I am writing this after several months of discovery. Home Automation is a hot topic right now and there are so many different ways to approach it. On the one side there’s the expensive proprietary route where you’d be paying $50 just for a single smart switch after $100+ for the controller. This is, of course, the easiest way to do it. Then there’s the DIY method, which is much cheaper, but there’s only so far you can go down this path. Building your own thermostat or smoke detector, for example, would be a bit tricky.
So I chose a mixed approach, going as far as I could building my own sensors then adding pre-built ones where necessary. I really hope that this guide helps you, and saves you time going down the same rabbit holes and dead-ends that I did to find a system that works. It’s not intended as an instructional as those instructions are already out there, just a road map to a working system that doesn’t break the bank.

Home Automation, beware! you start with one sensor, then a switch, and before you know it it’s taking over your house… oh, that’s the idea. This could be a multi-year project but it’s great fun as you don’t have to wait until the end to benefit from the results. Nearly every week I’m adding something new and cool.

It all started after seeing some demonstrations of this company or other devices, drooling, then checking the prices. After I got up off the floor I thought there has to be a cheaper way. It is now 5 months and a lot of Googling (that’s a word now, right?) later. And my conclusion is that, if you are a hands on person, and can handle a soldering iron, there is a cheaper way for some of it but there is a line where one has to start laying out some dollars. The good thing is that being a longterm project the costs can be spread out over time.

Thanks to the great folk over at mysensors.com I got a good start on automating my home for very little cost. I ordered about 20 different parts from China that took from 10 to 30 days to arrive. It was exciting to open up all the packets to see what that day had delivered.

I built a serial gateway which plugs in via USB to a Raspberry Pi, downloaded and installed Domoticz Home Automation software. There are several options out there but this is the one I chose and I haven’t regretted it. It takes a little work to figure it out but once you get the hang of it there is a lot it can do, and there’s a great community.
Once the gateway was up and running I started with a simple door sensor, following the plans laid out on mysensors.com. I used a magnetic contact switch which I set into the back doors’ frame. After that it was fairly simple to repeat the process for all the doors and windows. It was great to see the floorplan on Domoticz filling up with sensors which change whenever a door or window opened.