Smart home - selection of sensors and actuators with popular communication standard

Welcome,

I would like to find out more about the topic of "smart homes", or rather I would like to find out more about sensors and actuators.

I want to set up a smart home installation from scratch. I would like to write the application itself, which controls the house, so the actuators/sensors should use some known, popular way of communication. To begin with, I would like to be able to control the lights and roller-blinds at home using (wall) switches and an application (i.e. remotely). In addition, I would also like to have motion detectors in the rooms. Of course, I want to communicate with the actuators/sensors directly and not via the manufacturer's server for these devices. These devices are to be disconnected from the internet.

It is important to me that the communication standard is secure, easy to use and popular (so that it will not be extinguished anytime soon). In addition, it is also important that all these devices can be removed (from the boxes) if necessary and the installation can be rewired (without ripping up the walls) in such a way that it can work without these devices using standard light switches.

It is important to me that the workmanship and safety of the devices themselves are not in question.
The devices themselves should work with mains voltage.

The question that comes to my mind is whether to use wired or wireless controllers (if wireless, in which communication technology: Z-Wave, Zigbee or WiFi). Are there any devices that use wired Ethernet or CanBus protocol? Does anyone have any suggestions as to brands of controllers or specific devices that meet the above requirements? Or does anyone already have this dilemma behind them and would like to share their knowledge on the subject?

I am also considering the possibility of designing my own devices, but this is a last resort that I would prefer not to use.

I would be very grateful for any information.

Best regards.

A very ambitious idea, but probably also time-consuming. You might want to use solutions that already exist.
See, for example, Home Assistant + Zigbee2MQTT and MQTT. You can control devices over zigbee locally via e.g. Conbee2 and over WiFi via MQTT. You have quite a choice of devices, including the possibility of "manual" control - connecting a physical button that will work without connection to the system.
If you want to control remotely (from anywhere with internet access), this excludes disconnection from the internet. By using a solution like the one above you cut yourself off from the manufacturer's cloud, and remote control can be implemented via Home Assistants.

Thank you for your reply, I am keen to read up on the subject.

sk1977 wrote:

If you want to control remotely (from anywhere with internet access), this rules out disconnection from the internet.

.

I was thinking here of disconnecting the actuators/sensors themselves from the internet while the central point will have such a connection but probably only via VPN to maximise security.

As far as I understand it, Zigbee itself defines how devices communicate, but it does not define what a device can do? In other words, we don't really know what we need to send to a device in order for it to perform an operation (switch on a light)? And the devices from different manufacturers can probably do it differently.

I assume that Zigbee2MQTT-compatible devices have been reverse-engineered and, on that basis, it has been determined how to communicate with them.

I wonder if there is a more liberal manufacturer that specifies how to control their devices?

See here: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/how_tos/how_to_support_new_devices.html

Welcome,

thanks for the information. I have already ordered myself a single light switch and a module for the raspberry to fire this up for myself and test it. I have also read a bit about the zigbee itself and it looks interesting. I want to dig into the details to find out exactly how the mechanism works. I am quite intrigued by the message addressing mechanism itself and what role clusters play in it? Or how exactly is the connection between the light switch and the lighting control device made so that communication between them does not require the action of a coordinator?

Regards.

Hello

I did some digging and found esphome . On the website I found information about a device using ESP chips such as TASMOTA.

I wonder what the security issue is with Zigbee vs WIFI? If I decided on WIFI then there would probably be a separate network for automation. I wonder what the reliability issue is with these two technologies? Will a walking blender interfere with either network? In terms of popularity, which solution is gaining and which is losing? To my eye Zigbee definitely has more devices. For esphome I like the fact that I can change the software and upload it via OTA without taking anything apart.

Regards.

Zaaaaap wrote:

To my eye Zigbee has definitely more devices

and is growing. There are fewer and fewer new devices on WiFi. In general, devices on Zigbee work more stably, faster (response time), consume less power. Permanently connected devices inherently increase the range (mesh).

Zaaaaap wrote:

I can change the software and upload it via OTA without taking anything apart

- but you have to make the device first.