During the winter months, I tend to use a dehumidifier, with a timer.

I recently “upgraded” the timer and replaced it with one of my HomeEasy Sockets, controlled remotely via DomotiGa.

However I was looking to take it to the next level by making the dehumidifier a bit smarter so it would only work when the relative humidity is too high.

I’ve therefore purchased a Cresta TS34C Wireless Thermo-Hygro Sensor (From HERE):

Cresta TS34C Wireless Thermo-Hygro Sensor

The data is received wirelessly via my RFXTrx433

I am currently logging the temperature and humidity levels in order to set Start and Stop times via DomotiGa. Looks to become as follows:

On: RH > 70%
Off: RH < 50%

This will also be done only within specific times during the day so I don’t get awaken at night by the dehumidifier of course.

And because there are 5 channels on the sensor, I can use more than 1 concurrently, so I have another sensor outside to replace the old DHT22 which is starting to show signs of age. It’s also placed in a better location as the sensor is wireless so the readings should be more accurate.

I was looking to add sound to my DomotiGa installation so I could generate audio alerts and updates.
Since my server does not have any audio out socket, I’ve purchased some USB Speakers: Sweex 2.0 Speaker Set Purephonic USB Speakers:

Sweex 2.0 Speaker Set Purephonic USB Speakers

There was only 1 glitch which took me a whole afternoon to sort. For some reason my user was not part of the audio group so I could not get any sound out.

I eventually realised this and sorted it with this command:

sudo adduser [user] audio

And to control the volume, I use this command:

amixer sset Master 50%

I have then recorded a few voice announcements using TTS (Text-To-Speech) that I can use with events such as:

• “Alert: Front CCTV connection Lost”
• “Alert: CurrentCost connection lost”
• “Mood Scene: Movies, Activated”
• and the geeky “Good Morning” 😎

The first LEDs I got to replace running expensive halogens were not the best. Although they were really bright (520 lumen) their angle was only about 30º and they didn’t dim that much. So it resulted in a darker room than with the old halogens (which were less bright at 400 lumen)

I got new sets of LEDs. This time I spent much attention to getting ones with a wide beam angle. One thing to note: even though they dim much more than the first ones I got, they still don’t dim all the way down to off like halogens would, probably down to about 30-40%. (They work also very well with the LightWaveRF switches that I use to control them)

I chose 4.5 Watt GU10 COB Bulb – Wide Beam Angle for the living room:

4.5 Watt GU10 COB Bulb – Wide Beam Angle

and 4 Watt GU10 LED Bulb – Wide Beam Angle for the kitchen:

4 Watt GU10 LED Bulb – Wide Beam Angle

Not only these are much cheaper to run than halogens (less than a 1/10), but because of their wide angle, they end up being actually much brighter too, even the kitchen ones which are only on 320 lumen (VS. 400 lumen for halogens). RESULT !

Next step in my Home Automation setup: remote controlled sockets.

I’ve therefore purchased a set of HomeEasy HE830s Remote Controlled Sockets (from Screwfix for those interested):

HomeEasy HE830s Remote Controlled Sockets

The first step is to get it working with the supplied remote. They’re fairly easy to pair (hold the button on the socket for 2 sec, then press the desired On button on the remote).

For the next step, since the HomeEasy sockets use a “standard” 433MHz frequency, they can be controlled by the RFXCom RFXtrx that I also purchased.

See this post for more information on what the RFXtrx is and how to pair a HomeEasy device with it.

The nice thing with the HomeEasy remote is that I can either pair it with a socket, or pair it with the RFXtrx to perform custom action within DomotiGa, or both.

For example I have set a Cinema mood scene: it dimms the living room lights, switches off the lights in the kitchen and switches on a floor standing light at the press of a single button 🙂

Now that I have DomotiGa installed, I realise the potential for a much better home automation / smart home. I manage to convince the “boss” to agree to get some goodies, namely LightWaveRF smart light switches (see this post) and a RFXCom RFXtrx Transceiver (from HERE) to control them remotely from DomotiGa.

RFXCom RFXtrx Transceiver

I specifically chose the RFXCom RFXtrx Transceiver instead of the LightWaveRF WiFi Link as it can control many other 433MHz based devices. The WiFi Link only controls LightWaveRF devices and is limited to 6 devices per room, 48 total devices (I’m not even sure if the RFXtrx has any such limitation).

To setup the RFXtrx in DomotiGa and pair it with a LightWaveRF Switch, this is what I did (under Ubuntu / DomotiGa):

1. Connect the RFX
2. run lsusb to make sure it’s correctly recognised
3. Start DomogiGa
4. Enable RFX Transceiver under Interfaces > RXFCom > Transceiver RFXTrx (note mine was listed under /dev/ttyUSB1, all other options left as default)
   

   RFXCom Setup

5. Launch RFXCom Commander under Tools
6. Make sure it shows Connected in green
   

   RFXCom Commander – Connected

7. Go to Receiver and ensure AD/LightwaveRF is enabled
   

   RFXCom Commander – Modes selection

8. Go to Lightning5 tab
9. Select LightwaveRF for Type, select any ID (just remember what it is)
   

   RFXCom Commander – LightWaveRF

10. On the switch, hold both On and Off buttons for ~2 sec until both amber and blue lights flash
11. Quickly click on On to pair
12. You can check it paired correctly by sending Off and On commands.
13. Now you can add it as a Device, the address to enter for the dimmer switch in DomotiGa is in the form ” abcdef 1 “, being the 6 digit ID + the Unit Code. (in my example ” 010102 1 “)