Real-time home security monitoring

[Holland]

Hi guys, I have done simple small projects for fire alarm, water level detection and obstacle detection, I now have an idea to combine them together, I can control and detect home safety in real time through LCD touchscreen display.
But I've done it all before with microcontrollers, I don't know much about home assistants yet, I wonder if my idea is feasible? Is there anyone can give me an idea or a similar case.

 

[lanbrown]

There are many Home Automation (HA) systems available and quite a few have plugins/add-ons that can communicate with certain panels.  So if you want to keep your current panel, then you would look to see what HA systems support your panel.
 
I have water detection via Z-Wave that is tied to my HA, which also has a plugin that can communicate with my alarm panel.  So take what you have and start researching that HA systems support the devices that you have.  You might need to see what you're comfortable with upgrading though unless you are good with programming as well.  There are plenty of products that can be integrated into an HA system.  Many HA systems also provide a web interface so you can have it displayed on a tablet.

 

[LarrylLix]

Check out the ISY994 HA box along with ELK panels. I do not have one but many are quite satisfied with the combination.

 

[Holland]

Ok, I will learn the HA system first and then the panel after that, thanks for the reply!

 

[LarrylLix]

Ok, I will learn the HA system first and then the panel after that, thanks for the reply!

HA = home automation.  Home Assistant and ISY994 are two different brands.

 

[sic0048]

Basically it is the role of a home automation system to tie together systems that normally don't communicate with each other.  Of course each HA system is unique and each one covers a specific set of devices that it can tie together.  So you first need to figure out what systems/devices you already have that you need to communicate with, and then research to see if there are any systems that can communicate with all of your existing systems.  If not, you will be forced to decide if you want to replace an existing system/device with another one that can communicate with your HA system, or if you just want to leave it out and not have that system/device be a part of the larger HA system.
 
The more complex a HA software is, the harder it is usually to set up, but usually will have a larger set of features and systems/devices that it can tie into.  A simple HA software might be very easy to set up, but have limited functionality and may only communicate with a very limited number of systems/devices.
 
Hopefully that all makes sense!
 
Personally I use CQC (Charmed Quark Controller) which is a pretty robust HA system that recently moved to open source status.  While it use to be a paid software, it is now available free of charge (with full functionality).  There are lots of other options, but I have been using CQC for so long (over 15 years now) that I have no idea what other systems offer today.

 

[Holland]

Basically it is the role of a home automation system to tie together systems that normally don't communicate with each other.  Of course each HA system is unique and each one covers a specific set of devices that it can tie together.  So you first need to figure out what systems/devices you already have that you need to communicate with, and then research to see if there are any systems that can communicate with all of your existing systems.  If not, you will be forced to decide if you want to replace an existing system/device with another one that can communicate with your HA system, or if you just want to leave it out and not have that system/device be a part of the larger HA system.
 
The more complex a HA software is, the harder it is usually to set up, but usually will have a larger set of features and systems/devices that it can tie into.  A simple HA software might be very easy to set up, but have limited functionality and may only communicate with a very limited number of systems/devices.
 
Hopefully that all makes sense!
 
Personally I use CQC (Charmed Quark Controller) which is a pretty robust HA system that recently moved to open source status.  While it use to be a paid software, it is now available free of charge (with full functionality).  There are lots of other options, but I have been using CQC for so long (over 15 years now) that I have no idea what other systems offer today.

This is shocking, you are a great guy, I don't know anything about HA, I have done simple home automation with just microcontrollers, like using Arduino or STM32.

 

[pete_c]

Check out using MQTT - Message Queuing Telemetry Transporthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MQTT
 
Many many years ago did a bunch here with xAP and xPL messaging.
 

I still utilize the above posted table top tablet (one of the first cloud based OS's introduced as an Apple killer by John Skully working for OpenPeak).  Modded said tablet replacing the EFI boot bios with Seabios, installed an SSD drive, RTC clock in it.  Stock device had built in Gb, Bluetooth, WLAN.  Today you can run Linux, Android or Windows on these just fine.  Today these are running Ubuntu 20.04 Linux, Squeezeplayers, HA interfaces and Homeseer Touch on Windows embedded.  Windows tablets run MS SAPI TTS / VR (this was way before Alexa / Google devices).
 
There is one Cocoontech user here that has based all of his automation on xPL.  
 
Tinkered a bit here with Plug computers a while back.  First automated irrigation system ran on a Seagate Dockstar with Debian / Mono installed on it running mcsSprinklers.  Fit this all in a Rainbird irrigation box and installed a touchscreen for interface to irrigation many many years ago and used xAP.
 

 
Here still using my Leviton HAI OmniPro 2 panel, Software automation (Homeseer and now Home Assistant) for serial / IP / wired transport.
 
Starting to migrate over to mostly using MQTT these days and tinkering with ESP based wireless devices modded with Tasmota / Espurna / ESP Home.  
 
With all of the above stuff mentioned my preference for security / life safety is using "wire" as a sure bet way of transport.  That said I am testing the Ring Alarm system with all Z-Wave wireless sensors.  They do work and the system is connected 24/7 to the CO with a back up cellular connection built right in to the Ring Hub.

 

[Holland]

Sorry for the late reply, the desktop tablet you mentioned looks very smart and advanced, and the system based on the cloud has a great potential to be used for just that.
 
Maybe it's better to start getting these smart devices after I'm familiar with the smart home assistant.
 
Thank you for your patient response!