Most smart home devices come with access to a cloud based dashboard/control panel for monitoring and controlling the device.
These control panels are often vendor specific and cannot be used for controlling devices from other vendors.
There are a number of smart home dashboards like HomeAssistant that can be used with devices from multiple vendors.
However on this site I will take a DIY approach and focus on how to use Node-Red for creating a smart home and creating automations.
I will be developing several Dashboards to monitor and control my home network and smart home devices.
So if you want to take the DIY approach to building a home automation system then you might also want to give it a try.
Getting Started
Node Red is a flow based tool written in nodejs . It has a low memory footprint and runs on the the Raspberry Pi making it an ideal system for home automation projects.
Node-Red comes pre-installed on the Raspberry Pi but you may need to upgrade it.
An install script is provided on the node-red site. Here are the instructions on the Raspberry Pi Site.
Although I will be running on a raspberry pi you can also use other Linux systems and also Windows in most cases, as node-red runs on these systems.
What Is Being Covered?
I will be creating tutorials, 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.
Node-Red Basics
If you are new to Node-Red then I would recommend you take a look at this overview video.
To use node red you will need to create a dashboard. This video covers the basics.
Home automation systems use MQTT and HTTP protocols. Node-red supports both of these protocols.
Video – How to Create a Node-Red MQTT Dashboard
Video – Using the HTTP Request node
Home Networking and Home Automation Flows
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 create 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 tutorial suggestions I would be glad to hear them. Please use the comments form below.
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