Flexible Home Automation

So we settled on using a Rapsberry Pi as out base station. To use this for our project we need to get some knowledge about this device. We just used it as a media centre so far.

We stated with control the GPIO. We have experience with writing Arduino and C/C++ code so we wanted to control them that way. We stumbled upon the WiringPi library. This gave us control over the GPIO with Arduino/C/C++ like commands. We can edit the files on Pi itself or on our PC's and upload them using a FTP program like FileZilla.

Next was our database. A friend of mine studies Computer Engineering and he said that mySQL was a clean and simple solution. It's easy to set up and maintain and can be integrated with almost everything. We use the database to switch I/O bases on the data. A website or app could access this database to change values and the Pi would react to this. For managing the database you can use phpMyadminwhich can be accessed using a ip adress and php file.

And so the research began. As soon as we started to put things down on paper the more questions started to come up. How are we connecting everything together? Is there enough space to build in existing wall outlets? What base station do we use? How do we connect the sytstem and the apps together?

So we started with the base station. This would be our main brain of the system. It would receive the inputs would control the outputs. We something which could support control from apps, websites and ease of us regarding our limited knowledge of different programming languages. We turned to everyone's favourite... Arduino. Since we both own Arduino's why not use them? We didn't want to throw money away just yet as the poor students we are. To support the apps and websites to control the Arduino we needed an IoT solution. Something like an Yun or an ethernet shield. And we had just some Uno's and a Mega. Also it would be nice if we could host a sever of sorts and a website on the device. No we thought Arduino ain't gonnan cut it for a base station. Sure we could figure out something but why not use some other dev board we had on hand. Like a Raspberry Pi?

You can already connect to the internet. It has graphical interface. It can run multiple programs including visualisation. It supports C programs and can run a server and website. And it pretty small for what it can do.

So we settled on using a Raspberry Pi as out base station with a mySQL database that would control the I/O.

After some time we started brainstorming about the system (you know, a year later after the idea because school and other important stuff). We started with some Googling about other projects. We saw some interesting post at Hackaday (where else) about people using relays and voice commands controlling all sorts of devices. We realised quickly that we need to write some specs to do some better searching for info because there are just to much project regarding this subject. So we came up with some basic specs to define our project:

Functions:

1. RFID/NFC:
- Open doors with RFID/NFC tags (can also be opened without the tags)
- Record people entering and exiting based on their RFID tags.

2. App (Windows Phone, iOS, Android):
- Control lights and outlets.
- View status of specific lights and outlets.
- Set up profiles to maximize power efficiency. (nobody home, at night etc.)

3. Record power usage based on uptime (like lights or othere appliances).

4. Option to control lighs manually in case the system fails.

5. Dimming possibility.

6. (optionel) A JARVIS like system which takes commands and gives feedback.

These where just some idea's to get us started on designing this system. If all of this is possible or practical? We'll see when this project continues.