It's been awhile since I've wanted to start making my home "smart".
I figured I could put some of my past projects together to build something nice, so I installed openHAB, a very known and powerful home automation software, on my raspberryPi.
Installing OpenHAB
There are plenty of guides on how to do it, so I'm just telling you the basic commands:
mkdir /opt/openhab/ cd /opt/openhab/ #remember to get latest versions from openhab.org sudo wget https://github.com/openhab/openhab/releases/download/v1.6.2/distribution-1.6.2-runtime.zip https://github.com/openhab/openhab/releases/download/v1.6.2/distribution-1.6.2-addons.zip sudo unzip distribution-1.6.2-runtime.zip sudo unzip distribution-1.6.2-demo-configuration.zip cd addons_temp sudo unzip /opt/openhab/distribution-1.6.2-addons.zip cd .. #we are moving only the addons we need sudo mv addons_temp/org.openhab.binding.mqtt-1.6.2.jar addons/org.openhab.binding.mqtt-1.6.2.jar
Installing an MQTT broker
Install the latest mosquitto binaries:
wget http://repo.mosquitto.org/debian/mosquitto-repo.gpg.key sudo apt-key add mosquitto-repo.gpg.key cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ sudo wget http://repo.mosquitto.org/debian/mosquitto-wheezy.list #you may need to use 'jessie' instead of 'wheezy' depending on your OS version sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mosquitto
Setting up OpenHAB
(code adapted from here) Let's copy the default config file:
cd /opt/openhab/configurations sudo cp openhab_default.cfg openhab.cfg
Open it in your favorite text editor, scroll down to the MQTT transport section and add this line:
mqtt:mosquitto.url=tcp://localhost:1883
Create a sitemap file:
sudo nano /opt/openhab/configurations/sitemaps/default.sitemap
sitemap default label="Main Menu"
{
Frame label="HDC1000" {
Text item = Temp
Text item = Humi
}
}
Now the items file:
sudo nano /opt/openhab/configurations/items/default.items
Group All
Group gAttic (All)
Group Balcony "Living Room" <video> (gAttic)
Number Temp "Temperature [%.2f F]" <temperature> (Balcony) {mqtt="<[mosquitto:home/temperature:state:default]"}
Number Humi "Humidity: [%.2f]%" <humidity> (Balcony) {mqtt="<[mosquitto:home/humidity:state:default]"}
OpenHAB is now configured to read the two values from the MQTT broker and is subscribed to the "home/temperature" and "home/humidity" topics, which have been assigned to the two items. The "<humidity>" icon does not exist but I googled one and uploaded it to "/opt/openhab/www/webapps/images/". Neat! Start openHAB by typing:
cd /opt/openhub sudo ./start.sh
This will take a couple of minutes but this is how the interface looks like:
NodeMCU Code
The NodeMCU MQTT code is bugged in 0.9.5 so you most likely need to update your ESP8266 with a newer release (click!). I flashed nodemcu_float_0.9.6-dev_20150331.bin because the latest version also had problems connecting to the MQTT server. Just remember to get the float version. Let me make this clear, coding for NodeMCU is a pain in the ass. You are going to get LOTS of "out of memory" errors and watchdog timeouts as soon as you implement a program which is bigger than an example. However, after a lot of trial-and-error, I've been able to make a working program. To do this, we need to split the program into different files and compile them separately, then call the compiled files from the main program, in order to reduce memory usage. (I really hope I've been doing this wrong and there is a better way. If you know any, please tell me.)
- Upload my NodeMCU module (named "HDC1000.lua"). Instructions here.
- Create a file called "main.lua" with the following content:
HDC1000 = require("HDC1000") sda = 1 scl = 2 drdyn = 3 HDC1000.init(sda, scl, drdyn) HDC1000.config() dofile("connect.lc") dofile("loop.lc") - Now a "connect.lua" file, which handles the WiFi connection:
SSID = "yourssid" password = "yourpassword" wifi.setmode(wifi.STATION) wifi.sta.config(SSID, password) cfg = { ip="192.168.1.100", netmask="255.255.255.0", gateway="192.168.1.1" } wifi.sta.setip(cfg) wifi.sta.connect() - And last but not least, the main loop of our program, "loop.lua"
ip = "192.168.1.3" port = 1883 seconds = 60 tmr.alarm(0, 1000 * seconds, 1, function() m = mqtt.Client("1", 60) m:connect(ip, port, 3000, function() tmr.wdclr() m:publish("home/humidity", HDC1000.getHumi(), 0, 0, function() tmr.wdclr() m:publish("home/temperature", HDC1000.getTemp(), 0, 0, function() tmr.wdclr() m:close() end ) end ) end ) end )This sends MQTT messages to "home/humidity" and "home/temperature" every 60 seconds. - Now we need to compile all those files. Run these commands (press the "Send to ESP" button instead of the "Save to ESP"):
node.compile("HDC1000.lua") node.compile("connect.lua") node.compile("loop.lua") - You can then test your program by doing:
dofile("main.lua")
And that's it. If you want your program to start at boot, you need to rename your "main.lua" file to "init.lua". You should do this so that the program starts again if it crashes, but be sure your code works as you might get stuck into infinite loops. You can monitor MQTT messages by running
mosquitto_sub -v -t 'yourtopic'
on your RaspberryPi.
Now open your openHAB page: http://raspberrypi:8080/openhab.app
Finally, everything works! I loved building this from the ground up: from the breakout board, to the NodeMCU library, to a fully working system! Tomorrow I will place my ESP8266 and HDC1000 sensor outside and find a way power them (USB charger? Solar panel + LiPo?) I hope to add more sensors and features (light and curtains control would be awesome) in the following weeks. Note: I'm now learning how to program the ESP8266 in C. It may not be very straightforward or "Arduino-like" but will definitely save me some headaches and will allow me to take advantage of the full power of the chip. Let me know what you think and if you have any questions or feedback!
(note: this post is also published on my website.)
