After long time I decided to start to work again on some Home Automation projects.
Mainly because a specific need, but I'm starting to see possible side projects along the way.
I already have some "pieces" of HA around, my glorious and ancient X10 system, an integration with Amazon Echo for the archaic X10, but it was time to start to play with ZigBee or Z-Wave.
So I had to choose and pick up an hub for them.
On the market there are many hubs and devices to play with, so I spent some time and in the end I did choose not only a "hub" but actually something more, an aggregator of services and devices.
HomeSeer
HomeSeer come in different packages and is quite a complex world.
The main reasons I choose HomeSeer and not other brand, were mainly 2 :
The main reasons I choose HomeSeer and not other brand, were mainly 2 :
- open source project
- local
The second one is surely the most important, the idea is to be able to have a service NOT based on some cloud services.
It can use such things, but the main design is to allow to have HA services even if internet is down.
Of course there are limitations in that case, for example is not possible to remote access services without internet working, but locally everything just work normally.
Of course there are limitations in that case, for example is not possible to remote access services without internet working, but locally everything just work normally.
Other hub/products require always a working connection and this is really a no no condition for me.
So I started to look around for HomeSeer and I did pick up a mini hub that is basically based on a Raspberry Pi : HomeTroller Pi
One of the main reasons to expand the HA capabilities, was the need to use a 'smart door lock' to be able to monitor and control it remotely, to be sure that the main door is locked.
Having already locks from the brand Kwikset I decided to continue to use them and the technology adopted for monitor/control is Z-Wave.
HomeSeer hub has embedded a Z-Wave hub, thus another reason to go with HomeSeer.
Naming conventions
Each device is defined with 3 parameters :
- Device Name
- Floor
- Room
The device name is intuitive, the Floor can indicate an area of the house where the device is in, like Upstairs or Downstairs, or Garage.
The idea is to start to differentiate the area of the house where the device is.
Then there is Room that indicate more specifically the position.
The idea is to start to differentiate the area of the house where the device is.
Then there is Room that indicate more specifically the position.
Devices
Each device can have different functionalities.
For example most of them, battery operated, have at least two functions :
For example most of them, battery operated, have at least two functions :
- operation
- battery status
- mesh network
The last part is very important as is one of the reasons to choose Z-Wave.
Almost every device acts also as a repeater, increasing thus the coverage of the house.
If one device can't reach directly the hub (HomeSeer) others can pick up the signal and and redistribute it around the house.
First tests
When I received the hub and the new Z-Wave door lock, of course I started to play with them on the bench.
The first tests did show a decent reliability, better than X10 but still with some problems.
Also the HomeSeer user interface is quite abysmal, iper complicated, tons of variables and options, often described in a very obscure manner.
I guess is part due because the open source nature of the product.
I can surely handle that, not sure about a technical illiterate user
More details in other articles
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