How to mount a home automation security system at home with open standards

How to mount a home automation

If we start from the idea of a connected home based on open standards, we will get home automation that does not depend on a single manufacturer, service or subscription, so that we make sure that if a brand disappears, our home automation system is recoverable, mostly without making a full investment again.

What technology to use for DIY home automation at home Today, the consumer and DIY home automation market is dominated by products that exclusively include WiFi connectivity.

They are cheap products such as light bulbs or plugs that make it easy for us to start a home automation project for very little money and complexity. But the simplicity and immediacy of home automation based on WiFi connectivity has serious drawbacks. The most important is that, if we do not support the advanced control with mechanical elements, the fall of the WiFi network or a failure at the software level could leave us the system disabled and for example, not being able to turn the light of a room on or off.

Also, it must be taken into account that WiFi connectivity has not been designed for home automation, so we may suffer from insufficient coverage problems as with any other device that connects via WiFi to our router or, in the case of expanding our system, progressive saturation of the network that worsens the Wi-Fi connectivity of other devices in the home. 

wireless home automation is mainly governed by 4 network protocols: Z-Wave, ZigBee, Bluetooth, and Wifi. If our objective is to configure a connected home and ample home automation, we must pay special attention to the first two protocols, which are the benchmarks in the exclusively home automation field. This is due to the use of low energy radio waves that will facilitate the availability of sensors and elements that can work with batteries for long periods.

If we do not want to have problems with saturation of the Wifi network or coverage, our home automation system should be mounted on specific protocols such as Zigbee or Z-Wave. In the Zigbee and Z-Wave protocols, home automation devices connected to a bridge or hub, as well as to each other, with their signal, and this in turn directly to the router, either via Wi-Fi or by cable.

An advantage of this system based on home automation standards is that if, in case of having to reconfigure the main WiFi network, we can do it only on the bridge and not with each device. Another advantage of the specific protocols for home automation is that their operation is based on the formation of mesh or mesh networks in which each element can act as a repeater, so the range is usually not a problem for the radio frequency signal they use.

This makes it easier for us to grow our home automation equipment network more efficiently and without problems, something that does not happen with Bluetooth or WiFi devices. They are also standards that include AES-128 encryption technology as a standard for communications between devices and the bridge/hub. Zigbee, the open protocol that prevails in the market Despite sharing many elements in common, Zigbee and Z-Wave are two protocols for home automation with some difference. They are presented at the level of several devices that can be connected (wins Zigbee), possible jumps before reaching the hub (wins Zigbee), range of each element (wins Z-Wave), or the data transfer ratio (wins Zigbee). Zigbee is an open protocol that has finally prevailed in the domestic market, with the support of brands such as Amazon, Philips, Xiaomi, or Ikea. In our case, what is decisive is that today, only Zigbee is an open protocol (at the end of 2020 it is expected that Z-wave will also end up being it), which has helped it establish itself as a benchmark for the home automation market. consumer, with the support and numerous products of key brands such as Philips, Amazon, Xiaomi, or Ikea.

 

 

Enjoyed this article? Stay informed by joining our newsletter!

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Related Articles
About Author
Recent Articles