Easily Turn A Pi Into a Low Cost Home Automation Hub

Adrian Biffen, Senior Partner

PLEASE NOTE: We found the Node-Red system with its visual design system to be another excellent way to set up a home automation system, and it is our current favourite. See OUR ALTERNATE ARTICLE SERIES on how we control blinds, lights, window openers and many other devices with Alexa™, using Node-RED and Alexa™ on the Raspberry Pi (Node-RED comes pre-installed on the Pi).

The Raspberry Pi^® is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that uses an HDMI computer monitor or TV, and a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a very capable device that enables people of all ages to explore computing and to learn how to program.

It was originally designed as an educational tool by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in the UK (circa 2008), and it took the computing world by storm, selling over 2 million units in the first 2 years (they were expecting perhaps 10k in sales).

It has now evolved into a second generation product (Raspberry Pi 2 Model B), and we are convinced it can function as a home automation controller just as well as other dedicated units such as Vera^®, Wink^®, Homeseer^®, SmartThings^®, etc.

Editor's Note: We now have the new Pi 3 Model B, with built-in Wifi (worked out of the box ) and Bluetooth 4 Low Energy (BLE).

As a home automation hub, it does not depend on the cloud for operation, something we feel is a very important consideration when setting up an automated system. We certainly don't want our home to stop working if the internet connection fails, especially if it was controlling our greenhouse too!

Were were, quite frankly, blown away when we loaded the Noobs operating system installer onto the micro SD card, plugged in our HDMI 12 ft projector screen, connected the Internet cable and booted it up for a first look.

We selected the Raspbian Operating System, and after installing this automatically, it booted straight into a GUI (Graphical User Interface) at a superb resolution of 1080P, replete with browser, email program, office suite, programming tools, text editor and a whole host of other features and programs we haven't explored yet.

Raspbian is the officially supported version of Linux (based on Debian), but you can buy very inexpensive micro SD cards (they are about the size of a thumbnail) and install other operating systems such as Ubuntu Mate, OpenElec, Risc OS, etc. We bought a 16 GB card for about $12, but that price will continue to drop. Because it has an ARMv7 processor, it can run the full range of ARM GNU/Linux distributions, including Snappy Ubuntu^® Core.

If you are a casual user of a laptop or desktop machine, this baby is a very suitable replacement, just as a general purpose computer. If you don't own a computer, the Pi would work just fine as your entry point into the world of computing.

But our interest was in applying the Pi as a home automation controller, and there are a number of excellent open source software packages that can be used; here are some good examples:

• Node-RED, programmed in Javascript, with BroadLink support (This is our current favourite)
• Home Assistant, written in Python 3, with BroadLink support
• OpenNetHome, written in Java language
• OpenHAB, written in Java language
• Domoticz, written in C/C++ programming language

These software applications set up the Pi as a web server on your local network, and you can access it with any browser on any device in your home, or from anywhere on the Internet (if you decide you want remote capability).

The home automation software runs in the background and you can still use it as a functional desktop for browsing, email, etc. while the automation system is running.

Motorized Blinds & Shades Using Home Assistant on Raspberry Pi

We have now tested the integration of our BroadLink products with the Home Assistant system on the Pi, and it works really well. You can read about it further here:

Raspberry Pi home automation controller with Home Assistant and BroadLink RF-IR blaster

We have also tested the integration of our BroadLink products with the Node-RED visual design system that is built into the Raspian OS on the Pi, and it is truly amazing. You can read about it further here:

Raspberry Pi home automation controller with Node-RED and BroadLink RF-IR blaster

You can find out where to buy the Raspberry Pi unit by searching for this phrase: "buy a pi [country]"

Here are some examples using the DuckDuckGo search engine that doesn't track you:

buy a Pi USA

buy a Pi Canada

buy a Pi Australia

We bought a kit, complete with power supply, case, and micro SD card with Raspbian on it for about $65 US. Then we accidentally broke the SD card in half when we put the Pi into its case, so we bought a new 16 GB micro SD card ($12), and went through the process of downloading NOOBS and installing Raspbian from scratch, which was very easy to do.

We sincerely hope you enjoy these articles; if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at any time!

The following article series is about using the BroadLink hub with its provided software that runs as an app on your phone. If you set this up first, it will help with the Pi setup, if you do try it with a Pi later (you can use the already learned codes).

PLEASE NOTE: We found the Node-Red system with its visual design system to be another excellent way to set up a home automation system, and it is our current favourite. See OUR ALTERNATE ARTICLE SERIES on how we control blinds, lights, window openers and many other devices with Alexa™, using Node-RED and Alexa™ on the Raspberry Pi (Node-RED comes pre-installed on the Pi).

PART 1: Raspberry Pi As A Home Automation Controller: Introduction (YOU ARE HERE)

PART 2: Raspberry Pi As A Home Automation Controller: Using NOOBS to Install Raspbian

PART 3: Raspberry Pi As A Home Automation Controller: Installing OpenNetHome Software

PART 4: Raspberry Pi As A Home Automation Controller: Creating a Window Blind Device

PART 5: Raspberry Pi As A Home Automation Controller: Using 3D Software to Create your Floor Plans