10002 Short assembly run no 2

Intro It is quite clear that my smart home project is going quite slow and erratic. Following the other assembly, I made another batch of 5 sensor nodes. These are meant to use the new soil sensors, once they arrive. Since plants will be both outside and inside and we are talking about rain and water, the sensors will go into waterproof boxes, with the soil sensor connected via a cable. So, this assembly is due… Continue reading

10002 Progress

This article is part of my 1000² Smart Home project. Check out the Architecture and Software and then move on to Hardware. An most importantly, check the Lessons learned and why I did what I did. There are already some first results, connecting all parts of the system. Progress Finally, enough pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit together in my Smart Home project, so that I can have some end to end functionality: press a button here… Continue reading

10002 Architecture and Software

This article is part of my 1000² Smart Home project. Check out the Architecture and Software and then move on to Hardware. An most importantly, check the Lessons learned and why I did what I did. There are already some first results, connecting all parts of the system. Starting with a top down approach – what the system should do, it soon became clear that some devices will be custom and some will be off the shelf. Determining… Continue reading

RFM69 output power

Intro As I was mentioning in my 1000.1000 Hardware selection, I have opted for the cool RFM69HW radio module. Weirdly enough, in quite a few sources (big distributor and ebay) the higher power HW module is cheaper. So there ie no reason not to get the higher power module, given quantity discounts. But I want it to operate at lower power most of times. The datasheet does not show any differences at lower power, so… Continue reading

10002 Software

This article is part of my 1000² Smart Home project. Check out the Architecture and Software and then move on to Hardware. An most importantly, check the Lessons learned and why I did what I did. There are already some first results, connecting all parts of the system. Intro There is plenty of software to use in home automation, but of course I decided to stay with open source and free options. In recent years there have been… Continue reading

10002 Hardware

This article is part of my 1000² Smart Home project. Check out the Architecture and Software and then move on to Hardware. An most importantly, check the Lessons learned and why I did what I did. There are already some first results, connecting all parts of the system. Some history A picture says 1000 words!* *inner voice dependent Which microcontroller? When I began this project, I was long given up on the ATMega and ATTtiny micro, with some… Continue reading

10002 Lessons learned

This article is part of my 1000² Smart Home project. Check out the Architecture and Software and then move on to Hardware. An most importantly, check the Lessons learned and why I did what I did. There are already some first results, connecting all parts of the system. What? This page covers things I have learned and why I did what I did in my 1000² project. Some experience, random calculations, opinions and thoughts. Battery philosophy So what… Continue reading

10002 Smart Home

This article is part of my 1000² Smart Home project. Check out the Architecture and Software and then move on to Hardware. An most importantly, check the Lessons learned and why I did what I did. There are already some first results, connecting all parts of the system. Intro I have enjoyed building small home automation devices for many years, simple things that make life better or just cater for the lazy animal. The world has been dreaming… Continue reading

Cheap China

My experiences and recommendations for cheap electronic modules from China. Continue reading