I have a house 100km from where I live that I’d like to control with OpenHab.
I know I can connect it to my main OpenHab with mqtt (I need to learn how, but this will be the next thing).
The problem is that I don’t have cable internet there and don’t want to pay 20€ a month just to control a few items.
I was thinking in using a kind of GSM module on a Raspberry PI, but don’t know what to choose and how to integrate that.
Does any of you has such a configuration? What is the best hardware to choose? Is there a better option?
Thanks
João
MDAR
(Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)
2
You can get GSM routers that would work nicely.
This fall over LTE device might be an option.
I’ve used industrial versions in hard to reach locations before now.
Similar to this ----
I do use a simple LTE USB stick from HUAWEI (Think it’s a E3372) in a similar case.
This stick acts as a ethernet adaptor with a router behind. So you get a DHCP lease from it with a route pointing to the “router inside” the stick. Nothing to configure, just plug into a free usb port.
In that stick I use a free subscriber module. It’s data plan is quite limited (100MB per month) before the speed gets throttled… But at zero monthly costs this is acceptable - or?
Consider removing the PIN check at startup since it’s hard to enter the SIM PIN on a headless Pi. Even more difficult when the Pi is 100km away
1 Like
MDAR
(Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)
5
You obviously don’t live in the UK, we would never get offered such a deal.
It’s an ad-supported offer from a Spanish phone company. So it’s not “free”, you just don’t have to pay money for the base service which includes the small data plan.
BUT: You have to accept a number of advertisement SMS and a number of emails per month. That’s the “price”…
Thank you all for your help.
I spent the weekend on the place and I think this can be done with the USB/router solution.
Rlkoshak’s event bus looks exactly what I need.
I do have a free 100MB GSM card laying somewhere (it was never used as 100MB its really low), but it’s free (it’s a “gift” from my ISP, part of my 4play plan - Internet + 4 x Cell phone + TV + Phone).
I will test it next weekend there.
