locally) as alarm:
Change default alarm
passwd
And root password
su
passwd
pacman -Syu
Localize system
timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Copenhagen
hostnamectl set-hostname rfcac
nano /etc/locale.gen
(uncomment da_DK.UTF-8)
locale-gen
localectl set-keymap dk
Install Home-Assistant
Install python 3:
pacman -S python python-pip
If you what to use netdisco (which is also a part of the first demo), you'll need gcc as well:
pacman -S gcc
Install Home-Assistant (HASS):
pip3 install homeassistant
You can check that it works by running:
hass --open-ui
Note that that it takes a while for hass to first start as it needs to download missing modules. This is also true when adding new modules to the configuration.
Test the install:
Point your browser to http://localhost:8123
We'll create a systemd unit file to run hass on boot (/etc/systemd/system/hass.service):
[Unit]
Description=Home Assistant
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/hass
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
After creating the file, re-read all unit files:
systemctl daemon-reload
And make sure it's started when your raspberry boots:
systemctl enable hass
Components
In Home-Assistant we'll be using two components to control our 433Mhz traffic.
One is built-in, and is called "Raspberry Pi RF Switch".
rfcac
The other is a homemade one, if called rfcac.
You'll need to create the file rfcac.py in a custom_components directory under the homeassistant config directory:
/root/.homeassistant/custom_components/binary_sensor/rfcac.py:
"""
Binary sensor for 433 interface
Params:
* name: sensor-name
* code: 433 code for the sensor (sniff it with rpi_rf_receive or rcswitch
* type: sensor type (see https://home-assistant.io/components/binary_sensor/ for supported types)
"""
import os
from homeassistant.components.binary_sensor import BinarySensorDevice
def setup_platform(hass, config, add_devices, discovery_info=None):
"""Setup the rfcac binary sensor platform."""
add_devices([RFcacBinarySensor(config['name'], config['code'], config['type'])])
"""
add_devices([
RFcacBinarySensor('TV-Stue', '1234', 'motion'),
RFcacBinarySensor('Kokken', '123', 'motion'),
])
"""
class RFcacBinarySensor(BinarySensorDevice):
"""A RFcac binary sensor."""
def __init__(self, name, code, sensor_class):
"""Initialize the sensor."""
self._name = name
self._state = False
self._code = str(code)
self._sensor_type = sensor_class
self.update()
@property
def sensor_class(self):
"""Return the class of this sensor."""
return self._sensor_type
@property
def should_poll(self):
"""Poll for now, to read the file state"""
return True
@property
def name(self):
"""Return the name of the binary sensor."""
return self._name
@property
def is_on(self):
"""Return true if the binary sensor is on."""
return self._state
def update(self):
"""Update the state of the sensor"""
"""self._state = False"""
self._state = os.path.isfile('/tmp/rfcac/' + self._code)
if self._state:
os.remove('/tmp/rfcac/' + self._code)
The rfcac modules consumes codes read from /tmp/rfcac/*
It scan this directory for codes (see rescan interval in config file below), and if a code is configured, the sensor is triggered.
rfcac system service
This script uses the rpi_rf_receive command from the rpi_rf module, and places the codes read from rpi_rf_receive into /tmp/rfcac.
Install rpi_rf module using the python installer:
pip3 install rpi-rf
The script: /root/433mhz_receive.sh:
#!/bin/bash
#Create /tmp/rfcac directory
mkdir -p /tmp/rfcac
#Read 433Mhz codes, and append to our rxLog
/usr/bin/rpi-rf_receive &> /tmp/rfcac/rx.log &
#read lines from rx log, and place code into /tmp/rfcac/
tail -f /tmp/rfcac/rx.log |
while IFS= read -r line
do
code=`echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f6`
touch /tmp/rfcac/$code
done
Also remember to make it executable:
chmod +x /root/433mhz_receive.sh
And a systemd unit file, to lauch to on boot (/etc/systemd/system/rfcac.service):
[Unit]
Description=RFcac
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/root/433mhz_receive.sh
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
To make in run on boot (remember to run daemon-reload):
systemctl enable rfcac
configuration.yaml:
homeassistant:
# Name of the location where Home Assistant is running
name: Vibevaenget 4
# Location required to calculate the time the sun rises and sets
latitude: 55.8494015
longitude: 9.8414076
# Impacts weather/sunrise data (altitude above sea level in meters)
elevation: 5
# metric for Metric, imperial for Imperial
unit_system: metric
# Pick yours from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
time_zone: Europe/Copenhagen
# Show links to resources in log and frontend
#introduction:
# Enables the frontend
frontend:
http:
