/py-homeeasy

Control HomeEasy home automation devices from Raspberry PI

MIT LicenseMIT

#Control HomeEasy/Chacon/Byebyestandby devices

This tool can switch on and off the remote-controlled plugs using HomeEasy protocol.

More information about protocol can be found at:

##Prerequisites

Hardware

  • Raspberry PI (A or B)
  • FS1000A 433MHz Wireless Transmitter Module for Arduino. Module can be found on ebay or various on-line electronics store. There are versions with mounted pins for Dupont cables and those were you need to solder cable. Make your choice, I prefer those with mounted pins.
  • Dupont female-to-female wire cable (3 wires)

Software

The wiringPi library is necessery for building and running the tool. You can install it using:

cd ~
sudo apt-get install git-core
git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi
cd wiringPi
sudo ./build

Building hardware interface

Follow these instructions on your own risk.

  • Turn off Raspberry PI and unplug all cables. Access the electronics board.
  • Locate GPIO port on Raspberry PI.
  • Connect one Dupont wire to pin 1 on Raspberry PI (it is 3.3 volt pin) to VCC pin on wireless transmitter module
  • Connect another Dupont wire to pin 6 on Raspberry PI (it is ground pin) to GND pin on wireless transmitter module
  • Connect third Dupont wire to pin 11 on Raspberry PI (it is GPIO 17 pin) to DATA pin on wireless transmitter module
  • That's it, you can now plug in the cables into Raspberry PI and start it.

Building the tool

  • Get source code from GitHub.
  • Install wiringPi library as described.
  • Run g++ piHomeEasy.cpp -o piHomeEasy -lwiringPi

Tool can be built by running sudo ./build.sh inside project directory.

Tool can be installed into /usr/local/bin by running sudo ./install.sh inside project directory.

Running the tool

To obtain help run:

$ piHomeEasy

The help is as follows:

Usage: piHomeEasy <pin number> <emitter id> <receiver id> <on|off>

  <pin number>  wiringPi pin number as follows:
                  number  GPIO|GPIO  number
                             1|2
                  8          3|4
                  9          5|6
                  7          7|8         15
                             9|10        16
                  0         11|12         1
                  2         13|14
                  3         15|16         4
                            17|18         5
                  12        19|20
                  9         21|22         6
                  14        23|24        10
                            25|26        11
  <emitter id>  Unique id of the emitter: a number between 0 and 67108863.
                  Example: 12325262
  <receiver id> Receiver id: a number between 0 and 15, or -1 for group command.
                  Group command is received by all receivers paired with the emitter id.
  <on|off>      Command to send:
                  on  to turn on
                  off to turn off

To control devices, as tool accesses hardware, it needs to be run as root.

Associating the devices

Each device has to be associated with Raspberry PI. Start your device in pairing mode and use tool to send on command (for example sudo piHomeEasy 0 31415 1 on). Your device will be paired with emitter and receiver ids that you used (31415 and 1 in our example).

Note the ids you used, as you will need them to control or unpair the device. To unpair the device, follow the instructions for device. Usually you need to start device in pairing mode and send off command. Use same ids that you used when pairing (in the above example, it would be sudo piHomeEasy 0 31415 1 off).

Control devices

Device is controlled using ids that have been used to pair the device.

To switch the device on use:

$ sudo piHomeEasy 0 31415 1 on

To switch the device off use:

$ sudo piHomeEasy 0 31415 1 off

If you associated several devices with same emitter id, you can control all of them by passing -1 instead of receiver ids. This is called group command.

To switch on all devices in group, use:

$ sudo piHomeEasy 0 31415 -1 on

To switch off all devices in group, use:

$ sudo piHomeEasy 0 31415 -1 off

When switched on or off as group, devices can still be be controlled individually. Group command is equivalent of broadcast.

Device range

Range of transmitter module without antenna is couple of meters. With antenna it can be up to 30m in the open. Antenna should be 17.3 cm long and soldered to ANT contact.

Range can be improved by powering module with larger voltage (module is usally capable of handling up to 12V). It can be external power source or possibly 5V source from Raspberry PI (not tested).

Thanks