Make EG talk to home automation central hub

[skribb]

Hi

I'm trying to decide on what device to use as my home automation central hub. I was thinking about using a Raspi or a rooted Android phone but the issues I want cleared is the communication between devices. I know EG can use Pushbullet and Autoremote, but those plugins communicate via Internet which isn't always reliable, and can sometimes cause minute-long delays. EG can easily recieve messages from Android thru UDP broadcast but it can't send via UDP, AFAIK.

What I would prefer it is if EG could transmit commands via more reliable methods like LAN or other cable-based.

The spoke in my wheel , as it were, is my LIFX bulb. There are no reliable apps for android so I have resorted to using a Windows app that runs thru the command line, which is just an awful way of controlling lifx since if I want to run a "party mode" script where LIFX changes colors in rapid succession I have to keep a command line window open at all times, and when I want to turn off that mode and return to normal lighting I have to manually close the command line prompt, and then start another batch file that changes the bulb to the appropriate color. Messy and ugly, basically.

If I had a Raspi central hub I could run my LIFX scenes from it using Ruby scripts and if I'm not mistaken it would work behind-the-scenes and I wouldn't have to deal with manually shutting down scripts when I just want to change to a white bulb again.

As it stands right now, I don't really have a central hub. I have a wall mounted android tablet that functions as my control panel which sends UDP commands to EG on my windows rig based on button taps or time based schedules, and I also control some aspects of EG from my Windows rig such as my surveillance system which is just a webcam hooked up to the Windows rig. this rig is my only Windows device and is the one I use for movies , internet etc as well and it's starting to feel impromptu and messy.

I am open to using a separate Windows machine as a central hub as well, altho that would cost a lot more than a Raspi and use more power, but it would probably fit the bill nicely seeing as I can have it running EG and the ugly LIFX command prompts would be sufficiently out-of-sight-out-of-mind.

I know this post is a little scatter-brained so bear with me. Could anyone help me out in choosing a central hub that doesn't have to communicate via Internet? Bonus if it's touch screen capable.

[krambriw]

You should use MQTT. Do some Googling, check for instance also Node-RED

[skribb]

By which you are implying I should use a Raspi with MQTT and relay payloads to and from the Raspi using your MQTT plugin for EG?

And MQTT works via LAN right?

[krambriw]

And MQTT works via LAN right?

For sure it does, and it is a light-weight protocol designed to use as little bandwith as possible


Let's assume you have the raspi and you would decide for adding Node-RED to it. You would then be able to install additional software that supports LIFX bulbs out of the box. Check this link:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-red-contrib-lifx


Maybe the best path for you would be

1) Install TheThingBox http://thethingbox.io/ image for your raspi (Node-RED and a lot of other useful stuff like MQTT is already included in that image)

2) Install the lifx node as mentioned

3) In EG, install my MQTT Client plugin

4) In raspi, start to publish some data to some MQTT topics

5) In EG, subscribe to those topics using the MQTT Client and see if you receive events

6) Next, to establish a two-communication, would be the opposite way, EG is publishing and the raspi is subscribing

Myself I am writing the scripts that are running in my raspis (actually 8 raspis in total) in python but I guess you could do it from ruby as well. You just need to find some sample ruby code how to publish and subscribe to MQTT.

Best regards

[skribb]

Thanks for the detailed instructions.

May I ask why you have so many Raspis?

[krambriw]

May I ask why you have so many Raspis?

Earlier I have burned my fingers when I tried to add more and more features into one single device, until it did an unrecoverable crash...and I had to start from scratch again. So I decided to split different tasks into multiple raspis instead, each having its own MQTT broker as interface.

But for sure, today, I could eventually reduce the numbers a bit. With time you also gain experience and now I know maybe a safer way to step-wise add features.

[skribb]

Som jag misstänkte då!

I actually think I might use a Windows laptop instead of Raspi since it's more powerful and a lot easier to bend to my will without having to tackle the learning curve of *nix and mqtt ;p call me lazy cos that's what I am

[krambriw]

You can use this tiny little thing like I do:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=5118#ov

This runs EG for my home automation system. I found good pricing on NetOnNet

[skribb]

Thanks