Hello everyone!
I’m brand new to this community and to openHAB as well and I wanted to tell how impressed I was when I’ve discovered such a generous, helpful and savy community!
Would you have any recommendations on main powered smart detectors which would work with OpenHAB? What sort of equiment/devices do I need to buy to make it work?
I was planning to have OpenHAB on a tablet as a control panel instead of the awful panel shown on the link above…
Maybe the first step is to clarify the purpose of your system.
Do you just want to be notified when you are absent?
Do you need sleeping occupants to be woken up in case of fire? (That would make it a real life protection project)
There are regulations about this stuff for a reason. Many of them only apply to commercial properties, but you’d be a fool to dismiss considering why they exist.
Is this self-owned, or rented, or you might rent it out or have paying guests?
Thanks Rossko for your reply.
This is for my home and the system is to protect my family and the property as well. I must install such a system to be compliant with fire regulation in UK. I will have an inspection from building control.
Basic function would be to have all the alarm which goes off in case of smoke or flame detected but if I can get notification when I’ not at home that would be ideal.
Hope that clarifies the need!
One rather elegant solution is to use a siren detector. This basically lets you install “dumb” detectors and the detector listens for the alarm and reports it to your openHAB. I know they make zwave and I think zigbee versions of these. I’m sure there are more. Ultimately it’s cheaper, lets you use more “standard” alarms, and still lets you get the fact of the alarm into your home automation. Since they are wired you don’t need battery reports or anything like that.
@rlkoshak that’s a really good idea. I’ve been thinking about this problem for a while. I got a wired security system but the smoke detector is not linked to it.
Do you remember who are the producers for such detectors? I search quickly but only found devices that produce siren.
I’ve just tested a much cheaper solution (might not be as reliable however). We can build one ourselves using the NoceMCU and the MQ-2 sensor. I read from the analog pin. In normal circumstance, the value is between 120 and 130. I simulate smoke by burning a tiny piece of paper and stop it right away to force smoke. The value immediately jumps to above 150. When there is a lot of smoke, it jumps to 300+. This value can then be sent over WiFi to the MQTT server, which is hooked up to OpenHab.
I also tested the MQ-5 sensor (natural gas) with good result.
You can build the whole thing for less than 7 bucks (Canadian). Cheap enough to put one or more in each floor. And they can be powered using any USB plug.
Note however that the output on the digital pin is rather strange. It sends 1 when the air is normal, and doesn’t flip when there is smoke.
While it is possible to build one yourself, in many parts of the world such a device would not be code. Any smoke detector needs to be UL tested and certified (or what ever testing lab is used by your region). These home made devices might not count as smoke detectors in terms of insurance liability. Before endeavoring to implement a DIY solution for something like this, make sure to understand the laws and regulations of your area.
You are correct. I did forget to mention that these are complement to the existing Smoke/CO2 system. In my case, I have wired DSC security system, but for some reasons when the smoke alarm system isn’t wired into the DSC security system. Thus I have to create an additional parallel set of sensors. The nice thing is these can go anywhere that has a power plug.
