Model House (Home Assistant)

Create a model smart home in preparation for a real house.

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Home Assistant

ESP Home Flasher

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Soldering iron (generic)

Story

This project is to put together some ideas for creating a smart home and test it on a model before an installation to a real house. The project has a temperature and Humidity sensor, a Display that shows inside and outside temp and the live price of Bitcoin, a PIR motion sensor, 2x button switches and 3 x LED lights (these indicate a 5v voltage that could be sent to a relay to operate any 230v device)

You will need to have Home Assistant already up and running first, there are guides in the link https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/

The next step is to wire all the components together, you can see the connections I made in the diagram below.

I then used a small box to put it all in.

Next step is to flash the Wemos with ESPHome and upload some code so that it can connect to Home Assistant.

In Home Assistant install ESPHome from the Addon Store. Open up the Web UI and click on the green + at the bottom right. Next name the board, mine's "bob5" and enter your wifi details for it to connect to. The WeMos is a ESP8266 so select that one. Next click on the three dots and select manual download, this will compile the code, save the file when ready mine's bob5.bin. Then plug the WeMos into your computer via USB, select the Serial port for that device and open the file (bob5.bin). Click Flash ESP and it will install the code onto the WeMos. Now your Home Assistant can connect to the Wemos.

Here is the link to ESPHome Flasher

Next click Edit and insert the YAML code for the board. Now that the device is connected to Home Assistant you can install the changes over wifi. Below is an example that you can use.

################### Display
i2c:
  sda: 4
  scl: 5

display:
    platform: lcd_pcf8574
    dimensions: 16x2
    address: 0x27
    id : mydisplay
    lambda: |-

      it.printf(0, 0, "$ %.0f", id(btc).state);
      it.printf(0, 1, "%.1f'C", id(inside_temperature).state);
      it.printf(10, 1, "%.1f'C", id(outside_temperature).state);
      it.print(8, 0, "BTC =)");

########################### Temperature and Humidity sensor
sensor:
  - platform: dht
    pin: D0
    temperature:
      name: "Bedroom Temperature"
    humidity:
      name: "Bedroom Humidity"
    update_interval: 30s

######################### Voltage sensor on default A0 
  - platform: adc
    pin: VCC
    name: "VCC Voltage"

 ######################################## Information feed for the display
  - platform: homeassistant
    id: inside_temperature
    entity_id: sensor.bedroom_temperature
    internal: true  

  - platform: homeassistant
    id: outside_temperature
    entity_id: sensor.bme280_temperature
    internal: true      

  - platform: homeassistant
    id: btc
    entity_id: sensor.xbt_usd_ask
    internal: true     
   
############################################ LED lights 
switch:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: D5
    name: "LED Blue"
  - platform: gpio
    pin: D8
    name: "LED Red"
  - platform: gpio
    pin: D3
    name: "LED Yellow "
 
############################### Motion sensor that will turn on the display backlight for 90s when motion detected.
 
binary_sensor:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: D6
    name: "eyeball"
    device_class: motion
    on_press:
      then:
        - binary_sensor.template.publish:
            id: backlight
            state: ON
        - binary_sensor.template.publish:
            id: backlight
            state: OFF
  - platform: template
    id: backlight
    filters:
      - delayed_off: 90s
    on_press:
      then:
        - lambda: |-
            id(mydisplay).backlight();
    on_release:
      then:
        - lambda: |-
            id(mydisplay).no_backlight();
    
########################################## D4 has internal pullup for Switch 1
  - platform: gpio
    pin:
      number: D4
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
      inverted: True
    name: "Switch 1"
    device_class: light
    filters:
      - delayed_on: 50ms   
      
############################################ D7 has internal pullup for Switch 2 
  - platform: gpio
    pin:
      number: D7
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
      inverted: True
    name: "Switch 2"
    device_class: light
    filters:
      - delayed_on: 50ms

Now that we have the inputs and outputs connected to Home Assistant we can tell it to do things. The easiest way that I have found is to use Node-RED. Below is a simple example of Switch 1 toggling the Red LED on and off, Switch 2 toggling Blue LED on/off and the motion sensor (called 'eyeball') turning the Yellow LED on for 30s when motion is detected.

Schematics

house_model_bb_HKbSezOr9c.jpg

Code

Wemos board YAML example

YAML

The article was first published in hackster, November 13, 2021

cr: https://www.hackster.io/mpg28/model-house-home-assistant-c806cc

author: mpg28