With recent advancements in battery technology it is increasingly common for homeowners to go off the grid and power their homes using a solar and battery system. This is fantastic if you have a smarthome as it means you can avoid power outages and save money on your power bills! However, if your home is powered from a battery system it is important to be able to monitor the charging rates, battery percent and typical discharging times. Often there may be a small control panel in located with your batteries, however, it can be a real pain to have to go into your garage every time you want to check your battery status. This is why Hannes has put together a great project which uses an internet connected Arduino to extend the control panel to a smartphone app so that you can access the information you need anywhere, anytime! To find out more checkout the following link.
Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Working on your own home automation projects? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
Although it is fairly straight forward to upload a sketch to your Arduino by plugging it into your computer, there are certain times when this can be very inconvenient. If, for example you have an Arduino under your house collecting temperature and humidity values and you need to push a bug fix to your board it can be a real hassle to get under your house with a laptop and updated your firmware! This is where this tutorial comes in. With the help of a protocol called the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) you can easily upload sketches to Arduino boards that are connected to your home network, right from the comfort of your computer. To get started learning this useful skill check out the following link.
If you are looking to for an Arduino board with network capabilities why not checkout the Freetronics EtherTen. The EtherTen is a 100% Arduino compatible board that can talk to the world. Do Twitter updates automatically, serve web pages, connect to web services, display sensor data online, and control devices using a web browser. Check out the following link to find out more.
Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Working on your own home automation projects? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
Do you ever get up from your desk to go to the bathroom only to find that it is occupied? With this cool project from hassaku you can use a number of sensors, a buzzer, and a Spark Core to create a toilet vacancy sensor. The Spark Core interfaces with a Google Chrome extension which allows you to see in a quick glance if your bathroom is occupied. To get started on this unique project checkout the following link.
Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Working on your own home automation projects? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
This intelligent wardrobe system automatically reminds you of the types of clothing and accessories you will need based on the weather! Not only does it provide these recommendations, but using a clever LED indicator system it also reminds you of where the different items you will require are located! For example the wardrobe might recommend that you take your umbrella with you if rain is forecast. This is an idea with lots of potential! To get started and to build upon the existing IoT Wardrobe concept, checkout the following link.
Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Working on your own home automation projects? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
If you live in a remote area it is possible that you are living in an area not service by a gas connection. For many people this means relying on a propane tank. Wouldn’t it be great if you could reliably track the amount of gas remaining in your tank so that you could schedule a top up and not risk running out of gas! This project from Julio Aguirre you can turn your propane tank into a solar powered IoT device that sends you up regular information about your propane tank. Not only does it provide you information but it also automatically emails or SMS’s your gas supplier to arrange a new delivery when you are running low. To get started on this project check out the following link.
If you are looking for an Arduino board to work on this hack the team at SuperHouse automation recommends the Freetronics “Eleven” Arduino Compatible Board.
Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Working on your own home automation projects? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
If you have managed to blink an LED using an Arduino you should be able to easily build this project! ToughRocket52 has put together a fantastic instructable which teaches you how to build your own Arduino controlled disco lights. Not only do these disco lights look fantastic but you could very easily modify the project to make disco lights in any shape or form! THey would make a great addition to your smarthome. To find out more check out the following link.
If you are looking for an Arduino board to work on this hack the team at SuperHouse automation recommends the Freetronics “Eleven” Arduino Compatible Board.
Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Working on your own home automation projects? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
Posted on September 21st, 2016
The Sonoff from Itead Studio is a fantastic little mains-switching module with a built-in ESP8266 and WiFi. If you want an easy way to control mains devices such as lamps and fans, this could be it!
Sonoff modules are preloaded with firmware that allows them to be controlled by a phone app, so they’re very easy to get started. But that’s just the beginning: using a USB-serial converter and the Arduino IDE, you can load your own software on the Sonoff and make it do your bidding. I used the Arduino IDE to load a sketch with MQTT support and OTA (over the air) updates, allowing it to be controlled by OpenHAB.
Sonoff: www.itead.cc/sonoff-wifi-wireless-switch.html (basic version)
Sonoff TH: https://www.itead.cc/sonoff-th.html (Temperature / Humidity version)
Slampher: www.itead.cc/slampher-wifi-wireless-light-holder.html (lamp holder version)
Start by adding ESP8266 support to the Arduino IDE by following the instructions at github.com/esp8266/Arduino. I used the simple “Boards Manager” method.
For OTA (over the air) update support you’ll also need to install Python 2.7.
You’ll also need a USB-serial converter with support for 3.3V I/O. I used the Freetronics USB-Serial Converter (of course!), which has a switch that lets you select 3.3V or 5V mode.
The “BasicOTABlink” example shown in the video can be found at github.com/superhouse/BasicOTABlink.
The “BasicOTARelay” example shown in the video can be found at github.com/superhouse/BasicOTARelay.
For more information, a fantastic resource is Pete Scargill’s blog post about Slampher and Sonoff.
If you want to upgrade the FLASH memory on your Sonoff, check out Pete Scargill’s blog post about upgrading ESP8266 memory.
Update 24 Sep 2016: fixed the example links.
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and stumbled around trying to turn on your light only to end up painfully bumping into things? With this project from Peter Javorsky you can build your own night light which will turn on with a simple knock.
The project uses a piezo sensor to detect a knock and power a white LED strip meaning you can quickly and easily turn on or off your night light! The project comes with full schematics and code examples so there is nothing to stop you getting started. This would be a great addition to your smarthome. Checkout this link to find out more.
If you’re looking for a piezo module to use in this project the team at SuperHouse Automation recommends the Freetronics Piezo module. For more information and to order, visit the product page.
Want to learn more about awesome automation hacks like this? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Have an idea for a project you would like us to feature? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
An oscilloscope is a must have tool for any electronics enthusiast, however, they are typically extremely expensive ($600+), so price can be a real barrier to owning your own. With this fantastic project from BramMylemans you can use an Arduino to create your own oscilloscope very cheaply!
Not only is it great to be able to build your own oscilloscope, but this project will cost next to nothing as it only requires an Arduino Leonardo and a few capacitors, diodes and resistors. Furthermore, when you are working on home automation projects having an oscilloscope can really go a long way to helping you design and debug your system. To get started building your own oscilloscope check out the following link.
If you are looking for an Arduino Leonardo compatible board the team at SuperHouse Automation recommends the Freetronics LeoStick. The LeoStick is very similar to an Arduino Leonardo, however it comes in a compact, convenient USB stick style format! Checkout the product page to find out more.
Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Working on your own home automation projects? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
Does your WiFi router frequently drop out and need rebooting? This can be a very frustrating problem! However, like many problems, it can easily be solved with Arduino. This awesome project from Sameer sets up an Arduino which monitors your wifi connection, whenever the wifi is down a warning buzzer sounds and then a relay turns the router off and boots it back up again a few seconds later, just as if you had rebooted it yourself! If you have a home full of IoT devices, having the WiFi go down can be a huge problem and this project goes a long way to overcoming that! This is an extremely useful project, and best of all it shouldn’t be too hard either. To get started checkout the following link.
If you’re looking for a buzzer module to use in this project the team at SuperHouse Automation recommends the Freetronics Piezo module. For more information and to order, visit the product page.
Want to learn more about awesome automation hacks like this? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Have an idea for a project you would like us to feature? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