# Uncomment this to add a password (recommended!)
api_password:
# Checks for available updates
updater:
# Discover some devices automatically
#discovery:
# Allows you to issue voice commands from the frontend in enabled browsers
conversation:
# Enables support for tracking state changes over time.
history:
# View all events in a logbook
logbook:
# Track the sun
sun:
zone 1:
name: home
latitude: 55.8494015
longitude: 9.8414076
radius: 200
icon: mdi:home
zone 2:
name: dis
latitude: 56.069829
longitude: 9.9784613
radius: 200
icon: mdi:factory
# Weather Prediction
sensor 1:
platform: yr
sensor 2:
#Travel times
#https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json?origins=Vibev%C3%A6nget+4,Horsens|Denmark&destinations=H%C3%B8jbjerg|Denmark&key=AIzaSyCtVwdi82LakzZso0mmmwWdIsB-6AuNRfg
platform: google_travel_time
api_key: AIzaSyCtVwdi82LakzZso0mmmwWdIsB-6AuNRfg
origin: zone.home
destination: zone.dis
#Hardware Sensors
sensor 3:
- platform: systemmonitor
resources:
- type: disk_use_percent
arg: /
- type: disk_use_percent
arg: /tmp
- type: memory_free
- type: memory_use_percent
- type: processor_use
- type: last_boot
binary_sensor 1:
platform: rfcac
name: Kokken
code: 4523456
type: motion
scan_interval: 1
binary_sensor 2:
platform: rfcac
name: TV-Stue
code: 213411
type: motion
scan_interval: 1
binary_sensor 3:
platform: rfcac
name: V. Skab
code: 31441141
type: motion
scan_interval: 1
#433
switch:
platform: rpi_rf
gpio: 17
switches:
#Udelys
foran_lys:
#4a
code_on: 5522769
code_off: 5522772
have_lys:
#4b
code_on: 5525841
code_off: 5525844
garage_lys:
#4c
code_on: 5526609
code_off: 5526612
#Underlys
toilet_lys:
#3a
code_on: 5326161
code_off: 5326164
gang_lys:
#3b
code_on: 5329233
code_off: 5329236
#IP Camera's (https://home-assistant.io/components/camera/)
camera 1:
- platform: generic
still_image_url: http://192.168.2.245:8001/snapshot?rand=1481214732238
name: Foran
username:
password:
camera 2:
- platform: generic
still_image_url: http://192.168.2.246:8001/snapshot?rand=1481214732238
name: Garage
username:
password:
#Traffic
#camera 3:
# - platform: generic
# still_image_url: https://www.google.dk/maps/@55.8488738,9.8445633,10z/data=!5m1!1e1
#Alarm (https://home-assistant.io/components/alarm_control_panel.manual/)
alarm_control_panel:
platform: manual
name: Alle
code:
disarm_after_trigger: false
pending_time: 10
trigger_time: 3600
automation:
alias: All alarms
hide_entity: True
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.tvstue, binary_sensor.kokken, binary_sensor.rcph_skab
state: 'on'
condition:
condition: or
conditions:
- condition: state
entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alle
state: 'armed_home'
- condition: state
entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alle
state: 'armed_away'
action:
- service: alarm_control_panel.alarm_trigger
entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alle
# - service: notify.instapush
# data:
# message: "Alarm"
automation 2:
alias: Alarm notify
hide_entity: True
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alle
action:
- service: notify.instapush2
data:
message: "Alarm state changed: {{ states.alarm_control_panel.alle.state }}"
notify 1:
- name: instapush
platform: instapush
api_key:
app_secret:
event: zoneTriggered
tracker: zone
notify 2:
- name: instapush2
platform: instapush
api_key:
app_secret:
event: msg
tracker: msg
Troubleshooting
If you intend to use the netdisco module, you'll also need to install gcc. If you forget to install it, the hass-log will show this:
INFO:homeassistant.util.package:Attempting install of netdisco==0.8.1
Command "/usr/bin/python -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='/tmp/pip-build-jm9r4b2z/netifaces/setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" install --record /tmp/pip-qtnuyhoe-record/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --home=/tmp/tmpgirlvw2j" failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-jm9r4b2z/netifaces/
Install gcc:
pacman -S gcc
Secure your communication with HA using SSL
Update 2016-02-20: I can no longer recommend using StartCom SSL certificates, as they are no longer trusted in Chrome (as of version 56) nor in Mozilla and possible others.
