Not Exactly HA, But Kinda

[wvpolekat]

I am debating making some steps towards HA, but not taking much of a plunge. I am wanting to go more down the road of Home Monitoring.

What I would like is something that will allow me to log things like doorbell ringing, temp sensors, washer/drier running.

I am not terribly interested in controlling lights and other things that go along with HA.

Ideally, this would be some type of serial device that would have some number of inputs of various types, on/off, temp and such.

Along with this, I would like to have software that would log/display all of this and be able to send e-mail or run a script when certain events happen.

I have looked at all the hardware/software lists and frankly, it looks like a hodgepodge of parts to me, most of which do WAY more than I want or need.

I would appreciate your guidance on this.

 

[electron]

Hi, welcome to CT!

I would take a look at the Ocelot, which can support more I/O by adding expansion modules. It has a serial port, and is fairly easy to interface. Other options to consider are the Fusion Brain and some devices from the Phidgets site.

 

[tmbrown97]

another option if you're purely looking to log things is the W800RF and some DS10a's. There's a coupon code around here for 6 DS10a's for $20, and they can be adapted for just about anything - including current sensors. An Elk doorbell detector could get you doorbell... about the only thing it doesn't cover it temperature but there may be a workaround for that - at the very least, there are sensors that'll go closed at a preset temperature so you could monitor freezing point that way. Everything would be streamed to your serial port to deal with from there. vCrib which I think is free may help you do the monitoring and alerting "out of the box".

 

[jwilson56]

Hi, welcome to CT!

I would take a look at the Ocelot, which can support more I/O by adding expansion modules. It has a serial port, and is fairly easy to interface. Other options to consider are the Fusion Brain and some devices from the Phidgets site.

I second the Ocelot with some SECU modules. You can use cheap thermistors to read temps also with them.

You could use Girder with its Ocelot plugin to email you when events occur. Works for me

 

[electron]

Btw, to graph things, I recommend RRDtool, very easy to use, and can almost graph any kind of data.

 

[CollinR]

3rd vote Ocelot, very powerful and rock solid, cheap and highly expandable. Not the easiest toy to play with for a first timer though.

 

[wvpolekat]

I am digging on the W800RF. Thanks for that suggestion. The lack of temp is a deal breaker for it unfortunately.

The Ocelot confuses me. I have seen it mentioned many times, but I have no idea what it does and the mfg website is pretty much useless. In browsing the User Guide for it, the programming is all IF/THEN based, which isn't really what I need. From what I can gather, the Ocelot itself is pretty usless, you need other modules to make anything actually happen.

I have messed with RRDTool in regards to MRTG, and I would rather go with a pre-packaged software that takes care of all that.

Seems to me that most of the products out there are WAY overkill for what I want. They all seem to be built around making B happen when A is sensed.

I have thought about X10, since my alarm system will interface with it, but never gave much thought to it, making lights turn on when things happen. My main objection to it is that the X10 website looks so childish and spamlike.

 

[TonyNo]

RFXcom has a product like the W800 but they have temp sensors for it.

 

[electron]

Yep, the RFXCOM will do the job, think of it as a W800RF32 on steroids.

 

[wvpolekat]

RFXCOM is absolutely perfect for 90% of it and probably more with some tinkering. Looks like I can tie most any X10 module into it, which would take care of open/close. Looks like they have power sensors to take care of on/off

Using the 1 wire sensors, it looks like I can cover just about every room for temp in the house on 2 transmitters. Whole setup for about $500.

Guess I need to do a bit of soul searching to determine if it's worth that to me.