5 ms·

I plan to have a smart house but when I do it, it'll be using an opensource solution running a software that I can debug myself, setup in a way that it can fall

I plan to have a smart house but when I do it, it'll be using an opensource solution running a software that I can debug myself, setup in a way that it can fallback to just being manual (so switches for the light would need to work normally if the system is not on) and I want things to be wired since I feel that most wireless solutions add too much complexity. Basically any system like this should not be a liability and should not prevent reselling the house if I ever need to. I'm not really sure smart house devices are ready yet for non programers to play with but as a dev, it'd be a huge amount of fun getting it to work :)

alkonaut 10y ago
The problem with open source is that the hardware is rarely "open enough", and the software is a small enthusiast niche so it's rarely polished and "complete". I'd rather accept that the installation has a lifers of 10 years and just buy a proprietary system complete with service and guarantees, then rip it out and replace it all in 10 years. Agree on wired - and also, smart switches etc have to be usable with standard light switches and power sockets otherwise you are stuck with a tiny selection of ugly fixtures.
- crooked-v 10y ago
  Home Assistant (https://home-assistant.io https://home-assistant.io) is actually pretty great when it comes to software. It's got a nicely polished dashboard you can stick up on status screen / touch panels, a text-based but relatively straightforward configuration, and support for all kinds of general-purpose standards and specific platforms.
  - alkonaut 10y ago
    similar to OpenHAB it seems but perhaps more recent? like most open source it's a thing for tinkerers. I absolutely do not want to compile python-openzwave after making sure I have at least cython version x.., I don't find this kind of stuff straigtforward at all, and I enjoy a dentist chair more than a bash prompt :D I'd rather pay for a proprietary system. The best thing would be an open proprietary system, i.e a future-proof and moddable one, but one where I have paid humans to do tons of testing and polish.
    - crooked-v 10y ago
      It's actually designed to auto-install most necessary prereqs (as pip packages) the first time they're needed, so the only real command line thing needed (if editing the yaml files doesn't count) is the initial pip install.
      - alkonaut 10y ago
        OK, maybe I had bad luck browsing the docs to stumble over the odd component (z-wave) that required manual compilation, cython and so on. It's just that this component was the single component I needed...
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- StavrosK 10y ago
  I should write about my smart home setup, if nothing else, just to give you guys ideas. I've designed and fabricated light and temperature sensors that I've placed in every room, and lights are controlled by a combination of Sonoff switches (they're great, I've written my own firmware for them (https://gitlab.com/stavros/sonoff https://gitlab.com/stavros/sonoff) and YeeLight lamps (I've written my own library and cli client: https://yeelight.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://yeelight.readthedocs.io/en/latest/, https://gitlab.com/stavros/yeecli/ https://gitlab.com/stavros/yeecli/). My sensor boards (https://github.com/skorokithakis/esplights https://github.com/skorokithakis/esplights) can also output RF and IR so I can control various devices in the room, like TVs and ACs. I've hooked this all up to a small Python script that talks to the devices over an MQTT server, separated the network for all this crap into a vlan with no access anywhere (other than the MQTT server and the OTA firmware upgrade server), and now I can successfully sound like a lunatic with way too much free time on the internet.
  - notyourwork 10y ago
    > and now I can successfully sound like a lunatic with way too much free time on the internet. Had me at "I've written my own firmware for them ". :-)
    - StavrosK 10y ago
      It really really wasn't that hard, have a look through the code, it's just a hundred lines or so, IIRC.
  - lawik 10y ago
    Sweet lunacy, you make me envy your free time. How do you usually use the system? Automation? Remote control. I get what it can do, curious what you actually fo with it :)
    - StavrosK 10y ago
      Both, I have it set so lights go on and off when someone enters/exits the room, it logs temperature in rooms just because, and I have a task on my phone (using Tasker) with an NFC tag on my nightstand that turns everything off when I go to bed. It's nice to not have to touch any light switches ever, you walk into a room and the lamp just slowly fades into light. I know how crazy this sounds (because I roll my eyes at people who say "I have a task on my phone" too), but it's not really very hard to do. I control everything through an HTTP message queue I wrote (https://github.com/skorokithakis/gweet/ https://github.com/skorokithakis/gweet/) and a simple Android app I... also wrote... and... I should get fewer hobbies.
notyourwork 10y ago
> I'm not really sure smart house devices are ready yet for non programers to play with but as a dev, it'd be a huge amount of fun getting it to work :) For me I agree until it starts to feel like a job and you wish you had a home that let you relax and debugging wasn't a prerequisite of relaxation.
- nicolas_t 10y ago
  That's why for me the manual override is a requirement. The house must work even when I'm not finished or if I decide to refactor my implementation or if I decide to change software platform. I see a smart house as being a fun project to tinker with that can give me benefits but if the house doesn't work because of some software issue and I need to fix it before I can relax then that project would quickly not be much fun anymore.

