Home automation with Moteino & MQTT

[Fwessels]

PIDome home automation software http://pidome.wordpress.com/ now have support for MQTT. I being play with this for the last couple of weeks and it is really a create product. It is still in development phase however it is stable. I run on the RaspberryPi and is not that resource intensive as OpenHab on the PI.  It is also not that difficult to setup and to run as compare to OpenHab

[Fwessels]

Hi Felix have you come across this guys MySensors http://www.mysensors.org/? They have a create eco system build around the Arduino and the NRF24L01 wireless. I being play with the NRF2401 as well. The NRF24L01 is not as great as the RFM69 transceiver. It also don't have the range as your Moteino solution. Also it not so compact as you device. To build a sensor and then to integrate this into your home automation system is really easy.

[Felix]

I have not, I also tried the nordic radios but there is no range on those things unless you get the much bulkier amplified versions, by that point price is much higher and size much bigger, I will go with RFM69HW instead

[Fwessels]

Felix why don't you work with MySensor  team to get your Motion integrated with there software API? The current solution do support different radio type but there biggest focus is Nrf24l01 and not on RFM69.

If you look at there eco system they have MQTTgateway or Serial gateway that run on a arduino and wireless radio and from here  you can integrate into 6 diffrant controller's and then you have your 20 sensors that you can connect to your home automation systems.  The senor library is growing as the user community make recommendations Hek one of the founders of MySensor will look at this and will add the new sensor. Also one of their principle is to keep thing as simple as possible so that people that is not that experience in programme and electronic will be able to use. If I look at your Moteino solution it is great solution for this as you don't even have to fit the radio it come already fitted.  So all you have to do is add the sensor you want and you will be up and running within 20 minutes.

[Felix]

I contacted Henrik and I'm in exchanges with him, he seems open to the idea. Thanks for the tip.

[Fwessels]

Hi Felix how is it going with the talk with Hek and the inclusion of Moteino and part of the MySensor ecosystem?

[Felix]

Not yet, im waiting for updates from Henrik.

[gzon]

To be able to use Moteino with MySensor would be GREAT ! 

[sumnerboy]

The guys at OpenEnergyMonitor simply use split core current transducers they place around the mains wires to get current, and they measure the voltage from a 9V transformer. Not very ideal and there are many assumptions, but it gives you a ballpark of what's going on in your house.

Just a quick note - I am using a CT sensor around my mains connection to the grid and monitoring using a sketch from the guys at OpenEnergyMonitor. It takes voltage and current samples continuously (i.e. every mains cycle - 50 times a second) and I am getting daily totals that are less than 1% different to what I am being billed by my electricity provider.

I am finding it an extremely accurate way to monitor my energy usage.

[Felix]

Just a quick note - I am using a CT sensor around my mains connection to the grid and monitoring using a sketch from the guys at OpenEnergyMonitor. It takes voltage and current samples continuously (i.e. every mains cycle - 50 times a second) and I am getting daily totals that are less than 1% different to what I am being billed by my electricity provider.
I am finding it an extremely accurate way to monitor my energy usage.

Cool, what microcontroller/transceiver are you using?

[sumnerboy]

Apologies - I never received a notification that there was a reply to my post!

I am using an Uno clone with built in ethernet - http://www.freetronics.com/products/etherten - with the Open Energy Monitor EmonTX Arduino Shield v2 attached. The sketch takes readings every mains cycle and publishes MQTT messages every 5s with the cumulative totals for each of the 4 CT sensors attached.

Hasn't missed a beat in a few months now. The Etherten is powered by POE.

[AntonW]

Hi folks,

Check out the Instructables website for the Uber-Home-Automation project

The openHAB project there explains the full setup including MQTT and has also all the code examples.
MQTT works absolutely fine in that setup.

Look at:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Uber-Home-Automation/

Anton

[hek]

Ok, the first bits is in place now.

https://github.com/mysensors/Arduino/tree/development/libraries/MySensors

Thanks
Henrik

[Fwessels]

Hi Hek this is great news.  So is everything working what is still missing?

[hek]

Just merged a pull request and the link above points to our development-branch (unstable). 
It hasn't been tested much more than from the contributor so we need help if interested.

Here is a good thread to post feedback:
http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/285/porting-mysensors-to-work-with-the-radiohead-library