openHAB don't you know?
After a lot of researching around the web about existing solutions I concluded the best "hub" for interconnecting all the future devices (nodes) that will be part of my smart home is definetely openHAB! It is a server that every one can customize for its own home automation and you know what? It is an open source project!
This solution has a lot of benefits.
First of all the server can run easily on raspberry pi! There are a lot of nice tutorials over the internet describing how to do that. Check this instructable for example.
Then, it offers a single user interface that you can access from your PC or from any tablet or smartphone as well. Inded, both IOS and android app are avalaible allowing easily remote controlling and monitoring. Here follows how it looks like.
There is native connectivity with IFTTT (IF This Then That) so you have the possibility to easily use a lot of recipes including, for example, the powerfull "Turn Presence off when leaving your home area". I let you imagine the infinite possibilities and scenarios you can implement ;)
And lot more...
To interact with the real world the openHAB server have to gather all the informations of your sensors / actuators situated all around your home. There are some ways to do that depending on the technology of each node, per example through WiFi, ethernet, RF, bluetooth etc. And you will need a protocol to organize messages without reinvent the wheel (Will be discussed in a next post). And consequently you have to implement a corresponding gateway.
Per example if you decide to transmit data by RF, you will consequently need an RF receiver and an ethernet module to reinject the messages to the server runing on raspberry pi connected somewhere on the local network.
In my case, I will use principaly WiFi nodes (ESP8266 NodeMCU) to avoid pulling cables and by the way no gateway is needed (actually the gateway will be your wifi router), for nodes nearby my router it will be through ethernet directly (arduino + ethernet shield and on more time no gateway needed, I know I'm lazy :D).
I will detail it in a next blogpost so stay tunned ;)
