home automation sensor/smart speaker pod idea

I’m looking for feedback on this idea. Hopefully it’s not half-baked. This is not meant to be wired hyper-accurate – it is as they say “diagrammatic in nature.”

We just broke ground on a new house. I am planning out the wiring for home automation, security, life safety, lighting and so on. I’m in the low-voltage fire alarm, intrusion, access control, video surveillance and sound/public address system industry, plus I’m a big sci-fi futuristic kind of guy, so I’m going way overboard. I have tons of coding experience but I am just getting into Raspberry Pi, and have not done anything with an Arduino, and nothing with home automation beyond the off-the-shelf smart devices and app. But, I’m trying to plan for the future and anticipate future needs, so for example I am figuring on a whole-house 12VDC power supply and running cables all around the house, to power blinds and sensors, fire alarm and intrusion/panic devices.

In the bathrooms, I started thinking about automating the lights because no one ever turns them off here. So, I figure a motion sensor and a smart switch. Then, I start thinking about automating the exhaust fan, so I added a temp/humidity sensor. And, I’m also thinking about semi-automating a whole-house fan, so I figure on more temp/humidity sensors around the house. I know the wife is not going to tolerate a bunch of sensors poking out of walls and ceilings in her brand-new house, so I start pondering integrating them into a single, discreet, housing.

It so happens I think I’d like to have Alexa built into most of the rooms. And, it might be nice to have a whole-house-audio system. Then, I came up with the idea of cramming everything into a speaker enclosure, as sort of a sound and sensor pod. I’ve started to think of it as an “everthing bagel”. Refer to the concept diagram. In this example, I have a 6” speaker in a 12” enclosure, leaving room for everything else. This would be fine in the kitchen, but I’d scale it down to a 4” speaker in a 8” can for a bathroom, or even smaller, maybe.

Misc. remarks: the LED ring is to provide feedback, similar to Alexa. I'm figuring on sealing the upper section of the enclosure to be water-tight in bathroom locations, but adding some passive ventilation.

Misc. other related future ideas:

I figure in a great room/living room it would be nice to make one a master, handling both a left and a remote right speaker.

In at least the master bedroom, I thought a smart mirror, coming off the RP would be nice. I’m also thinking that in some rooms I’d like to put a small (3.5”) touchscreen display above the light switches (or even maybe replacing the switches) for lighting control, scenes, plus maybe for sound controls. That’s more of a 2021 or 22 project, budget- and time-wise, but that’s how far out I am planning.

Not to get too far off on a tangent but I thought about putting a WAP in these, low-powered enough they can be used for presence/device detection/location as an input to automation procedures. I’d have the power there and the room for it.

Question: are there any other technologies (microwave, doplar?) that can provide for a hidden or at least flush motion sensor? These speakers typically have a sound-transparent cloth cover, so I was wondering about ultrasonic. I should probably know more about this, being in the intrusion detection industry, but I've never had to make one invisible.

What do you think? Clever or crazy?

[this is a re-post from the Raspberry Pi forum, due to apparent lack of interest there: Raspberry Pi Forums - Login]

Don't try to do too many things in one go, especially if those are physically apart.

A motion sensor controlled light is a nice and simple project to tackle (if you really want to do that with an Arduino as you can just as well get an off the shelf motion sensor switch of course).

Find a way to communicate things back to your central console - just the data of what's going on, either sent periodically by the sensor nodes, or queried by your central system. Many wired or wireless options, what is suitable depends on your specific situation.

And then slowly start building. Part by part. The more modular, the easier to add/remove stuff or replace parts.

Start slow.
I guarantee that any plans you have today will be obsolete by the time it's installed.
From your description, you are reinventing a lot of existing technology. A lot. This should be more of a hobby because you will still be tinkering with it five years from now.

As much as I like the low-voltage movement, homes built today must have a conventional 110V distribution of lighting and power outlets. Code requirements.

