SuperHouse #23: Preparing your home automation system for death
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- čas přidán 11. 04. 2017
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Building a home automation system is a lot of fun, but there's a serious issue you need to consider: what will happen when you're gone? Will anyone else be able to figure out the system you put together? I have a couple of suggestions for ways to prepare your system for dealing with a future without you.
SuperHouse:
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Jonathan Oxer:
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Please support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/superhouse - Věda a technologie
For a template of the document that I show in the video, see the episode page at www.superhouse.tv/23-preparing-your-home-automation-system-for-death
You are amazing! Seriously, no one had talked upon this subject. This is very important aspect of HA.
Long ago I was in a nasty car wreck, and though I had no serious injuries, I did get a nasty concussion and was unconscious for over 12 hours. When I woke I had significant retrograde amnesia, forgetting large chunks of my past. The more recent, the more of it I forgot.
When I first woke, I didn't recognize any of my family, and I had no clue where on the planet I was. Within hours the memories started coming back, often in large chunks (remembering a clue triggered a whole bunch of associated memories return). In a week I felt ready to return to work.
When I got to work I recognized all my coworkers, easily found my desk, and I did remember how to login to my system. But the screen looked completely unfamiliar. My IDE was open, though I had no idea what project I was working on.
Fortunately, I worked at a company that eagerly sought patents, and all engineers and technicians were required to keep detailed lab books of everything they did, updated throughout the day; a technical journal.
Upon opening my lab book, I saw notes I had no recollection of having written. This was so weird I even took a moment to check my own handwriting, to make sure nobody else had been using my lab book by mistake. Next I looked backwards until I found something that was thoroughly familiar, and moved forward from there.
It took the whole day, but I was able to get back on track. However, it took weeks for that strange mildly disoriented feeling of deja vu or jet lag to dissipate, and for me to feel completely back in the moment.
I've compulsively kept engineering journals ever since, both at work and at home. I keep them in bound paper notebooks, each of which gets scanned into a huge PDF when filled.
I know that at least my engineering work, and the path/process I followed while doing it, will be preserved. However, when I first started those notebooks, I never thought the main beneficiary would be me!
As for that retrograde amnesia, all these years later I still can't recall the 3 days prior to the accident, nor the accident itself. I'm just unbelievably thankful that I got all the rest of it back.
Strange as it may seem, the first beneficiary of your knowledge preservation/sharing system may be you, yourself.
That's an incredible story. Thanks for sharing such a personal experience. It's a great illustration that we never know how dramatically things can change in the blink of an eye, and that these practices can be a direct benefit to us personally.
Wow, thanks for sharing, and glad that you made it back alive!
I have a slightly different plan. I am currently in the process of not just documenting as you've suggested, but I'm creating a "rollback plan". My wife doesn't care enough about the HA that if I were gone she would want to keep it. So my plan is to have a document setup and hopefully an electrician to remove the system for her and revert it to a "dumb house".
This will include simplifying the network, rewiring areas that need it for dumb control (I have some micro switches in the attic) and so on. I've gone through great lengths to make sure that any wiring I've done will support it's dumb counterpart. For instance, running a new ceiling fan, I run 3 wire to it, even though I never use the second hot. This is what is going to be the best for my case.
I do plan on keeping details of how my system works for myself, and also, if I ever sell the house, there is a chance the new owner will want to keep it, so I will have documentation to pass on.
This is what I plan to do when wiring up our home. Wire it completely according to normal standards, and simply not use the cable. It feels like I'm hedging my bets all the time, but a few people have told me they think it's a seriously good idea.
Your Vlog #53 "Rule #2 Mechanical overrides" fits into this concept quite well I think.
Yes, definitely :-)
Thank you for taking your time and emotional strength for the benefit of everyone else.
I don't comment much but this was a wonderful insight into the things you have done. Definitely going to keep all of these methods in mind. Especially the flash storage backup. I couldn't find the right source code for a project I had been working on the other day and this would have been endlessly helpful. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK AND THANK YOU FOR SHARING IT WITH US!!!!
