There are many home automations systems available and choosing one can be very confusing.
However if you are technically minded and willing to learn it is possible to take a DIY approach and build your own.
Not only will this save you lots of money but you will also learn about:
- home automation
- networking protocols
- programming
- APIs
Using Node-Red and Raspberry Pi
Node-Red is a very popular low code system for building IOT and other applications.
Because of this it is ideal for building smart home systems without requiring lots of programming knowledge.
Because an home automation system is always on the low power consumption and small footprint make the PI an Ideal device for hosting your own DIY home automation system and this will be the preferred device for most people.
However you can run node-red on any computer you want.
What Is Being Covered?
I will be creating project tutorials with example flows and dashboards that will show you how to:
- Monitor Your Home Network and the Internet
- Automate your Home.
If you have any questions then please use the Ask-steve page.
Getting Started with Node-Red
If you are new to Node-Red then I would recommend you take a look at this overview video.
To learn the basics of node-red I recommend you visit my other site stevesnoderedguide.com.
Using MQTT
Although most current smart home devices use http for management and control MQTT is fast becoming the protocol of choice in IOT and home automation.
To use MQTT you will need to set up your own MQTT broker. Node-red has MQTT broker called Aedes which is installed as a node
See Install and run Aedes on Node-Red
For home automation use the Aedes broker works perfectly fine and doesn’t involve any other software.
However if you prefer to use mosquitto you can also install it on the Pi.
How to Install Mosquitto on The Raspberry Pi
Monitoring Your Network
Home Automation
- Controlling the Tasmota Switch with Node-Red and MQTT
- Controlling the Tasmota Switch with Node-Red and HTTP.
- Tasmota Network Monitor and Control Project
- Home Automation Timer with Node-Red
- Using Zigbee2MQTT- A Beginners Guide
- Geofencing for Smart Homes with Node-Red
Smart Home Simulator
In order to generate test data and control dashboard I have created a smart home simulator in node-red which currently consists of :
- sensor simulators
- Control dashboard
You can read more about it and download the node-red flows- Smart home simulator
Question
Do you have any project suggestions I would be glad to hear them. Please use the comments form below.