there are a lot of home automation systems on the market and I lost the overview.
Currently I’m running openHAB with self-build hardware components (mainly controlling power supply switches, LEDs, door open sensors). Since I won’t build all my sensors/actors my self I’m looking for a vendor. For me it’s important that the sysem of this vendor integrates well into openHAB. Also there should be a variaty of components (light, door contacts, heating control, …) and they shouldn’t be that expensive.
Do you have some recommendations? What are your experiences?
you don’t really need a tight integration (with a dedicated binding) for the end-point devices.
Bindings are more important (for me) when you want to link an external hub that further controls end-points.
I recommend that you go with any vendor(s) that produce(s) devices which can be controlled from a remote system using standard protocols (e.g. mainly TCP/IP (UDP/TCP, HTTP, MQTT, SNMP, etc), Z-Wave, KNX, and others.
So: 2 things are important = (a) remote control functionality over (b) standard protocols.
openHAB2 has native support for most of the protocols out there.
Also: don’t expect to find a single vendor that will cover all your needs. You will need to mix and match
There’s not much more to add to Angelos answer, except this:
Try to avoid vendors, who give you only control to your hardware via the cloud. At first, you’re depended on that cloud service. Apart from monthly/yearly fees, more and more vendors take for that Service: what if that service isn’t available - or at worst shut down? Secondly, openHAB calls itself “Intranet of Things”, which is especially in a home automation context very vital! You don’t want your home exposed to the internet without you controling it.
So, as openHAB is very broad in connecting different vendors, you won’t have to buy all your sensors, actors and stuff from only one vendor. What openHAB does is having a bridge between all those vendors and technology.
For instance, if my OneWire outdoor sensors pick up enough light and heat from my soutside of my house, my KNX controlled blinds go to defined positions. If my weather station (which updates openHAB via MQTT) detects rain/snow in temperatures near freezing my blinds go up for not have them freezed in down position…
But the important thing is, my home isn’t solely dependent on openHAB. Everything works without openHAB also. openHAB is a means for the dull tasks of automating or having a visualisation of my items to trigger them from different points.
But to your question again:
Everything in my home automation (except unfortunately my doorbell…) has either its own API, or I can have some way of accessing their data or commanding actions directly. Try to buy from vendors, who offer APIs or easy accessible other ways of communicating without having to expose it to the cloud. (If you like, you can use openHAB Cloud for use outside your home.)
@binderth : A little unrelated to the topic of the post, but is this sensor (or sensors) something you have built yourself, or some ready-made stuff that you have bought. I am looking to install some outdor sensors myself, but have not found anything I like yet…
I must say: I bought all this stuff before I was aware of openHAB, today I would probably go for another Technology like zwave/zigbee or something like that - It was a pretty high effort to get onewire running smoothly (as I have a very long bus with 30m).
I will have a deeper look into Z-Wave components (I think they are more available than ZigBee components). As a vendor I found Homematic which has a lot of components which are not that expensive and there is an open source implementation of the gateway available. Do you have any experiences with that?