Thanks! I've had that situation many times, and a couple of times I actually had to recreate the software from scratch because I couldn't find the original project. It's a frustrating experience.
Hi.
Great idea for a video! I have similar setup for my pc - encryption, passwords etc. As for hardware projects: I have a handy label maker, I make a unique label and name of that label is a branch name in git. When I work on something I use that branch and it is always up to date even when I do OTA. For more complex projects I have a docker/Vagrant file that will create test environment, set up all libs etc. Fixing bugs is just pulling that branch, running setup and pushing back changes. If you know that you will have a lot of branches you can group them in separete repos: sensors/, something/, else/.
Have a nice day.
That's great as a workflow for your own projects. It doesn't help a random electrician who finds a device you made and has never heard of git :-)
I don't think that a random electrician will need to access my, or for that matter yours, source code :D
Great ideas! Additionally I'm planning to keep spare parts/modules/sensors ready to replace bad ones. I was planning to design my main PCB board with relays, but I decided to use commercial one that can be easily ordered from online.
I've worked for the automotive industry as electrician servicing the new production lines with very well written documentary filling lots of binders just for a single section of the line. But during my apprenticeship I had to work on sides of the plant which are over a hundred years old with electrical installations dating back to the 50s without documentary. It took more time to figure out whats going on inside a cabinet than fixing or updating parts of the circuit. And I am only talking about switchboards with fuses and a few big relays. I am currently starting to build up the foundation for a home automation, but for this I have to renew a lot of the old electrical installations my grandpa made, when he build the house. Further I've installed two ethernet switches, one for normal use and one for the automation/surveillance, 3 PoE Cameras and an UPS so far, and I need to start writing the documentation. I think its a lot easier to write it "step-by-step" while building the hole system, than later come back and figure out how you "connected". I didn't thought of the software-side until now... I really like the idea of the flash drives with all the software and code. Thanks a lot :)
It sounds like your experience with industrial systems will serve you very well with your own projects. Documenting as you go is definitely better than doing it later. I'm amazed how I can make something, then just a few days later I can't remember which pins I connected to what. These days I try to keep a workshop journal and draw diagrams of everything as I go.
Thanks for sharing this Jonathan! A very valuable contribution to the community.
Thanks for all the great ideas Jonathan! I am just in the planning stages for my home automation projects and sadly this was not something I had considered. This will be especially important in my case as I plan to design almost everything from scratch.
Keep up the good work.
Some very good points there Jonathan. Well done.
awesome video, adresses a bunch of problems and concerns i hade particularly about library versioning and documentation of course. unique video, thank you very much sir
Great video. I do little projects over the years and I have had problems finding the source and as you mention ALL the other things necessary to bring it to life again. I'm working on a project for a son in Atlanta and this is a great way to make sure its serviceable in the future, Great show and great topics.
Thanks AdaBill! Once someone has experienced this problem for themselves they really see the value in this little trick.
I actually have folding@home running on my home automation server, contributing its spare processing power to research for cancer and other diseases.
This video certainly made me question my current documentation about my home automation system. I should really stick a few more labels onto things :P Great episode as always!
Thanks Maj!
Thank you for the video. It opened my eyes. I have custom central heating controller which controls wooden stove and gas boiler. There is few heating loops involved. Lots of conditional switching (pumps, valves) if something happened to me there is no way on earth and in heaven for someone to fix it. I'll follow your instructions. Thanks
Awesome Points you have there. I been working on a lot of projects over time and most of the time i lost the source code for them projects. I just recently starting putting micro SD cards taping them to the inside of the cases of my projects. This is a great video thank you for the share. I don't know the Guy you are speaking about but I'm sorry for his family loss. Sounds like a Great Guy.
What a great idea - thanks for the great tips
Thanks for your tips. I have the exact same clipboard on the alarm with contact numbers of people. how it was wired up. who to call if it goes off. i never thought of the IT side though. Thanks for high lighting this
I am using dokuwiki to document my complete set-up with descriptions, specifications, troubleshooting guide, manuals, and source where required. 150 pages so far.
That's a great idea. Just make sure that someone else knows how to access it!
