HCP #1 Intro

Helloooo everyone and welcome to the first part of House Configuration Project !

Ok I know, there is nobody here.. Let me imagine being famous for a while..

It's been a while since I wanted to start my own domotic configuration, and begin to connect things in my apartment.

So I will start now ! And I will write every step I take on this website, to keep a track of my progression.

In this article I will first define my current apartment, and the objects that are already connected.

Next, I will define my goals, and list several tools / articles I found that can be interesting in order to achieve these goals.

Let's hit it.

Current place configuration

I currently live in a 65m² apartment, located in Brussels. I am precisely at the 2nd floor and the configuration is quite basic : 1 Kitchen, 1 Living Room, 1 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom.

Several objects are connected to my local network. Here's an exhaustive list :

• Personnal Computer (Fix computer with 2 monitors) - Windows 10 - Located in Bedroom - Used for videogames, medias and occasional work.
• Playstation 3 - Unused because there are no interesting games. Located in the Living Room and connected to the Home Receiver.
• Laptop Computer - Ubuntu 14 - Used for work. I carry it with me to the office.
• Panasonic Television 42" Plasma (TX-P42ST60E) with DLNA. Connected to the network with RJ45 cable. Located in Living Room.
• Yamaha Home Receiver (RX-V671) with DLNA. Connected to the network with RJ45 cable. Located in Living Room. 4 Speakers are connected to it at the 4 corners of the Living Room. TV Audio is sent to them.
• Raspberry Pi B+. Unused for the moment. Located in Living Room.
• Synology NAS (DS 212j). Located in Living Room. Used to store movies, tv series and music. Content is accessible from the TV (to read videos) and from the Home Receiver (to listen to music files) - and of course from any computer.

Everything is connected to the modem router (B-BOX 2 - Belgacom) via RJ-45 Cable.

I don't have any house phone. Only my mobile phone, which is a Oneplus One - Android.

Current Process and Capabilities

With this current configuration, I'm able to download all my movies directly on the Synology (via web interface), and access them from the Television. Indeed, Panasonic offers a Local Network Explorer, so I can navigate through the NAS directories and start a movie. The video player of this TV allows me to change Audio Channels and Subtitles Channels which is perfect for me.

I can also launch music playlist (that I have created on the Synology Audio Station) from the Home Receiver. Better, I can do this with my phone and the Yamaha Android app. Just tap the playlist and the music starts playing in the whole apartment.

Goals to achieve

This is going to be an exhaustive list because I don't yet know all the existing possibilities.

• I would like to connect all lights so I can turn them off and on from the distance and through internet
• Install some kind of radio that streams my playlist over the network, so I can listen to my local music from anywhere in the world.
• Install surveillance cameras
• Install movement detectors to trigger some events
• Auto start this radio when my alarm clock starts in the morning
• Install and tests several domotic tools like Nest, Gladys, Wemo, Hue, Samsung solutions, etc
• Being able to use IFTTT and their Do buttons with this system
• Being able to send push notification is something happens in the apartment.
• and so on...

My first step will be to try the Gladys Project, which was re-written and is open source on github. I will try to install it on my raspeberry :) Of course everything will be explained and described in the next episode.

Cheers