Hi,
I'm new to CocoonTech having introduced myself a couple of weeks back and sharing some of the work I have done to develop what I consider a unique home automation system in the 'welcome' section. Didn't get a lot of interest there so trying in this forum instead.
I'm specifically looking to see if there are others like me here who like doing things from scratch rather than buying a package like homeseer or charmedquark (not there is anything wrong with doing that), and want to discuss experiences with software and hardware development of home automation systems. I'm a qualified Electronics Engineer who has built a career in the IT industry developing and designing large IT systems and I have used my experience with electronics, networking and software development to design and build my current system (evolved over several versions with 12+ years of improvements & learning).
My vision for a home automation solution is that it must be standards based using modern technologies, based on a local hub (cloud isn't fast enough or reliable enough although cloud services can augment local features), front end that is visually pleasing, extensible by the end user and dynamic, available on any device (including voice and video channels). An integration layer that is simple, scalable, easy to write and add new device drivers. An automation engine that is event driven, where historical data is just as easy to use as current data and being truly smart by layering sophisticated logic according to current or historic state (not just 'if this then that').
If you are interested in how I approach solving the home automation use cases, I've documented a couple of the concepts and some screenshots in the welcome forum here. I am considering making the software open source or even commercializing it - although I have a number of unique ideas / implementation, this field is getting very crowded!
I can share how I managed to achieve the vision documented above but I'd also love to hear from others who are building their hardware and software DIY and what they have done and learning gained. Or maybe this type of discussion isn't a focus for CocoonTech but I haven't located another forum more relevant to discuss home automation software and hardware development.
I'm new to CocoonTech having introduced myself a couple of weeks back and sharing some of the work I have done to develop what I consider a unique home automation system in the 'welcome' section. Didn't get a lot of interest there so trying in this forum instead.
I'm specifically looking to see if there are others like me here who like doing things from scratch rather than buying a package like homeseer or charmedquark (not there is anything wrong with doing that), and want to discuss experiences with software and hardware development of home automation systems. I'm a qualified Electronics Engineer who has built a career in the IT industry developing and designing large IT systems and I have used my experience with electronics, networking and software development to design and build my current system (evolved over several versions with 12+ years of improvements & learning).
My vision for a home automation solution is that it must be standards based using modern technologies, based on a local hub (cloud isn't fast enough or reliable enough although cloud services can augment local features), front end that is visually pleasing, extensible by the end user and dynamic, available on any device (including voice and video channels). An integration layer that is simple, scalable, easy to write and add new device drivers. An automation engine that is event driven, where historical data is just as easy to use as current data and being truly smart by layering sophisticated logic according to current or historic state (not just 'if this then that').
If you are interested in how I approach solving the home automation use cases, I've documented a couple of the concepts and some screenshots in the welcome forum here. I am considering making the software open source or even commercializing it - although I have a number of unique ideas / implementation, this field is getting very crowded!
I can share how I managed to achieve the vision documented above but I'd also love to hear from others who are building their hardware and software DIY and what they have done and learning gained. Or maybe this type of discussion isn't a focus for CocoonTech but I haven't located another forum more relevant to discuss home automation software and hardware development.