How to install a smart home system. What is a smart home and why is it needed? Features of the smart home system

Surely, dear readers, you are interested in the question: is it possible to create a smart home with your own hands? Let’s run to the very end of the article and say right away – it’s possible, and if you really want to, then you should. After all, the issue price has dropped significantly. The market is full of ready-made systems for which you can purchase smart things and sensors. When planning such a project, you will need to decide on the basis of which system you will build a smart home:

Xiaomi Smart Home Suite
Amazon Echo
Arduino

Today, this system is far from the concept of what we mean by a smart home - still few devices can be integrated into it. Despite this, we can hope that the list of supported devices will be expanded in the near future.

Now the Smart Home Suite package includes the hub itself, a controller, motion and door sensors, as well as a universal button. Smart Home Suite can control a considerable number of devices from Xiaomi and other manufacturers.

As a central hub device we have a fairly large “tablet” that connects to the power supply network. There is support for control from a smartphone using a special application. The hub can connect to the Internet, which allows you to monitor the status of devices from a distance. By purchasing Smart Home Suite, you will be able to control Mi TVs, speakers, smart lamps, humidifiers and other devices.

Smart Home Suite, which will save you from creating smart home with your own hands, it will cost about 4,000 rubles, which is inexpensive, considering the scope of delivery and capabilities. Yet this device from Xiaomi is far from the concept of a “smart home”, which implies more flexible capabilities. Smart Home Suite is easy way automate work electrical devices in the house.

Where to buy cheap?

And this one smart gadget has already been developed by the search giant, which has not yet gained much popularity in the Russian Federation, but everything is ahead. is a kind of Google Assistant (the same one as “OK Google”), which received its own “home” in the form of a compact Bluetooth speaker. In general, this is an analogue of Smart Home Suite from Xiaomi, only more expensive and with more potential. It can do almost the same thing, but stands out, of course, with the ability to voice search.

Now you don’t have to force your smartphone and Google Assistant to find a variety of information, from the birthday of the author of “Fathers and Sons” to the question of how much an elephant weighs - just say “OK Google” while sitting on the couch.

Google Home can control the user's various devices so that he can create his own smart home with a smarter TV and video surveillance system. There are already a lot of compatible devices today (Android smartphones, TV set-top boxes, some Appliances), and over time there will only be more of them.

Plus, to truly feel like a smart home, Google Home supports some interesting services. So, you can ask your assistant to order food for you at home, or book a ticket for the next flight, or provide a weather forecast. Google Home also adapts to the desires and interests of the owner, requesting information about preferences and hobbies during the first setup.

Google Home, despite its potential, today cannot boast of huge capabilities. However, she has already found her user, and more than one. The smart speaker will cost about $130.

Another fresh development of the American company, which is complete analogue Google Home. Only instead of Google Assistant, Amazon Echo uses “Alexa” as its voice assistant. On Russian market, as usual, the device is not yet widespread, but over time the situation should improve. Amazon Echo can play your favorite music and can be integrated into your smart home system to later control a variety of appliances. Amazon Echo is very easy to set up and manage, using a special application on your smartphone.

Now the smart speaker looks quite interesting, but, like its predecessors, it is limited in capabilities. Amazon Echo understands user commands well and, thanks to collaboration with other companies, can work with many smart home devices and systems. True, Amazon Echo costs more than its closest competitors - 12,500 rubles.

Smart home based

Let's move on to solutions for creating a smart home with your own hands. , in essence, a set of network protocols that, when creating a smart home, help to abandon wired equipment connections in favor of wireless ones. Many different companies today work with ZigBee systems, providing both equipment sets and individual devices for smart homes. It has quite a lot of advantages, starting with the cost.

Equipment for creating a smart home with your own hands will cost much less than ready-made systems from famous companies. allows you to show off your talents by developing your own smart home scheme, whatever your heart desires. In addition, the system is characterized by low power consumption, which cannot be said about many others. The energy-efficient operation of components is possible precisely thanks to the communication protocol, which, although slow, does not require much energy.

