Whole House Installation - Which Hardware would you use ESP8266/ESP32/SoC?

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Which SoC would you use, if you had to renew the electrical installation of an entire House

ESP8266 (with ESPEasy)
3
50%
ESP8266(with uPyEasy)
1
17%
ESP 32 (with uPyEasy)
0
No votes
Raspberry Pi W/OrangePiZero (with uPyEasy)
1
17%
different SoC (with uPyEasy)
1
17%
KNX/EIB (not that I can afford it ;-) )
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 6

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toffel969
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Joined: 03 Jan 2017, 10:58
Location: Germany

Whole House Installation - Which Hardware would you use ESP8266/ESP32/SoC?

#1 Post by toffel969 » 22 Jan 2018, 17:02

Hi everyone

I just bought an old house (1921) and will have to renew the entire electrical installation. I have many ESP8266 running where I live now, but they where all "BORGed" into the exisiting installation. The question is really, if you had to do you home installation, would you still use ESP8266 or go to a "newer" SoC (like ESP32, the STM-SoC that LisaM has been playing with), given there will be no redundant "classic" installation ?
Your opinions and comments will be highly appreciated.

regards

Sebastian
Domoticz on Raspi 2 -- 14 ESP units (hacked Sonoff,NodeMCUs, Wemos, self-built units) running with RC140- Mega 2.0.0 dev8

papperone
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Joined: 04 Oct 2016, 23:16

Re: Whole House Installation - Which Hardware would you use ESP8266/ESP32/SoC?

#2 Post by papperone » 23 Jan 2018, 11:08

If I could rewire my house from scratch I would not use wireless devices but I'll run Ethernet cables to every wall box and I would plan a central switch/panel where I would have all relays controlling the whole circuit. The same for sensors, I would plan to have sensors hardwired to one or more central unit (Raspberry or similar); finally I'll plan big boxes on the walls to install 7" tablets running the GUI.
My TINDIE Store where you can find all ESP8266 boards I manufacture --> https://www.tindie.com/stores/GiovanniCas/
My Wiki Project page with self-made PCB/devices --> https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/inde ... :Papperone

LisaM
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Joined: 11 Apr 2017, 18:29

Re: Whole House Installation - Which Hardware would you use ESP8266/ESP32/SoC?

#3 Post by LisaM » 23 Jan 2018, 14:40

I would bring all neutral/load/switch wires to as little central locations as possible, preferable to a single location. Then i would wire the central locations with ethernet, wireless sucks and should only be used when no other option is possible. Something like this:

Image
but I'll run Ethernet cables to every wall box
The problem here is that most wall boxes don't have a lot of room for anything, let alone a raspberry or something like that.
I would plan to have sensors hardwired
Is better, if possible. I would lead the wires to the same central point(s) which are used for N/L wires.

I have my own house wired with around 40 ethernet wires, so every room has one or more ethernet points.

Wire Rules! 8-)

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toffel969
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Location: Germany

Re: Whole House Installation - Which Hardware would you use ESP8266/ESP32/SoC?

#4 Post by toffel969 » 23 Jan 2018, 18:01

Wiring everything in one place (neutral and load) seems to be the best solution, but I don't think I can pull that one off (or I will have to invest my remaining savings in Cu :mrgreen: ).

Running ethernet cables to every installation box seems realisitic. I like the ethernet idea, particulary because PoE (5V) is also possible with the Orange Pi.

Concerning the size of the installation boxes: these are the ones I planned to use (just because I hate the small round inwall things with a passion)
https://www.hornbach.de/shop/ISO-Abzwei ... tikel.html
they are 200x200x73, so I should even find space for a raspi (85x56) , but a Orange pi zero should fit for sure (not forgetting at least relays I guess)

My initial plan was to run an additional 24V line to every installation box, then put a Wemos D1 R2 in there (it has an onboard dc-dc switching regulator taking it down to 5v) and hook everything up (essentially 4 buttons,2 relays, a PIR/Radar sensor, and a CDS analog light sensor)

@ LisaM: Is that your own setup ?!? Then I have to pay my respect here.
Concerning Orange Pi zero, do you currently have a working setup wiht µpyeasy?
Domoticz on Raspi 2 -- 14 ESP units (hacked Sonoff,NodeMCUs, Wemos, self-built units) running with RC140- Mega 2.0.0 dev8

LisaM
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Posts: 513
Joined: 11 Apr 2017, 18:29

Re: Whole House Installation - Which Hardware would you use ESP8266/ESP32/SoC?

#5 Post by LisaM » 23 Jan 2018, 18:15

toffel969 wrote: 23 Jan 2018, 18:01 Wiring everything in one place (neutral and load) seems to be the best solution, but I don't think I can pull that one off (or I will have to invest my remaining savings in Cu :mrgreen: ).

Running ethernet cables to every installation box seems realisitic. I like the ethernet idea, particulary because PoE (5V) is also possible with the Orange Pi.

Concerning the size of the installation boxes: these are the ones I planned to use (just because I hate the small round inwall things with a passion)
https://www.hornbach.de/shop/ISO-Abzwei ... tikel.html
they are 200x200x73, so I should even find space for a raspi (85x56) , but a Orange pi zero should fit for sure (not forgetting at least relays I guess)

My initial plan was to run an additional 24V line to every installation box, then put a Wemos D1 R2 in there (it has an onboard dc-dc switching regulator taking it down to 5v) and hook everything up (essentially 4 buttons,2 relays, a PIR/Radar sensor, and a CDS analog light sensor)

@ LisaM: Is that your own setup ?!? Then I have to pay my respect here.
Concerning Orange Pi zero, do you currently have a working setup wiht µpyeasy?
Consider this: no one lives forever in a house, at some point you going to want to sell it. Selling a house to a non-technical person might be a problem, who's going to fix the dozens of pi's then?
Also reliability is an issue, you don't want to change broken pi's every month or even every half year. The WAF factor is important, since i'm the wife i can tell you it's important!, it needs to work fast and forever...

The 20x20cm (!) wallboxes won't look pretty. I want everything to be invisible as possible.

Ps. it's not my house. When i build my house 10 years ago, all of this wasn't possible and/or on my radar. I did install loads of other goodies, but all of them non-essential so i could sell the house again. Here's my rack cabinet: /forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3164
My next house will be more centralised then ever before, started with X10 i learned the hard way that technologies are not forever.

Ps.2. The Orange PI zero is working just fine with uPyEasy, but doesn't have a I2C/SPI library so it's bit-banged. If you find an I2C or SPI library for Armbian, then i'm interested!

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