Collecting materials

To make my proposal a reality I need quite some electronics in the house. Luckily we already have several Z-Wave devices and Raspberries in the house, and a sponsored Kit on the way. But what other hardware do we still need?

More Z-Wave devices

The entrance, living room, kitchen and office already have most lights controllable through Z-Wave. We do however plan to make this happen in the bedroom (and bathroom) as well to create a wake-up light. For this I’ll order the Fibaro Dimmer 2 or Qubino Dimmer modules, plus some dimmable LED bulbs and switches. Before ordering I’ll try to find out which combination is working best nowadays, because in the office I’m using the first generation Fibaro Dimmer and that one unfortunately buzzes while it’s dimmed. In a later blogpost I’ll let you know which one I choose.

iBeacons

Next to PIRs I’ll be using iBeacons to detect where in the house we are. I’ve chosen the latest generation of Estimote beacons for this. I’ve used the first generation before and they are nice little beacons with a very powerful SDK. Using at least 6 beacons it should be possible to give a quite accurate approximation of your location in the house. I’ll be giving it a try when they arrive.

This generation is brand new, so I had to pre-order them.

MOVE

Another pre-order is the MOVE, which is currently available on Indiegogo. The MOVE is a bluetooth controlled motor to motorize existing blinds and shades. There is a micro USB connector as well which can be used to control it, so when it arrives I’ll experiment with both Bluetooth and USB control.

It will be used in the bedroom as part of the wake-up light. The estimated shipping date is currently in June.

HDMI capturing

For the ambilight in the home cinema I intend to use Hyperion. A HDMI splitter will be used so I can intercept the signal to the TV and feed into HDMI-to-RCA converter and a capturing device, which in turn will feed the images into a Raspberry Pi. The software interprets the image and controls the LEDs through an Arduino. Most materials are ordered from AliExpress, so it will probably arrive in about a month.

Patience

Now it’s time to be patience and wait for the arrival of all materials. In the meanwhile I’ll be working on some other parts, more about that in the next post!