I`m going to build my first home within a starter project.
No I would like to create a home automation system inside this building.
There are solutions like Fibaro, Vera, etc. but all of those are very expensive (50 euro for each outlet).
I would like to start with controlling all power outlets inside the building.
Like switching a light, dimming light, power television, and all other devices connected to the power outlet. There are about 60 power outlets inside the building.
I have searched on the internet and there are a couple of solutions for it.
First of all, do you choose wired or wireless for all power outlets.
With wired you have two choices.
Bring all of the cables to one point (meter box) and connect them all to one big board with relays. [+/- 9 euro for 8 relays, + power cable/pipe to meter box]
Place a small relay inside the power outlet and bring only the signal cable to the one point (meter box). [+/- 4 euro for 1 relay, + small cable to meter box]
With wireless, there are a lot of difference technics like X10, Z-Wave, Zigbee, Wifi, Bluetooth, etc.
For wireless I have found a lot of examples with a power block witch is put in the power outlet. But I want to prevent this so its not visible from the outside, its controlled remote. [+/- 15 euro z-wave transmitter/receiver, +/- 12 euro z-wave relay]
Now I would like to hear your option/advise about the following questions.
Would you buy a existing solution or build a entire solution with arduino?
Would you choose for wired (relay in meter or power outlet) or Wireless (x10, z-wave, zigbee)?
Witch of the options within wired or wireless would you choose?
Witch hardware would you recommend to use for this solution looking at price and quality?
Is it possible to buy 60 z-wave relays without have signal problems?
I can appreciate the difficulty you are having in deciding how to proceed with your home automation planning / pre-wire and that may be in part because there are no all-encompassing solutions available nor dominant standards yet in place. We are about to see an explosion in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, so the next few years are going to be interesting on the home automation front. I would recommend that you stick to products that are based on existing technologies such as ethernet, wifi 802.11, etc. It's also important to work with devices that are certified by the appropriate code authorities to protect yourself from safety issues such as electrical shock and fire hazards. I would look at the new offerings at your local big box store as a starting point. Cheers.
You might want to study existing home automation systems like below to see current ways of doing things. I use to follow the bottom forum which is very active with ideas and automation setups.
Hi,
Arduino plugins are under Internet of Things category http://freedomotic.com/plugins/266
Maybe a specific category for Arduino could be a good idea.
We are working on another project with arduino yun
Interestingly when I go into instructables.com and search on freedomotic nothing shows. I was hoping for a primer on installation & implementation of the arduino plugin (Arduino Serial Communication) then running a arduino sketch that brings it all together.
To date I've downloaded Freedomatic but still can't get it running although I have Java installed on my PC,
I know I need to spend a bit more time on the installation process but if other newbies have the same level of difficulty this could put them off what appears to be an excellent project.
When I Double click on freedomotic.exe in freedom root folder (the extracted folder) it comes up with a "Java Virtual Machine Launcher" error where it can't freedomotic.jar. I know this is a JAVA problem which requires more research by myself. Google search identifies a lot of responses on this Java error I need to work through.
It requires Java 1.7+.
I suppose you are working with Windows, so you can launch the software by commandline with
'java -jar freedomotic.jar' (from freedomotic installation folder).
If possible can you send to me some screenshots about starting errors.
Thank you
PD: verify your java version with 'java --version' from commandline
Running Win 7
Java 7.1
From cmd line where freedomotic is installed I run 'java -jar freedomotic.jar'
PC returns following:
'java' is not recognised as an internal or external command.
Thanks for your ongoing help which I'm sure will be helpful to others as well...
Would you buy a existing solution or build a entire solution with arduino?
Build an existing solution, definetly. At one point or another I'll want to change things around simply because I can, and the finished solutions aren't exactly open source.
Would you choose for wired (relay in meter or power outlet) or Wireless (x10, z-wave, zigbee)?
Wired with relay in power outlet, only wireless if the power converter in each outlet was really cheap.
Having the relays in your fuse box would be a problem for most. Not only because it's illegal for an unauthorized electrician to modify the fuse box(in some countries), but because this would mean every outlet needs it's own cable. This would be expensive in materials and time.
The cable for +VDC, GRND and Signal would be samller and less obtrusive for this in my opinion.