alkonaut 10y ago

The problem with open source is that the hardware is rarely "open enough", and the software is a small enthusiast niche so it's rarely polished and "complete". I'd rather accept that the installation has a lifers of 10 years and just buy a proprietary system complete with service and guarantees, then rip it out and replace it all in 10 years. Agree on wired - and also, smart switches etc have to be usable with standard light switches and power sockets otherwise you are stuck with a tiny selection of ugly fixtures.

crooked-v 10y ago
Home Assistant (https://home-assistant.io https://home-assistant.io) is actually pretty great when it comes to software. It's got a nicely polished dashboard you can stick up on status screen / touch panels, a text-based but relatively straightforward configuration, and support for all kinds of general-purpose standards and specific platforms.
- alkonaut 10y ago
  similar to OpenHAB it seems but perhaps more recent? like most open source it's a thing for tinkerers. I absolutely do not want to compile python-openzwave after making sure I have at least cython version x.., I don't find this kind of stuff straigtforward at all, and I enjoy a dentist chair more than a bash prompt :D I'd rather pay for a proprietary system. The best thing would be an open proprietary system, i.e a future-proof and moddable one, but one where I have paid humans to do tons of testing and polish.
  - crooked-v 10y ago
    It's actually designed to auto-install most necessary prereqs (as pip packages) the first time they're needed, so the only real command line thing needed (if editing the yaml files doesn't count) is the initial pip install.
    - alkonaut 10y ago
      OK, maybe I had bad luck browsing the docs to stumble over the odd component (z-wave) that required manual compilation, cython and so on. It's just that this component was the single component I needed...
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
StavrosK 10y ago
I should write about my smart home setup, if nothing else, just to give you guys ideas. I've designed and fabricated light and temperature sensors that I've placed in every room, and lights are controlled by a combination of Sonoff switches (they're great, I've written my own firmware for them (https://gitlab.com/stavros/sonoff https://gitlab.com/stavros/sonoff) and YeeLight lamps (I've written my own library and cli client: https://yeelight.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://yeelight.readthedocs.io/en/latest/, https://gitlab.com/stavros/yeecli/ https://gitlab.com/stavros/yeecli/). My sensor boards (https://github.com/skorokithakis/esplights https://github.com/skorokithakis/esplights) can also output RF and IR so I can control various devices in the room, like TVs and ACs. I've hooked this all up to a small Python script that talks to the devices over an MQTT server, separated the network for all this crap into a vlan with no access anywhere (other than the MQTT server and the OTA firmware upgrade server), and now I can successfully sound like a lunatic with way too much free time on the internet.
- notyourwork 10y ago
  > and now I can successfully sound like a lunatic with way too much free time on the internet. Had me at "I've written my own firmware for them ". :-)
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    It really really wasn't that hard, have a look through the code, it's just a hundred lines or so, IIRC.
- lawik 10y ago
  Sweet lunacy, you make me envy your free time. How do you usually use the system? Automation? Remote control. I get what it can do, curious what you actually fo with it :)
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    Both, I have it set so lights go on and off when someone enters/exits the room, it logs temperature in rooms just because, and I have a task on my phone (using Tasker) with an NFC tag on my nightstand that turns everything off when I go to bed. It's nice to not have to touch any light switches ever, you walk into a room and the lamp just slowly fades into light. I know how crazy this sounds (because I roll my eyes at people who say "I have a task on my phone" too), but it's not really very hard to do. I control everything through an HTTP message queue I wrote (https://github.com/skorokithakis/gweet/ https://github.com/skorokithakis/gweet/) and a simple Android app I... also wrote... and... I should get fewer hobbies.

notyourwork 10y ago

> I'm not really sure smart house devices are ready yet for non programers to play with but as a dev, it'd be a huge amount of fun getting it to work :) For me I agree until it starts to feel like a job and you wish you had a home that let you relax and debugging wasn't a prerequisite of relaxation.

nicolas_t 10y ago
That's why for me the manual override is a requirement. The house must work even when I'm not finished or if I decide to refactor my implementation or if I decide to change software platform. I see a smart house as being a fun project to tinker with that can give me benefits but if the house doesn't work because of some software issue and I need to fix it before I can relax then that project would quickly not be much fun anymore.