Equipment for systems, as already noted, is developed by a variety of companies, so there are no problems with finding controllers and sensors. However, it is worth considering that equipment components from different companies may be incompatible, therefore it is better to give preference to devices from the same manufacturer. Equipment for building a smart home with your own hands can be purchased for relatively little money from everyone’s favorite Chinese online stores.

DIY smart home based on Arduino

Arduino, like ZigBee, is not a complete system " Smart House" This is the means that this very smart home helps to build. Arduino is a set of software and hardware that is designed to build simple automated systems and even roboticists by non-professionals. Possible projects do not include smart homes. Hardware is a set of boards, sensors and devices, that is, hardware. Software– ensuring hardware communication and control.

Arduino has a completely open architecture, which allows anyone to work with it, so the market today is flooded with equipment for building a smart home with your own hands. At the same time, purchasing individual components will cost several times less than purchasing a ready-made solution. Again, with Arduino you have enormous opportunities to create a smart home.

Today you can find a lot of devices and sensors for a system at a very low price, but be prepared for the fact that you will have to worry about connecting all these devices to a single network, and you will also need to become familiar with the program code. In general, those who like to do something smart with their own hands, tinker with boards and programming environments will be pleased.

Where to buy cheap?

An intelligent control system for various utilities and devices that increase comfort under the general name “smart home” has many advantages. Its installation is all the more necessary if among the household there are people with disabilities, elderly people who find it difficult to use ordinary elements technical diagrams(for example, switches).

Firstly, the terminology “smart home” applies to everything that is subject to “automation”. Even a simple lighting controller installed in just one room is already a sign of the presence of an element of such a system in the home. Therefore, it is necessary, first of all, to decide on the specific goal that we are pursuing.

What we need is to control household appliances using one electronic “brain center”, open gate leaves at suburban area, provide automatic on/off street lighting(and so on)? There are many options, but this approach will help optimize costs. And they can be significant.

Secondly, you should evaluate your abilities. It’s not enough to know something, you also need to be able to perform various technological operations with your own hands, without outside help.

Thirdly, what should you use to assemble a smart home circuit? Available for sale ready-made kits, but their cost (especially imported) is quite high. In addition, are the components subject to repair (if so, how much will it cost) and will it be possible to ensure working together elements from different manufacturers?

In some cases, it is more expedient to buy everything you need at retail and install it in a common circuit controlled from a PC. There is now a computer in almost every home, although it will take a little longer, but at the same time it will be cheaper.

In principle, you can meet 35,000 - 40,000 rubles. If you pay for the services of masters, you need to multiply the indicated amount by approximately 1.5.

Another control option is from a separate remote control with the ability to program various options.

And most importantly. Much depends on the deterioration of the electrical supply system. Before planning large-scale improvements, it is necessary to calculate how much the load on the “line” will increase. Will its capabilities be enough to satisfy all our requests and wishes to improve comfort? And if you have to re-lay cables (wires), what will be the total cost of such an undertaking? It is this factor that, as a rule, most often limits the “appetite” of the homeowner in terms of the degree of home automation.

Therefore, we will consider only some variants of circuits that can be used to control something.

Lighting

With the help of such a device, the degree of illumination of the room is regulated, therefore, there is no need for various night lights, sconces, and the like. By the way, it can also control curtains (blinds).

If you include motion sensors in the circuit, the light will turn on when you enter the room. Their installation and configuration has a number of features, so read about them in detail.

Engineering systems

First of all, heating and forced ventilation. By installing the appropriate sensors (humidity, temperature), and positioning them correctly, the owner can, for example, remotely turn on heated floors and adjust the position of window sashes. The possibilities depend only on the degree of automation and the number of people involved in the scheme household appliances, right up to the boiler (if it is not programmable).

Protection system

None of the schemes is capable of ensuring 100% home security, no matter what advertisers claim. Their goal is to sell, and our task is to think everything through first. How to minimize the risks of unauthorized entry? The most “dangerous” areas from this point of view should be identified. Perhaps it is enough to “protect” only 2 of them, or maybe to put such “barriers” on all windows and doors, combining them into a common scheme. The choice of appropriate sensors is large - motion, presence and a number of others.