If I were to build a new house and have access to the frame, I would run a hub and spoke network of CAT5 or CAT6 Ethernet cable. I would also run some 16/2 low-voltage wires, like this. You can do all the low-voltage and data wiring yourself since there is very little in the US Electrical Codes about low-voltage wiring. (Mostly that you can't mix low and high voltage in the same outlet box).

Yes, most of your devices will be WiFi, but some will simply be more efficient or more reliable over Ethernet.

Also, don't make your home so "smart" that you make it harder to sell when you want to move on. We expect to be moving in a few years and removing all my smart devices will take a few days. Don't think that your technological masterpiece will be on the plus side of the decisions made by a buyer. Who will maintain it when a custom-built Arduino or Raspberry pi device quits working?

On the whole-house speaker system- I already thought of that. The Alexa Input device along with a small 5-Watt audio amplifier could easily fit on the back of a ceiling speaker. How would you get power to it?

SteveMann:
As much as I like the low-voltage movement, homes built today must have a conventional 110V distribution of lighting and power outlets. Code requirements.

To me 110V is low voltage already. I don't know what the OP uses, may not be in a 110V area. The problem with low voltages is that current increases accordingly, meaning you must use thicker cables to bring the same amount of power to your devices.

Our air-cons are rated some 10-15A each (2.5-3 kW). The water heater is some 20A on three phases (380V). The vacuum cleaner is a modest 1200W, still 5-6A. The washing machine also needs some 10A when heating - at 12V that'd be towards 200A. The rice cooker, water cooker and our two induction cookers are other high power users. Even the 200W or so of the TV is not comfortably supplied at 12V, that'd be almost 17A instead of less than 1A now. Then there's my desktop computer, soldering iron and other soldering equipment, electric heaters, a number of fans, etc. No, low voltage DC is not going to happen any time soon.

For the OPs project it makes much more sense to use the existing mains power around the house, and just have a bunch of 12V or 5V adapters where needed. Add batteries to cover power outages (a must for a security system, or the invader could disable it by simply switching off the mains power to the home).

wvmarle:
Don't try to do too many things in one go, especially if those are physically apart.

SteveMann:
You can do all the low-voltage and data wiring yourself since there is very little in the US Electrical Codes about low-voltage wiring. (Mostly that you can't mix low and high voltage in the same outlet box).

Yes, most of your devices will be WiFi, but some will simply be more efficient or more reliable over Ethernet.

Also, don't make your home so "smart" that you make it harder to sell when you want to move on.

On the whole-house speaker system- I already thought of that. The Alexa Input device along with a small 5-Watt audio amplifier could easily fit on the back of a ceiling speaker. How would you get power to it?

By trade, I am in the low-voltage systems industry, so I am biased towards that. Specifically, with this new house build, the general contractor wants more money for every 120V light I add, but I can work out whatever I want with the electrical contractor if it is low-voltage. And, he happens to be a client of mine. I can get all the low-voltage and Cat 6 cables and 12/24VDC power supplies I want. That's why it starts to make sense, running 12VDC cables all over the house.

In regards to voltage adapters, I don't want wall-warts and exposed cabling visible, and it's against code to have these things above the hard or suspended ceiling. I can get a commercial fire alarm system power supply with 55 amp hour batteries and keep all or critical devices operating for extended periods, also, so why not go 12VDC?

This "pod", this "everything bagel" is just a concept I may never implement. I still see it as feasible, particularly when there are benefits in placing these items in one enclosure. My example of in the master bathroom, where I want motion controlling the lights, humidity controlling the exhaust fan, the desire for a built-in Alexa, and possibly having a smart mirror or separate touchscreen display, I could see it making sense.

Step over to the home theater room (project for 2022!), phone apps are fine but I really think I'd like to have a control panel on the wall to control the lights, projector screen, window shades and sound -- this pod would do the trick.

wvmarle:
To me 110V is low voltage already.

According to the National Electric Code (U.S.), Low voltage is anything below 70V.