Excellent advice - but people need to do this for more than just the home automation - think about access to online resources, emails, bank accounts, life insurance, pensions, computer passwords, etc etc.
Excellent channel with great videos and advice - thanks
Yes, you're right, this concept should be expanded to our whole lives. The way I handle it is that I have a GPG-encrypted text file containing passwords for every system I've used for the last 10+ years, plus links to other resources. A physical document explains where it is and the passphrase. Starting with nothing but that piece of paper, my wife (or lawyer) could locate the file, unlock it, and have access to everything they should need.
This is the Way To Be Professional,well done
I'm on the brink of starting to design the layout of my new home. We have 2 floors + 2 mezzanines currently with zero wiring, zero pipes, zero heating. No wall on the back of the house. Just internal brick walls and some newly built partitions. I'm lazy and I haven't drawn the wiring diagrams yet (years ago I drew up some initial ideas, but the build has been very slow). Currently more concerned about the imminent challenges of getting my roof, concrete, and glazing finished.
I admit not watching your video all the way through, but after the first 10 minutes I realised I need to apply my mind very carefully to the idea of contingency. I had been toying with the idea of getting rid of traditional physical light switches altogether, opting for my own MQTT wall controllers. I'd still like to do this, but I'm now very nervous about it. There's no way I could expect my partner and our 7yo kid to know where to start finding someone who could step-in and mend stuff, let alone know where to start doing it herself.
Right now I really don't know where to go with it - I'm a bit overwhelmed!
But thank you for making this video, because at least it's made me think much harder about whether to go all-out with my automation plans.
Awsome ideas. My system, although much smaller, has given me the headache of "What is loaded on that Arduino???" I try to write on a sticker in the project box the firmware name, but that can get lots to. A USB in the box is brilliant. Thanks for sharing your work. It really helps us little guys.
Thanks Robert :-) I've tried the approach of labelling things too, but the day that I realised I should just stick the source right there in the project was a light-bulb moment for me. Hopefully it'll help other people too
Hey Jonathan, my home automation grows my the day/hour and there is not much documentation I have put together for my family, but as a joke, my wife always says she will need to marry an IT guy if I die as she won't be able to maintain what I'm working on here. One thing I did to make it easier for future if I'm not around is so most of the automation I have in place is setup in parallel with the non-automatic system so at any point it can be easily removed or a work around it, a manual process to achieve what you would have achieved using the automation system. Well I know that is not preserving my work: my time and money invested, but my thought is better than not being able to achieve some tasks to still have the manual old way of doing this so my family isn't stuck when things stop working. This approach is also used on cruise ships and many other places as you can't always rely on electricity or other things we normally take for granted and cruise ships for instance always have a manual lever or something manual/mechanical to open or close/seal a door...etc. With all this being said, I will need to do a bit more work on documenting everything, in case my wife finds that IT guy who is prepared to continue or at least maintain my projects. Cheers for the advises.
Keeping manual control functionality is a very good plan. Another way to future-proof the house is to make sure the system uses the same basic structure as some other commonly available home automation system. For example, here in Australia one of the most common home automation systems is Clipsal C-BUS. My current system uses the same cabling scheme as C-BUS, but with my own devices in place. So if we needed to sell the house I could have an electrician simply drop in equivalent C-BUS modules in place of my devices, and the house could then be serviced and maintained by any of the thousands of electricians who are C-BUS certified.
Great ideas
creepy to think about this, but it's a must, indeed... good points, thanks for sharing... :)
great video, documentation is base for a good project. What about source code I would just keep it in code repository and create a release each time I make some big changes and just keep track of each device connected with specific release.
Unrelated question: At ~10:33 in the video, how do you get the Finder file preview pane to show at the bottom of the Finder window instead of the default right? In that frame, I also see some additional toolbar buttons that may switch placement of the pane. I've looked all over the place and can find that setting anywhere. Is it an add-on? Lastly, thanks for a great channel!!
A slight offshoot of the topic of this video. If you were to sell an automated house how would you go about it? Seems like as this sort of house upgrade becomes more common there will be a need for standards that a home automation professional could work with. For example if a layperson moves into an already-automated house and requires changes.
