Work in progress...

Post by **Digit** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 6:11 pm

I started my Home Automation hobby in October 2005, beginning with monitoring the gas usage in my house. Being inspired by the way Pieter accomplished his gas monitoring, I started gathering the hardware: 1-Wire serial adapter from Dallas, a 1-Wire counter from Hobbyboards, and so on.

I "confiscated" the space under the stairs to become the "Home Control Datacenter" and started building. It took some time before I had everything up and running, but around february this year i had a working 1-Wire counter that monitored the gas usage and i had written a piece of software to put all counter data in a SQL database.

Since then i almost haven't had any time to spend on HA; however, since a couple of days i have resumed the reliability testing on the counter and still have to solve some issues.

Here some pictures from my work in progress:

Screendump of my HCS-PC:
Showing the SQL database, a Velleman PCS-10 datalogger for reviewing signal
quality, and my Home Control Software (i wouldn't call it a system yet...)

Picture of the gas meter:
With a CNY70 in front of the last digit and a large aluminum case for
the electronics on top of it (yes, it's big for a 1-Wire Counter, but i'm anticipating future expansion of 1-Wire stuff here...)

Picture of my "Home Control Datacenter"

Once the reliability issues i'm facing right now are solved, i'll move on and start monitoring the electricity usage by means of a KWh-meter with S0-interface and monitoring water usage with 2 water meters from Alaxa. All required hardware has already been purchased, now it's just a matter of (a lot of) time to get the job done...

Regards,
Digit

Post by **MindBender** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 6:58 pm

That's a good start: Go Digit go!

But if you want it really interesting, you can install Linux on the router in the lower photo and you can use the processor's general purpose input/output pins for your meters...

Post by **Digit** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 7:30 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by MindBender
 That's a good start: Go Digit go!

But if you want it really interesting, you can install Linux on the router in the lower photo and you can use the processor's general purpose input/output pins for your meters...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Well, that's just a mainstream 8-port switch you're seeing; the other black box is the Velleman PCS10. So I think i think i'll be having a hard time installing Linux on those devices..

Post by **Bwired** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:28 am

Did you use the schematic for the CNY70 which I put on this forum (thanks to Heino Peters)?
Also put some 1-wire temperature sensors on your house heating. As I can see I think you have floorheating as well. You can measure Input Output temeperature etc.
Regards Pieter

Post by **Digit** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 1:46 am

Yes, I did use your schematic, you already gave it to me back in December 2005.

The heating pipes you see is actually the "distribution center" near the stairs/front door of the house; the central heating is located at the other end of the house and all heating pipes for distribution are under the floor. Distribution to the rooms upstairs and downstairs is done here. But it's no real floorheating.

Nevertheless, i'll definitely put some temp sensors here!

BTW, i just ordered some X10 equipment to start some experiments in that area ! Just can't wait !

Regards,
Digit

Website · Post by **simplemind** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:35 am

Very nice work Digit, I like that. Keep us informed about your progress.

You talked about 'reliability issues' what problems did you encounter and how did you solve them.

Regards,

Marcel

Post by **MindBender** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 10:32 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Digit
Well, that's just a mainstream 8-port switch you're seeing; the other black box is the Velleman PCS10. So I think i think i'll be having a hard time installing Linux on those devices..

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I see. Yet it looks like the Sweex/Edimax router as described here:
http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/lis ... ges/984121
http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/lis ... es/1059423
I have bought one, new for only 25 Euro. The case looks like a universal type which can be used for other products too, so I guess that's why I mixed up your switch with this router.
Anyway, it's a pretty powerful creature; It has a 220MHz MIPS32 on board and it does have 15 general purpose I/O pins. There's already a Linux version available for it, so it shouldn't be too difficult to use it for home automation.

Post by **Digit** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:09 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by simplemind
 
You talked about 'reliability issues' what problems did you encounter and how did you solve them.

Regards,

Marcel
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Thanks (everyone) for your interest.

Well, i haven't solved my problem yet...it's very hard to tackle, since it only occurs once every 1-3 weeks...
I started a new topic on it to see if anyone has some bright ideas to get rid of it... just read this: http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=122

Post by **Digit** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 1:29 am

Well,

It has been quite a while, but i've just reached the next step in my gas monitoring project! Browsing through SQL querys is not very informative and became too boring, so i tried to get all the information that's gathered into some bar charts. Here's one of them, created a couple of minutes ago and showing the gas usage over the last 48 hours:

Still not 100% finished, but i'm getting there!
I think i'm gonna frame this one and hang it on the wall above my bed

Regards,
Digit,

who's now trying to get a reason for why one of the days that has the highest gas usage last month, was actually a day that nobody was at home the whole day...

Man, is this an addictive hobby or what?