(using StartCom's StartSSL - free personal SSL certificate)
While it's important (at least for me) to be able to reach my control panel from outside out home), it's equally important that it's secure (it is after all also our alarm system).
Now, HA does have a guide to setup ssl using Let's encrypt, but the certificates are only valid for 90 days, and I've always used StartCom StartSSL, so here's how to use it (these certificates are valid for 3 years, and free for personal use).
Go to startssl.com, and either login or create an account.
Follow the steps to create a class 1 DV certificate.
Since I'm using linux, I used openssl to generate mine (using the command specified by StartSSL's instructions), and just pasted the content of my "yourname.csr" into their webpage.
After generating the certificate, place the private key file (yourname.key) on the raspberry pi along side the 1_
_bundle.crt file from the NginxServer.zip file form the downloaded certificate file package from StartSSL:
Here how my config looks:
http:
# Uncomment this to add a password (recommended!)
api_password:
ssl_certificate: /hass/ssl/StartCom_ssl_2016-12-22/2_urup.net_bundle.crt
ssl_key: /hass/ssl/StartCom_ssl_2016-12-22/yourname.key
Okay, so that should be it. Now you can access you installation securely from https://
:8123
Remember to specify https, and not just http.
Note - decrypt the private key:
If you private key is encrypted and requires a passphrase, you'll either need to decrypt to, or start HA manually, so you can enter the passphrase when HA starts.
Here's how to remove the passphrase:
cd /hass/ssl/StartCom_ssl_2016-12-22/
openssl rsa -in yourname.key -out privatekey_decrypted.key
And then in the configuration.yaml file, we should use the now decrypted key:
http:
# Uncomment this to add a password (recommended!)
api_password:
ssl_certificate: /hass/ssl/StartCom_ssl_2016-12-22/2_urup.net.crt
ssl_key: /hass/ssl/StartCom_ssl_2016-12-22/privatekey_decrypted.key
Note 2 - certificates:
The zip file you download from StartSSL contains several other zip files:
ApacheServer.zip, IISServer.zip, NginxServer.zip and OtherServer.zip.
It would be nice if the included a little readme about whats in these, but they don't, so here's the short version:
I first tried to use the certificate from ApacheServer/2_urup.net.crt.
This actually worked just fine on my laptop (running chrome 54), but when accessing the page form my phone (running android 6.0), it complained "Server certificate not trusted".
A bit of googling and I found out that chrome on pc will automatically build the certificate chain, while chrome on android will not.
The whole problem is that while android trusts StartCom as a root CA, the certificate we're getting is issued by StartSSL DV1 (which is issued by the trusted root CA).
On Chrome/linux it will automatically go up the chain, and try to validate all issuers until it find a trusted CA.
On chrome/android it will not!
We thus need a certificate that also contains the parent certificates until it's trusted by android.
In my case this means I need to include StartSSL DV1.
Luckily this is already included in the downloaded file from StartSSL, and it's the one file thats in NginxServer.zip.
Just on a little side note for Apache users, I read that Apache deprecated the
"SSLCertificateChainFile" in version 2.4.8, so you'll also need to use the full certificate from now on.
Update 2016-02-20: I can no longer recommend using StartCom SSL certificates, as they are no longer trusted in Chrome (as of version 56) nor in Mozilla and possible others.
Conclusion
If you've followed this guide you should now have a running, secure setup, where you can send and receive 433 codes to control power switches.
This post got way longer than anticipated, so setting up and connecting the smoke detectors and other sensors will come in another post.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to comment.
In the next part I'm also talk a bit about 433 security (and jamming), which is a problem for any wireless system.
