My Setup - A running Log

[travisdh]

Introduction: I decided to finally document our Home Automation system, to keep track of what components are used within the System, as well as get a better idea of what it does, which assists in explaining to others its various abilities.


Since this is our first house, I was lucky enough to be able to use it as a testbed for Home Automation. As cost was an issue I opted for X10 modules above Z-Wave, however I would very much like to progressively change to Z-Wave over time.


Our house consists of two bathrooms, three bedrooms, a study (technically a bedroom), kitchen, and two living areas. In addition to a double car garage. As I enjoy gardening the backyard consists of a Greenhouse, in addition to a large (5m) mast with a Davis Vantage Vue on it.

[travisdh]

Server / PC Hardware

Server / PC Hardware:



After some consolidation, the Home Automation (and Weather) server was combined into one machine, a Shuttle XH61V barebones PC, with a Core i7 - 3770S Processor, 16gb of DDR3 SODIMM RAM, and a 60GB HDD. This machine runs Windows 7 Professional Version and operates as a headless machine. The machine is supplemented with a UPS which keeps essential systems running for quite some period of time due to the low power usage of this machine (~90W).






(Image Sourced: http://www.chip.cz/novinky/hardware/...61v-s-lga-1155)

[travisdh]

Server / PC Software

Server / PC Software:



As this machine is dedicated to Home Automation, and Weather the software running on it is quite limited (deliberately). It contains the following:

• Cumulus Weather Station Software
• Windows Security Essentials
• Windows Firewall
• Homeseer HSPRO V2.xx
• Dropbox
• VNC Server

[travisdh]

Automation Peripherals

Automation Peripherals:



The Heart of our home automation system is the power line signal transmission system X10. Which is briefly discussed below, however the Automation system consists of the following peripherals:

[travisdh]

Homeseer Devices

Homeseer Devices:



Our system consists of approximately 450 devices defined in Homeseer HSPRO, these devices vary from physical device control (e.g. Lighting), through to Virtual Devices for Pager Messages, an example list is provided below:
~ 24 - X10 Devices for Lighting Control
~ 15 Devices - Occupancy

[travisdh]

Homeseer Events

Homeseer Events:



The Home Automation system is very event driven; almost every task in the system is activated by an event, or deactivated by an event, in response to a condition or trigger being met, for example when motion is detected in the master wardrobe, turn the lights on, set the lights to go off in five minutes, and should the lights already be set to go off in five minutes, remove this and reset it for another five minutes from now. Some of the events set include:


Comfort Based
Turn On / Off all Air Conditioners in the House
Run the master Bedroom air conditioner for 15 minutes on cool, and then turn off.
Turn On / Off Bedroom Air Purifiers based on Occupancy
Security Based
On detection of motion by Motion sensors, or Security Cameras take photos,
On opening of doors and windows during periods of in-occupancy, trigger alarms, take photos and email / SMS notifications
Entertainment Based
Turn on appropriate TV / Projector, Turn On / Off Lights and Select the Appropriate Source for optimal viewing
Play music to Soft Squeeze Headless music clients throughout the house running on Jogglers, including live radio streams of Classic Rock, CFA Radio Streams and so on.
Play wakeup music to Soft Squeeze headless music clients running on Jogglers early in the morning to wake me up, provided I am home (to ensure WAF stays high)
Downloading of TV Guide information for use in the Home Automation System
PC Maintainace Based
Reset machine when not responsive
Shutdown Machine on high temperatures
Run Monitoring Events including Network Monitoring, Event Delay Monitoring, Uptime Monitoring, System Performance Monitoring etc.


Location Based
Turn off All devices should all occupants be a set distance away from the house
Turn on certain devices when occupants are returning
Arm security system depending on location
Set occupancy depending on location
Lighting Based
Turn on Lights when motion is detected at night time.
Garden Based
Turn on Greenhouse Irrigation at a set time throughout the week, unless the temperature is high when it may need to be run more often.
Turn on outside irrigation at a set time throughout the week, unless it has been raining enough to consider watering not necessary, and inhibit the water cycle for that day.
Updating current conditions based on the Davis Vantage Vue weather station.
Volunteer Firefighting Based
Upon receipt of an ALERT message by the pager receiver, run a number of scripts to extract the event type, and the street directory information, and email that to myself in addition to turning lights on and alerting me should I be at home (based on location detection etc).
A number of other Script based events as discussed below.
Downloading of the fire danger rating for today and the next day (During Summer)

[travisdh]

Homeseer Scripts

Homeseer Scripts: At the time of writing this document, some of the running scripts included:
Jon00PerfMon
Jon00RCCNM
Jon00PopEmailChecker
Event Execution Delay
Uptime
SnevlLatitude
Many Many more id be happy to share.

[travisdh]

Homeseer Plugins

Homeseer Plugins:



Our automation system is very much driven by plugins, In Homeseer Plugins can be considered as (at times) more functional and feature rich scripts, which conduct quite a number of tasks. The home automation system is powered by the following Plugins:

• AC-RF2 Processor
• ACT TI103
• BLBackup
• BLGarbage
• BLRadar
• BLUPS
• Cumulus (3P)
• CurrentCost
• Global Cache
• HSTouch (Server, iPhone, Android)
• HSTV
• my.Trigger
• Netcam
• PowerTrigger
• RFXCom
• SqueezeBox
• TwittSeer
• UltraMon
• UltraNetCam
• UltraWeatherBug
• WeatherXML

[travisdh]

Home Security

Home Security: Motion Sensors
Door & Window Sensors

[travisdh]

Automation User Interface

Automation User Interface(s):



Accessing our Home Automation system can be conducted through a number of different methods, all part of Homeseers HSPRO Software Package. Each different method has its own Pros and Cons which are discussed below.




The screens are inspired directly from the GUIFX stuff, but with my own icons and stuff, i just really really liked the background. And they work great on the Joggler Screens!