Home Assistant for Home Automation

In 2020, we completely renovated our home. During this process, we had the chance to decide which cables to run and to integrate a home automation right from the start. I'm not a big fan of proprietary servers and controls, so KNX and co. were out of the game.

At first, I wanted to run Domoticz, but this one lacked an integration for our alarm system. Finally, I switched to Home Assistant and I'm very happy with it and the vast amount of features it provides.

One of the most important backbones in our home is the network infrastructure. We ran CAT7 cables in all rooms, used them for the light switches (see next section) and for the alarm system (see later section). Orange CAT7 cables are either network or light, blue CAT7 cables are alarm system cables.

Most of the network is run by two core switches: ZyXEL GS1900-24HPv2 and HPE JG927A. Both are L2+ switches, so they provide VLAN and some advanced switching stuff. For Internet access, an DreiNeo Pro powered by OpenWrt is used. All other switches and the WiFi APs are also VLAN capable: That's important, because we defined three VLANs in our home:

• VLAN “Management”: for configuring devices; does not have Internet access
• VLAN “Private”: for all computers and other private, “trusted” devices
• VLAN “Technik”: for all switches, alarm system etc. with “partially” trusted interfaces

The access points (Extreme Networks WS-AP3915i) are also powered by OpenWrt and provide one WiFi network with different keys, one bridge to “Private” and one bridge to “Technik”. This way, also the wireless appliances can be added to an “untrusted” network section.

The OpenWrt firewall on the main router allows or denies access and routes between the different subnets and the Internet.

Regarding the light switches, I wanted a rather simple solution that can be used stand-alone without any dependency on a central server or infrastructure. For half a year we had a ready-made solution (Denkovi smartDEN IP-Maxi), but the system is not very flexible. Plus, since it provides only HTTP and SNMP interfaces, the integration into Home Assistant is also not very tight. Therefore, I went for my own solution based on ESPHome:

I designed a bunch of PCBs and smart home modules, all powered by ESPHome:

• Base Module with ESP32, LAN, two relays, two digital inputs, OneWire and expansion port
• Relay Module with 8 relays
• Input Module with 8 inputs
• Input/Relay Module with 8 inputs and 8 outputs
• Base Module X with ESP32, LAN, 8 relays, 8 digital inputs, OneWire and DMX

All modules communicate via differential i2c, run along +5V over CAT5 patch cables. Everything is nicely integrated into rail mount modules.

For the dimmable lights I use relatively cheap DMX light controllers (2 channels).

For the door bells, I went for a HikVision IP-based system that is entirely PoE-powered. The outdoor module contains the base station, the indoor door stations connect to this outdoor station. The only downside is that the modules do not support DHCP, all configuration has to be done statically.

For better integration, I added a central Asterisk server where all stations connect to. This way, the bell can be forwarded to our smart phones and other VoIP phones.

The newly installed floor heating can be controlled via wall thermostats as well as over IP: The control modules are Möhlenhoff Alpha 2 IP systems that provide an XML interface.

As we have a few older radiators, I installed HomeMatic wireless thermostats, wireless wall thermostats and te CCU interface and it is therefore easily integrated into Home Assistant.

As an alarm system, we went for a bus-based Jablotron system. There is a native USB integration for Home Assistant (available in HACS) that works very well. This allows the use of the motion detectors for switching on the lights in the corresponding room using an automation rule in Home Assistant.

For the integration of 433MHz devices (e.g. our outdoor wireless thermometer), I built an RFLink gateway - most of the hardware devices were available anyway and the gateway is very inexpensive to build.

Additionally, I'm experimenting with RFLink on ESP8266 and I can receive some 433MHz devices, most notably one Intertechno-based wall switch, via Homegear/CUBe.

We have shutters around the house, driven by Elero and Somfy remotes. For the Elero-based shutters, I did a lot of research and finally went for two Mediola v4 gateways. I got them used for a few euros, each gateway can control up to 15 Elero shutters. As integration, I wrote mediola2mqtt, which makes certain Mediola devices available via MQTT, including auto discovery for Home Assistant. a custom solution based on an ESP32 with a CC1101 module. The relevant ESPHome-module can be found on github: esphome-elero.

The Somfy shutters will be controlled by Homegear and one of my CUBes with a 433MHz module. For this, I integrated Somfy RTS into Homegear, currently only available in my github. are controlled by a similar ESP32 + CC1101, but with ESPSomfyRTS as software component.

Some further devices integrated into Home Assistant are our Neff oven (via Home Connect) or some Gosund wireless wall plugs, the entire SqueezeBox eco system and a few other devices.