My Genies

[enterprised]

I discovered HomeGenie in August 2014.
I'm currently running two Raspberry Pi B+ interconnected.

The main RPi, located in living room, has a X10 CM15  and several 1Wire DS18B20 temperature sensors connected. My second RPi, located in the garage, has Z-Wave and  and several 1Wire DS18B20 temperature sensors connected. The second RPi also has the logic and relay board to operate the irrigation system.

So, my current HomeGenie network is used to control the lights inside and outside the house, measure the temperature outside and at several places inside the house, monitor my garage doors, open/close my garage doors and operate a 6 zone irrigation system.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to make HomeGenie talk to my Honeywell Vista alarm system using AD2USB or Envisalink EVL-3. This is turning out to be a bit of a challenge.

My next projects are to add a third RPi to the system to monitor/operate the swimming pool and add functionality to interact with MediaPortal and my hometheatre system.

I'm not a programmer, but have just enough knowledge to get by and make modules/apps to customize HomeGenie to suit my needs.

-Peter

[Bitcraze]

Hi,

Have you managed to connect HomeGenie to the Envisalink?

Would love to do this as well. Would be great to pull in all the PIR and door sensors.

[enterprised]

Envisalink is still fighting me.

Able to loging to the EVL-3, even sending some commands, but I get garbage back. so still working on decoding the response.

May be time soon ta ask for a bit of help.

[enterprised]

Still having lots of fun with Homegenie.

Currently at approx 70% completed on my main project with all Raspberry Pi's and most of the sensors in place. Currently waiting for the second PiFace and 4 relay Board to arrive. Also, just donated some money to Gene for an Eden 2 PCB, on top of an erlier donation just to say thanks.

The connection to the alarm system worked out real well, especially with virtual alarm sensors for each sensor in the alarm system now showing up in HG. I added a small HG app to make the alarm system speak when a sensor is activated like "Garage Door Open" when the garage door is opened or stays open for a longer time.

Give or take a few months and I will start with the next part of the project which is replaceing my swimming pool/spa controller with a HG based solution.

[mkw87]

Did you have to do anything special to get connected to the EVL-3? I'm going to be connecting to mine today.

[bwern]

Did you end up connecting via the Envisalink or another method? I haven't been able find a way to get Homegenie talking to it.

[enterprised]

I ended up connecting via the Alarmdecoder AD2USB.
When I find time and feel like taking on a challenge I will give the EVL-3 another go, but at the moment work and a little too much global travel is preventing me from doing this.

[bwern]

Thanks for the update; I'll have to look at that as a possible alternative.

[enterprised]

My home automation project is slowly evolving, slightly drifting from my master plan, but coming together nicely.

The other week I had a first for me and likely for the HG community. Whilst flying over Europe on my way home from Dubai to the USA, using the WiFi available on the plane, I programmed and configured one of the apps real time on one of my genies at home. HG never stops amazing me.

Below are some picture of my HomeGenie network.

- The Master HG controller is based on a RPi 2 and has all the additional hardware to connect to my home security system, X10 devices and several GPIO connected sensors.

- The Garage HG slave is based on a RPi B+ and is used to control my irrigation (sprinkler) system, my Z-Wave devices, and several GPIO connected sensors.

- The Pool HG slave is based on a RPi B+ and is used to control the garden lights, patio lights, pool lights, and several GPIO connected sensors for pool status and temperatures. This system is installed outside in a waterproof enclosure.

- The Arduino, controlled over Ethernet by the Master HG, controls the Star Trek themed home theatre lights and effects. It also has the logic to control several of the airco vents in which I installed micro servos to control the air flow.

I'm now experimenting with some $50 Android 4.4 tablets as touch screen controllers for the entire system placed strategically throughout the house. These 7" tablets are cheaper and looking much better than a self made solution.

Now I've got most of the controls and sensors in place I need to tackle my next issue and that is integration between HG and MediaPortal. MediaPortal http://www.team-mediaportal.com/ is the media centre solution I'm running throughout the house, and I would love to have bi-directional control between HG and MediaPortal. To me this will be the icing on the cake.

[enterprised]

The cheap Android tablet as touch screen controller is working out real well.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00THEMRX8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

It's the simple things like this that makes the whole system look really impressive. The tablet shown in the pictures is my master controller for the living room/kitchen area.

I can see several more of these cheap tablets coming to my house as touch screen controllers.

HomeGenie and the Raspberry Pi really transformed my home from average to nicely automated.

[Gene]

hey enterprised, very nice project is that tablet running the web ui smoothly? I'd buy one...

[enterprised]

Gene,

The web ui runs smoothly. It takes a little longer than I like to initially start the web page, but once loaded in the system it runs really good, better than I expected.

The only thing that does not run smooth is  HomeGenie for Android, this app seems to crash a lot. But this does not bother me since I'm running the web ui. 

[bkenobi]

That tablet looks REALLY tempting.  I can't say that I really need one (my wife's just sits on the charger), but for the price it's almost worth picking up to play with.

[Bitcraze]

Hi, Enterprised

Would you mind posting your alarm integration app / .hgx?

Would love to add my alarm sensors to HG and the notification speak would also be a super addition.

Eugene

[maxflax]

Enterprised, Im wondering about your tablets. How did you mount them onto the wall? Can't see any visible frame or such on your pictures.
Also I can't see any AC wiring attached so how are you charging them?