Can you make Video about (your-)Blinds? How to automate them or wich one you can use that is ready alredy
Nice video. I like the USB stick idea. With my eventual demise in mind, I've tried to keep everything as simple and maintenance free as possible. I'm a sparky, so when I biult the house I wired it as normal, but wired all relays etc for automation in parallel to light switches. I've used plug in (kambrook) power outlet controllers to turn on lamps and appliances (I worked out the codes to transmit to them). This way, if I cark it and things start to eventually fail, all the missus has to do is get up in the roof and pull the fuse from the back up battery for the (Picaxe based) central control board, and remove the power outlet controllers. Then its back to just a normal house. Some lights in hallways, robes and bathrooms I've installed off the shelf IR to turn on lights. I've also left documents with the controller, and a CD rom of documents and software in the meter box. This set up has been working reliably for over 10 years now.
Insightful. Thanks. I especially loved the idea of taping a USB or SD to the device with all the files needed to reflash it if needed. I have a habit of constantly refactoring code and I have more than once committed updates for a new project without saving a branch from a previous project. Imagine the confusion when I go to update a previous project and the code is different. This tip is cheap insurance against my own poor naming schemes or even getting lost within my own git branches and tags (I happens to me at least).
I know that pain! It drives me nuts looking at a collection of variations of a project from several years ago, and not knowing exactly which one is running on the device right now.
Hahaha....should have read down the comments first. Seems this point hit a nerve and was well received. Kudos! Sorry to make you repeat what was already said.
No worries!
What if the plan for switch death?? I mean is there any way to configure the smart light switches or home system, if the actual smart switch failed to start(burned), how to make sure it works with original physical switches?? sorry if im not clear
Hello !!
Nice job once again.
I would like to start DYI my smart home, and I'm facing 2 options for lightning, Wifi switch (sonoff) or RF switchs (variety), Do you know which one should I stick with? Which is the main vantage/disvantages of each systems?
Best regards.
Artur
Good question. Personally I prefer hard-wired for anything permanent like light switches. Wireless is a perfect solution for a device like a phone or a laptop that moves around, but it has big problems for fixed-location devices. I've found the security on RF switches to be absolutely horrible. If there's no option of going hard-wired and you *have* to use a wireless solution, I'd choose WiFi over a simple RF system such as a 433MHz transceiver system. There are also options like Z-Wave that are worth considering, but I don't personally have experience with it.
You need to automate your setup better if you're imaging every device, any company doing this still would be having huge documentation issues. Docker might be an idea but harder to build automation stuff but anything can be centralised configuration and setup. aka anasible or something. hell, bootpe all of it remotely and you don't have to worry about images at all.
For devices that you can remotely reflash or where you're making many of them, that's definitely the best approach. This suggestion was more about the typical small hobby projects that people do as a one-off and then forget about for a couple of years, until something goes wrong or they want to change it.
I didn't really think about what my tinkering around the house will mean for others after I have gone.
You probably have all your devices numbered with a location code or something . Why not have 1 or even 2 dedicated nework HDD's with all devices information in seperate folders. You could make them redundant in case 1 crashes. This way you can easiliy access the code/configuration of a device (without crawling into the attic). if you wanted to create a new device that is very simialar to an existing one, you just access the data over the network instead of fetching the stick (and remembering to put it back).
I also keep copies of everything on my own computers, with everything synchronised and backed up using Dropbox, and for anything important I also push it to GitHub. So I always have easy access to the code anyway without having to get up from my computer: what this method provides is 1) some way for a random person who needs to fix the device to find the code, if I'm not around anymore, and 2) a fallback way for me to see exactly what was put on the device, in case I've made other changes to the code in the meantime.
Really good video. Lots of salient points. I use google drive to "back up" my sketches. My Particle photon sketches are stored in their cloud. But really like the usb concept. I'm working on a raspberry pi system and think I will copy that system to a usb and store it with the pi so I can easily replicate it.
