Tag: ethernet

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MAC Addresses

A fundamental aspect of many home automation projects is the ability to connect an Arduino to the internet to allow easy control of  inputs and outputs from anywhere in the world.  A crucial part of achieving this connection is to set up a MAC address for your Ethernet connected Arduino. A MAC address is a unique identifying number that is needed in the data link layer of a TCP/IP network. To find out more about how to setup MAC addresses checkout the following link.

ethermega-300x214Want 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.

 

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Arduino Utilities Monitor

Electricity, gas and water are typically some of the largest regular expenses in any household. Having the ability to monitor trends in utilities usage means that you can easily notice discrepancies and pick up gas or water leaks promptly, saving you unnecessarily high bills! Plotting the daily electricity usage allows you to find out which devices or activities are inefficient and optimise your home accordingly, saving your even more money! This project from Chris Nafis uses an ethernet connected Arduino to send the information it collects from utility meter data packet broadcasts, onto the internet.  To get started lowering your utilities bill check out the following link!

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An example of the results generated from this project:

usage

Although this project only mentions monitoring electricity usage, there is no reason why it couldn’t be adapted to water and gas. Having up to the minute information about your water, gas and electricity usage would offer enormous opportunities and would be a worthy addition to any smart home!

Want to learn more about awesome automation hacks like this? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Have an idea for a project you would like us to feature? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

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#3: Power-over-Ethernet for Arduino home automation

I’m using Ethernet extensively in my Arduino home automation system for communication with devices distributed around the house, so being able to also provide power to those devices over the same network cable is a big time saver. Until now I’ve been using a “DIY” approach to Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) with midspan injectors sending about 10-12V down the wire, but I’m now converting it all over to use Netgear switches with 802.3af (48V) PoE support built in.

This episode covers some of the options for PoE with Arduino, and demonstrates how you can do it both in a cheap DIY method and using commercial PoE switches.

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#2: Arduino-controlled home automation switchboard

The automation switchboards in my house have Ethernet interfaces thanks to an EtherTen (just like an Arduino Uno, but with built-in Ethernet and PoE) mounted inside. This episode shows the switchboard internals, including how the EtherTens switch output loads around the house. It also shows the termination of the house network that starts out as a bit of a mess, but is much neater by the end of the video.

Links for this ep:

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#1: Home automation system architecture

A basic introduction to the approach I’m taking with linking high-voltage devices in my house to the automation system, and how logical inputs are associated with outputs using MQTT.

Apology: The “threat” I attribute to Andy in the video is not something he’s ever said, or something I’d expect him to say. He’s a peaceful soul, and it was purely hyperbole on my part when I was recording the video!

Links for this ep:

Music credits: the track used in the intro and ending is “Interface” by ElectroLatrine, www.electrolatrine.net. Used with permission.