This is what my inexpensive Android tablet is showing on the wall of the hallway and here I'll talk
about how I achieved this with Node.JS backend, few Raspberry PIs and NodeMCUs mounted around the house.
This page is very much work in progress and I'll continuously be updating it.
Features
What can it do?
1. Camera
- Displaying a live camera stream from front of the house.
2. Alarm
- Alarm/Disarm the house.
- Named, custom PIN codes, so it can show who armed and who disarmed.
- See movements and door openings, alert if needed.
3. Weather
- See current weather details from public API.
- Live stream from local public webcam in the city.
4. Temperatures
- Current temperatures from outside, indoor, balcony, sauna and basement.
- 24h graph of all temperature changes.
5. Messenger Bot
Facebook Messenger Bot allows me to:
- Arm the house remotely by simply typing "arm".
- Get notified when alarm goes off or there's an fire detected by smoke sensors.
- Get alerts of movements or door openings even when unarmed, by typing "arm-silent" to receive alerts or by typing "disarm-silent" when I want to stop receiving these notifications.
- Get notified when Sauna's temperature exceeds 75 degrees Celsius.
6. Remote Control with Mobile
Besides remote control options that Messenger Bot already features, with password, I can:
- Access the same web view that the tablet is showing, remotely with my mobile phone.
Hardware and software stack:
Raspberry PI 1 Model B running Node.JS web server and the backend services that are listening to different events from different modules/devices.
OS: Raspbian
Software:
- Node.JS with Express.JS, Socket.IO and my own written node-alarmdecoder modules.
- Motion for motion detection and video live stream.
- Sqlite as database, for graphs and to keep history of alarm events and temperatures.
Raspberry PI 1 Model B that has AlarmDecoder's AD2PI shield that is connected to my DSC Home Security panel.
OS: AlarmDecoder's modified Raspbian
Software: Nothing custom, AlarmDecoder has just set it to run ser2sock, which emits everything coming from the Serial Port (from DSC Alarm System) to TCP port. I disabled the web service and their API to save resources a bit.
NodeMCU with DS18B20 temperature sensor mounted indoor.
- NodeMCU with DS18B20 temperature sensor mounted in the basement.
- NodeMCU with DS18B20 temperature sensor mounted in the room to the balcony, that does not have heating.
NodeMCU with DHT11 temperature/humidity sensor mounted in Sauna.
Software for those: Arduino compiled firwmare that runs simple script that simply does HTTP POST request with temperature / humidity data to the first Raspberry's backend.
Logitech C310 webcam directed to the front of the house as a surveillance camera.
Prestigio Multipad 4 Diamond 7.85", being the control panel and screen, mounted to the wall on hallway.
Software: Rooted Android with full screen browser displaying the web page served by the first Raspberry PI.
Cost
For me, this project was really an inexpensive one. I reused some of old hardware I had just lying around.
For example first models of Raspberry PI's, unused webcam, and the tablet I got for free because last owner just couldn't handle the slowness of it.
DSC Alarm System along with door sensors and motion detection sensors were already installed to the house by previous owner. I just had to connect Raspberry PI with AlarmDecoder module with it.
I also rooted the slow tablet I got for free, removed all the bloatware and got it running just fine for what I needed.
So only cost I can consider here for myself are the AlarmDecoder, NodeMCUs and the sensors. Cost of those are 2.50EUR for NodeMCU, 1.50EUR for DS12B20, 0.80EUR for DHT11 and most expensive part was the AlarmDecoder's AD2PI, being 56EUR. To try to sum it all up, including everything, I think it should be total of around 250EUR. You can go even cheaper with these chinese Android tablets from ebay that'll just do the work needed. (1 EUR = 1.23 USD)
More photos