I have my sketchbook synched across 4 computers using Dropbox, and they're also maintained in Git so I have continuous backups and full version history. But that doesn't solve the problem of picking up a board and wondering exactly what code is running on it :-)
Why not use source control (VCS) for all the software source, versioning, and dependencies?
Damn, my wife is smart and beautiful but shirley i wouldnt expect her to fig out my VCS solution! Keep It Simple Stupid (not you....thats the acronym)
Although this isn't technically the same subject, it's another one of those "things you would rather not think about", but thought provoking nevertheless. There is a good discussion on the HomeAssistant forum, about a "dead man's switch". Perhaps your home automation could save your life: community.home-assistant.io/t/dead-mans-switch/19494
The recommendation of placing a USB stick with source code and documentation with each device is great advice. Do you you redact any credentials from your code for security purposes?
That's a great question. No, I leave it exactly as I compiled it. I figure that if someone has physical access to the device, I have bigger problems. For other people it might make sense to XXX out wifi credentials, etc, particularly if you have a device that's easy for random people to access. Or put the memory stick right inside the box with the lid screwed on, so it can't just be grabbed and taken away.
Jonathan, thanks for the reply. Like you, I have several DYI automation devices throughout my house. I often wonder what would happen if I tried to put my house up for sale. I can imagine a scenario were I am trying to explain how to recompile a change for a esp8266 device to a potential buyer who barley knows how to browse the Internet. I have not come across many enthusiasts talking about the resale of a highly custom automated house. Might be a topic worth discussion.
If you have an Ethernet connection to each device, why just don’t write a bootloader and upload remotely? Much easier, all files in one place, great idea to manage it, you can use such great platforms like GitHub to control versions of your files, make backups. It’s not my idea, I know people do it for commercial, but it works even with small applications like DIY - how many times your program was working, you started to do some changes and can find the way to come back? Exactly, go for Git, svn
The NASA shuttle program was plagued by loss of original developers by the end of the program.
when doing my thesis, i had the arduino ide with my libriaries and source on dropbox. that way i could also rollback 14 days if i needed.
I use a Dropbox Pro account with unlimited rollbacks, but that doesn't solve the particular problem of picking up a board that you programmed 5 years ago and not knowing exactly what code is running on it.
SuperHouseTV hmm :) seems i forgot to write that your method added value to mine. Thanks man. appreciate your work and sharing your experience with us :)
Hopefully the USB Stick/SD Card can retain info for many years. I've read from several sources of a thing called "bit rot", which may mean these mediums are unreliable over time.
Any thoughts of attaching a qr code that points to a git repository to keep track of the code on a device ?
My though as well, kinda. I thought the QR could be a URL to some device inventory system by the device's ID, and from that on you could find the repo and the revision number that's deployed to that particular device
Which exect model of din-rail mounted relays do you use?
In the past I've used these relays: www.jaycar.com.au/12v-spdt-special-pc-mount-relay/p/SY4050 with a matching DIN-rail cradle, but it looks like that cradle isn't available anymore. I want to switch to a solid state alternative that will also give me the option of dimming control.
Any chance of creating your own version of this for yourself? At least it would have documentation ... :P
Yes, that's on my to-do list! What I want to make is a DIN-rail mounted module with a built-in Arduino with Ethernet, and a bunch of TRIACs or similar to control outputs. I want to be able to clip it in the rail, connect mains-in, connect some loads, plug in Ethernet, and be able to control it using MQTT. Basically like a multi-channel super-Sonoff.
The plans were contained in R2D2, and USB flash memory will be as readable as floppy disks by the time you're gone. Same situation with your VM ;) Also, why use Google Docs and not utilize the main point of it, Share the documentation with your wife?
Great video but ... ultimately humanity will always find some solution, even if its not what you intended. While I get why you uploaded this video, ultimately ... if you really drill down to the fundamentals ... people will find some solution to the problem. The switches in your house would simply be replaced without much thought or consideration. An electrician would simply rewire your house with no regard to your careful planning. If no easy, low budget solution exists, then all your hard work will simply be replaced. So while we geeks think that our work will persist, the reality is probably vey different. You raise a more important question here: If you leave this earth, unless you provide not only the source code, methodology and financial and moral reasoning, there will be very little chance anyone will persist your ideas. There are simply far too many good ideas out there and your unimplemented "standard" is not going to persuade anyone. Anything short of "Electric Dreams", where the house is somehow aware of itself, simply will result in an upgrade or change of heart.