Listing all the capabilities of systems is a waste of time. The range of relevant products is significant; the operation of each model has its own characteristics. One of simple options shown on general scheme:

Here is an expanded package with increased functionality.

Well, what exactly to choose for your home is at your discretion, dear reader.

WITH The current market is saturated various systems and complexes that turn an ordinary house into a “smart” or “intelligent” one. Listen to the manufacturers, their devices will make even a birdhouse genius.

What is a smart home in general and how is this intelligence expressed, and is it difficult to teach your home “smartness” on your own. In this article we will tell you what a smart home is and how to make a smart house in your country house with your own hands minimal costs, that is, cheap.

What is a smart home and how to make a smart house in your country house with your own hands, at minimal cost

Since we are making a smart house in the country, we will consider it as an example, telling you what a smart home is. Sometimes it sits for a long time without owners, or people live in it permanently and a little intelligence will not hurt it.

In our absence, independently or with our minimal participation, our smart home should:

protect yourself from intruders,
look after local area(at least water the flower beds, lawns and garden),
carry out climate control,
in case of a critical, force majeure situation, somehow try to cope with it, at the same time inform us,
provide the ability to manage and configure all of the above, wherever we are.

Most smart home systems on the market allow all this and more.

The very structure of existing smart home systems is similar to a living creature:

Special electronic sensors are the eyes and ears of the home. Electrical impulses from them are transmitted through wires-nerves to the controller - the brain of the system. The controller, depending on the signal, selects the appropriate action program and turns on the motor-muscles of the corresponding actuators.

Outwardly, everything is simple, clear and works well. But there are also questions. Let's start with the price.

Modern smart home systems

Prices intelligent systems have decreased by an order of magnitude even compared to the beginning of the century, and continue to decline. But they still “bite”. Today, the estimate for a “smart home” system with a minimum configuration starts somewhere from 120 thousand. rub. (2018).

I work at the company "Convir" system administrator and a programmer. It so happened that the office, laboratory and production are located in our different places. I’m basically sitting on Preobrazhenka in a small room. But it’s not far from home, and the Internet communications are simply excellent, with inexpensive traffic.

My side is sunny. Depending on the weather it is either hot or cold. I installed an air conditioner in the window, otherwise there is no time for work during the heat. To make it cheaper, I bought a flow-through air conditioner (180 USD), at the same time, it ventilates the room, unlike a split system. Now I don’t open the windows, there is less dust!

In general, everything is fine, but this air conditioner is a hassle. He doesn't have a remote control. He's so simple. But it’s at the top and it’s inconvenient to climb to it. Again some kind of ambush. All these problems with climate and lighting are very distracting, and for me to concentrate - a big problem. I somehow started thinking about this all the time. Well, I came up with it.

Our company is engaged in the manufacture of automation, including for the so-called. . Therefore, there was no need to go outside to get the “device”. And since you can’t ask the authorities for money for all this, I did everything to the minimum, from the point of view of money, and, to the maximum, what was convenient for myself. My room is shown in Fig. 1.

In general, everything is very simple. Workplace with a computer (1), air conditioning (2), electric heater with two heaters (3), combination lock on the door (4), server rack with communications (5). Well, there’s furniture, walls, lighting, in general everything is simple... The next task is to simply combine and automate all this. I introduced my idea to our director and received a free voltage regulator (VR) and an adapter for a computer. All electrical systems are controlled from one IRN. A simplified connection diagram is shown in Fig. 2.

Connection diagram of the “Smart Office” nodes

IRN (1) has nine 220 Volt keys. They manage the work door lock(2), air conditioning fan (3), air conditioning compressor drive (4), air conditioner heater (5), electric heater (6), three electric lamps (7), general, table and spot along the walls.

This way I can: open front door, ventilate the room, cool the air in the room, heat it and illuminate the room. Lighting involves 6 lamp switching schemes, plus light level adjustment. IRN also makes optimal switching on and off for incandescent lamps. All devices can be controlled manually or automatically.

