Smart Home | DIY Home Automation | Internet of Things
This web site aims to share designs and codes of some experiences of how to build a smart home.The site describes an eco-friendly house automated at low cost with DIY (Do It Yourself) projects. It shows some projects implemented in the following domains: home automation, Internet of things, security and cameras, tech innovations, renewable energy, energy saving and other features.
The house is a one-family home, located in Quito - Ecuador, built on a piece of land of 880 square meters. It has 460 square meters of living space distributed over three floors, including four bedrooms, six bathrooms, a kitchen area, a service area, a home theater room, a study and a gym. It also contains three terraces, a backyard and two parking lots.
Some new tendencies and concepts such as those mentioned below are used and implemented. Projects have been developed at low cost with DIY and Internet of Things (IoT) concepts, also projects and applications using open sources Hardware and Software, and in general the concept of Free Knowledge. To store, retrieve and analyze data of sensors, actuators, cameras and alerts a free IoT platform called m2mlight.com is used. Also, functions server and m2mData library are utilized.
Most of the implemented projects can be found on the Internet. However the integration with appliances and devices already installed in the house like: a solar heater system, garage door opener, door-phone, and photobeam detectors, can be considered as contributions to the knowledge available on the web.
In order to share these experiences in detail, this site shows technical particulars, approximate budgets with local market prices, popular stores on the web where these products can be found, such as amazon, ebay, alibaba, and the source code for all developed applications.
In the field of renewable resources and energy efficiency, solar energy is used with a developed energy monitoring system. In the water efficiency field you can find information about a treatment system of gray and rain waters. For lighting, only LED lamps are used. Home automation is implemented using Arduino micro-controllers and Raspberry small computers with the use of motion, temperature and light sensors, and the control of these components can be local or remote using tablets or smart-phones. Additionally, home security includes cameras, photo-beam detectors and controllers with motion sensors. Finally, applications have been developed for monitoring live cameras and watching recorded videos are implemented.