I don't mean to be critical but you are questioning fundamental human survival skills here.
Hopefully it'll be a really long time before we find out who is right! In the meantime, I've saved myself many hours of frustration by using these two tricks so it benefits myself as much as anyone else.
Your videos are a great legacy as well.
Some great ideas there, got me thinking. Does it bother you when the nerdstick costs more than the arduino that it documents?
Also, the plans aren't on the Death Star...
No, it was the plans OF the Death Star, I mis-spoke on the video. I wanted to name the disk "DEATH STAR PLANS" but VFAT won't allow it.
Sorry, I forgot to reply to the actual question! No, it doesn't bother me because the memory stick costs less than the value of the time it would take me to mess around trying to find the code for that device when I come back to it several years later. I've spent literally hours searching for code on multiple occasions in the past, hours that could have been saved by a $3 memory stick :-)
Some really smart ideas here, nice! How does your wife cope with all this?
When things break she's very unhappy! I'm amazed with how patient she is.
:) why not using 8cm DVD-R/RW?
Punch cards! Seriously, I've actually thought of putting a physical print-out inside the box when the project is only 100 or so lines of code. But memory sticks are so cheap now
I actually started programming on punched cards, and still have he deck from my first assignment, wrapped in its printout with the grade.
The next currently-readable archive media I have is a CD-R, a jump of a few "lost data" decades. Not really: I compulsively copied hard drives, but that's not really archival media.
Still, that's why my most important notes are in a bound paper book.
Mainly because of obsolescence.
Back in the 70's, 80's and 90's, we had tape - whether it be 8" or the humble audio cassette tape.
We have the players for them now (if you look hard enough) but not the media (it *could* be found but you *really* have to look hard).
Same with floppy disks, punch cards and needing whole blocks of office space for the computing power of a calculator.
The CD/DVD media is essentially the same as a hard drive: rusting medium coated onto a piece of plastic. These offer a little more resilience but in time, will also degrade and become unreadable. Just like most tape and floppy disk media now.
Paper is paper. Yes, it could degrade over say the course of a decade inside, it is offline, doesn't require a device to access it and always on and available - provided the information on there is current and up to date.
So, if you hate doing documentation (like I do), now is a great time to start falling in love with the concept :P
When I first started taking electronics apart in the 1970s, it was quite normal to open up a major appliance like a TV and find the complete circuit diagram glued inside the case. I even opened up some TVs to find a complete factory service manual tucked neatly inside. That was part of the inspiration for my current methods with a hard copy bootstrapping guide, and source code stored inside devices.
You could just solve this by using GitHub and open sourcing all the things
Nope. I use Github, and before that existed I published my own Git repos. Before Git existed, I published Bazaar repos. Before Bazaar existed, I published Subversion repos. Before Subversion existed, I used RCS (aarrghhhh!) and just published raw source code. None of that solves the problem I was talking about here.
Mamma Mia! :D
Too much Super Mario Brothers ;-)
@SuperHouseTV Are you an automation engineer by trade?
No, I don't have any particular trade! I started a Bachelor of Applied Science (Robotics and Digital Technology) but I started a business while I was still a student and left before completing the degree. Since then I've had businesses in automotive electronics, software development, and electronics manufacturing. I'm not particularly good at anything, but I can do a bit of programming, a bit of electronics, a bit of mechanical design, a bit of networking, etc. These are my current businesses: www.ivt.com.au www.freetronics.com.au
I solve the home automation part by not having any "smart" home devices other than (unsurprisingly) network synchronised PoE clocks. My home network on the other hand...
Misaligned rack devices, *twitch*
And knowing you, I bet you synchronise those clocks from your own stratum-1 time server that you run personally with a temperature-controlled rubidium signal reference. Am I right? :-)