News – Page 9 – SuperHouse Automation

Posted on November 18, 2016November 18, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

Smart Home Dashboard

One difficulty facing hobbyists who undertake home automation projects, is finding a common platform to centrally control all aspects of their smart home. Justin Unterreiner has attempted to solve this problem with his smart home dashboard.

The project uses a Raspberry Pi and a Touch screen to run a customizable interface to control different smart devices. To find out more about this project check out the following link.

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Have you been reading about cool projects like this and would like to understand more? Checkout the Freetronics Experimenter’s Kit for Arduino.

Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Inspired to start work on this project?

Are you working on a project you would like us to feature in this blog? 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 November 15, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

Gas Detector

Undetected gas leaks can have extremely nasty consequences. Unlike a leaking tap, a gas leak can be at risk of explosion and in the case of carbon monoxide, poisoning and even possibly death. One way to avoid these consequences is to acquire a gas detector, or even better make your own! This is exactly what Stefan G has done using a Particle Photon, gas detector and a buzzer. To find out more about this project and to learn how you can make your own gas detector checkout this following link.

If you’re looking for a buzzer module to use in this project check out the Freetronics sound and buzzer module.

Although you can use the sound and buzzer module to generate sounds, it can also be used as a knock-detector input to sense events and react to them. This means it is perfect for this project! For more information and to order, please visit the product page.

Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Inspired to start work on this project? Are you working on a project you would like us to feature in this blog? 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 November 13, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

Stacking Arduino Shields

One of the great things about the Arduino is the ability to expand your board using shields which provide all sorts of additional capabilities. Interestingly, you can even “stack” shields so that you can have lots of different combinations of added features. Whilst it might look easy to simply stack shields together, not every combination of shields can be stacked together and there are a number of complications that should be considered. Fortunately our friends at Freetronics have put together a great tutorial which explains the ins and outs of stacking Arduino shields. This tutorial should provide you with really useful information if you have been stacking Arduino shields in your home automation projects. Checkout 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!

Have you successfully stacked shields in the past? Are you working on a project you would like us to feature in this blog? 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 November 10, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

Foodie – Consumption Monitor

Have you ever thought it would be interesting to track food consumption? Foodie is an IoT project that tracks your food usage over time. The project uses a number of weight sensors connected to an Arduino and Raspberry Pi to monitor the contents of your pantry or fridge. By creating a network of weight sensors the “Foodie” system can track the consumption of individual items and link this data to individual barcodes so that it can make reccomendations for your shopping list! To get started with this project check out the following link.

If you are working on a projected that requires interaction between an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi the team at SuperHouse Automation recommends the Freetronics PiLeven. The PiLeven is a 100% Arduino Uno compatible board that is designed to fit perfectly onto your Raspberry Pi, adding a huge amount of potential functionality to your Raspberry Pi. For more information visit the PiLeven webpage.

Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Are you are thinking about making your own thermal imaging camera? Have a project you would like us to feature in this blog? 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 November 8, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

Reading Resistor Colour Codes

Resistors are a fundamental part of almost all electronic circuits. Regardless of which project you are working on you will need to make sure that you are using the right resistors! To help you learn about how to determine the value of your resistor using the colour bands that are present on through hole resistors, our friends at Freetronics have put together a comprehensive tutorial. You can check it out at 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.

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

Reading Sensor Values Online

If you want to take your projects to the next level and add online capabilities this tutorial is for you. Although it is relatively simply to connect up a sensor to your Arduino and read sensor values onto an LCD or your serial monitor, making these sensor values accessible over the internet adds a whole new level of complexity! With this tutorial you can learn how to create your own online thermometer. To get started checkout the following link.

If you are looking for a temperature sensor to use in this project the team at SuperHouse Automation recommends the Freetronics temperature sensor module. To find out more about check out the product page.

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 29, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

Solar Charger Control Panel

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.

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

Uploading to your Arduino via a Network

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.

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

WiFi Toilet Vacancy Sensor

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.

Posted on September 25, 2016September 25, 2016 by Daniel de Waard — Leave a comment

IoT Wardrobe

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.