I'm starting to build smart home

© Iron Man 2, Marvel Entertainment, 2010

Since I was high school student I was thinking about building an intelligent home. Controlling of lights by phone, no-key doors opening, measuring data from sensors, smart thermostat, action based on weather, my GPS location, etc.

My point-of-view has changed by the time, from “buy it all” including services to “do it yourself” (or at least part of it). Why not to buy whole system prepared for using? Because of that kind of feeling from making it by my own.

Approach

I’m not developer, I would like to build it myself but not to solder hardware and write code of software (maybe just few simple rows). I would much rather design the system, integrations and automation.

I don’t want to build it all at once. I prefer go step by step and constantly think about how to make it better and smarter. I’m also member of BigClown’s team so I would like to use our IoT Kit and as Apple user (Mac, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch) I would like to use my devices for displaying and controlling.

Ideas in my mind

What I would like to build? There is lot of possible ways, some of them:

Climate Station — measuring conditions (real-time and historical data) of temperature, humidity, pressure, illuminance, CO2 concentration,.. and there are other things which can be build based on this:

• Smart thermostat
• Smart windows
• Smart lighting
• Fire/Cooker on detector
• Smoke detector
• …

And there is more. Actions based on “I arrived home”, “I am going home” or “No one is home”, smart mirror, home alarm, flood detector, smart irrigation,…

First steps

I think it's very important to start, do first step and everything else will come later. So I came up with an idea use BigClown's modules which I have at home to start measuring and collecting data about temperature, pressure, illumination and humidity. My goal is to show values in my phone and make dashboard with the development.

I will share my progress in my next article. Do you have any ideas about smart home? Did you build your own or are you planning to build it?

Showcase of my climate station (Blynk App). Mockup by Anthony Boyd.