Re: hacking a home with free technology and Debian

[Vincent Danjean <vdanjean.ml@free.fr>]

Le 15/09/2018 à 10:40, Lucas Nussbaum a écrit :
> Hi Daniel,
> 
> On 15/09/18 at 00:45 +0200, Daniel Pocock wrote:
>> Hi everybody,
>>
>> I've got an interesting opportunity to completely replace all the
>> sockets, lights, heating controls and appliances in my Dublin house with
>> things that are free or easily hackable.
>>
>> Which direction are other people in the Debian and free software world
>> going with such projects?  Searching the wiki, the only significant page
>> I found was a reference to X10 protocol[1]
>>
>> Other people have mentioned having some success hacking proprietary
>> devices that use Zigbee and ZWave.
>>
>> Can anybody comment on these or any other related technologies?
>>
>> Being more specific, at a bare minimum, I envisage having a small rack
>> with a Debian server, smart power sockets to control things like the
>> boiler and immersion heater and a range of lights around the house
>> controlled centrally.
> 
> My experience in the world of home automation is that, when selecting
> the technology (X10, ZWave, etc.) you should look at the whole chain:
> - whether you can find software to control it
> - whether you can find hardware to control it (typically a RF transmitter
>   device)
> - whether you can find end devices (switches, thermometers, etc.) that
>   do what you need

I really aggree.

> Whether the protocol is open or not does not matter much, unfortunately.
> What really matters is whether it has been sufficiently reverse
> engineered.

Or if there are bridges

For myself, I'm using :
- software :
  - openhab for the central part (not in Debian, but also
    Debian-friendly with deb package on upstream site. It is written
    in java and handle lots of different protocol/software)
  - owfs + scripts to interact with openhap
  - scripts with serial com to bridge a video-projector and openhab
  - scripts to interact with Denkovi hardware.
- hardware :
  - 1-wire for temperature and for relay I/O (hand made) mainly
    for roller-shutters (simulate pressing on remotes with
    proprietary protocol)
  - Denkovi hardware for digital Input and Output (relay) (http/
    snmp/... on network interfaces)
  - Velux (root windows) => not integrated into my current setup
    as it uses a interoperable (only with a few other companies
    such as somfy) proprietary protocole (IO-homecontrol) :-(((
      However, it seems that, after several years, a bridge
    is eventually available (KLF200). I will probably try it in a
    few weeks.

  Regards,
    Vincent