For automation, sensors are connected to the inputs of the IRNA input block: code, for electronic key(8), motion, for alarm (9), fire, for firefighters (10), temperature (11) and light (12). IRN connects to the server via a COM port.

You don't need any super expensive adapters for this. We have standard additional exchange software. My server runs under Linux (Gentoo). The Internet site and mail “hang” on it. Naturally, the IP address and access are permanent. The system is connected to a SQL database and an “apache” web server; I already had this installed for the site. The work is logged in the SQL system, and controlled and monitored through the web interface. I spent two days setting up the system and writing the “site”.

You can use a desktop computer as a control console, mobile phone with a browser or any remote computer. The entire system controls the climate, lighting, and combination lock. An example in the browser is shown in Fig. 3.

If I need to reconfigure something, I use the computer on site. When an emergency situation occurs (in addition to the IRN security, it monitors accidents in the system itself, for example, a burnt-out light bulb or a malfunction in the electrical systems), the server sends me an SMS to my mobile phone.

I can see what is happening remotely. I also have a web camera connected to the server there.

There is an energy saving mode. When I'm not at work it's warm and the air conditioning hardly works. I still have temperature and light sensors from some project, along with a door card and an electronic lock. But I had to buy a motion sensor, and it cost 485 rubles. So, it turned out not completely free :-).

That's basically it...

Vadim Ezhov

Is it possible to equip a house or apartment with a full-fledged automation system, or at least make a simplified Smart Home with your own hands, without entrusting this work to specialized companies?

On the Internet you can find a great many articles on this topic: people talk about their experience of installing both the simplest combinations of the category “light by motion sensors depending on the time of day”, and more complex ones, controlled via a computer or with mobile device(for example, from an iPad). Many of these solutions are really interesting and useful in everyday life.

What do you need to build a Smart Home yourself?

Electrical knowledge. Understanding of the principles of control of various electrical appliances, experience in assembling electrical panels, knowledge of safety precautions when working with electric shock. Reliable cable connection skills.
Knowledge of the principles of building automation systems: types of controllers, inputs and outputs of controllers, types of signals.
Programming skills for desktop or mobile operating system to create a control interface.
Clear understanding of operating algorithms.
Good knowledge of the equipment used.

Often, a Smart Home can be found in the form of a fairly simple but limited system, for example, monitoring water leaks, SMS notification or controlling lamps from a remote control. Such equipment exists in the form of ready-made “boxed” solutions intended for self-assembly.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the range of ready-made solutions - “Smart Home in a Box” equipment sets that will allow you to implement the Smart Home system yourself.

The real Smart Home system is comprehensive solution, connecting all subsystems into a single network, allowing you to control the entire house from one control panel or tablet computer.

To create a system that is reliable, convenient and easy to learn, allowing owners to feel completely safe, it takes years of work in this area: competent selection of equipment, careful development software, experienced engineers and designers. A worthy alternative This battalion of specialists will receive ready-made Smart Home solutions.

The most complex work involves interfacing with third-party equipment: air conditioning, ventilation, home theater, etc.

In any case, we can always prepare a system design. The project will be completed in full accordance with the wishes and all building codes. It will include cable installation diagrams, switchboard diagrams and an explanatory note with full equipment specifications.

The cost of the project is low, but it will make it possible to produce everything yourself necessary work related to cable installation and assembly of switchboard equipment without the risk of shorting the “phase to zero”.

Ready-made project examples can also help you with the question of how to make a smart home with your own hands.

Since our systems are built on a freely programmable industrial controller (Beckhoff, ARIES, Siemens), having knowledge in this area, a person will be able to independently perform programming, configuration and adjustment in accordance with his own wishes.

The assembly we offer based on an industrial controller and Easy Home control software for Windows, Android or iOS leaves quite a lot of room for self-configuration, as it allows you to easily change the interface, add new elements, change scenarios and associations of switches to light groups, using already established principles.

A self-implemented Smart Home system for an apartment or private residential building will certainly give the owner a huge amount of knowledge and experience, but we recommend that before building a system on a residential property, discuss the possibilities of the future with our specialist smart building, ways of their implementation and possible difficulties of implementation in order to be completely confident in your abilities.