Home Automation Domotica Forum Europe, Bwired Forum

I am about to start wiring up my new living room/kitchen with the first dimmers and switches.
I did not order any hardware yet but it look like it going to be eltako for the actuators and enocean for the switches.
First of all the whole setup must work stand alone but since I have a Ipad the idea is to use this as a big remote for the lighting. This is where I need some help. I don’t know which hardware en software to use for the homeserver. I do have some experience with linux but this is not of a very high level. The most important is of course the interface with the Ipad. And in it would be nice to be able to control / readout the system via the internet since I will hook up a alarm system and I would like to see what is going on when I’m abroad.
Any help / ideas are welcome.

Hi Heubie,

If you don't need lots of processing power / memory in your server, you can have a look at the ASUS EeeBox / AsRock ION series. These machines don't use lots of power and are very small / quiet. When you like to use your server for other purposes (fileserver, mediaserver, mailserver, etc) you can choose for a server with more resources (Core I3, 4gb MEM etc).

For the software you can go for HomeSeer, this is a all-in-one software package that have the basic functionalities for a domotica system. You can buy some plugin-packs for iPad support (HStouch). This software don't need a very powerfull server, this will runs on amost every windows configuration.

The interface of HomeSeer is completely webbased, so when you forward HTTP traffic (port 80 / 443) in your router to your server you can access HomeSeer from everywere.

I looked at the two boxes but none of the has a rs232 port. I gues I will need one in the future. Do you have any sugestions on a box with such a port?

Hi Heubie,

I don't have a suggestion for a box that will have one or more RS232 ports. Maybe it's an option to use a usb/eternet to RS232 hub or PCI-card with RS232 ports o.i.d.

Something like this:

Since i do have to buy something my goal will be to start with something that has everything I need (as far as i can think off, that is)
I looking into the more industrial options now.