Automating Everything But the Kitchen Sink

These days, just about everyone has at least heard of home automation. Home automation technologies enhance convenience, efficiency, and comfort by allowing users to remotely monitor and manage their homes through connected devices such as smartphones, tablets, or voice assistants.

This allows for many applications, like smart lighting, where users can remotely control and schedule lights to adjust brightness, color, and ambiance according to their preferences or daily routines. Smart thermostats are another popular application, offering precise temperature control and energy-saving features by learning user behavior and adjusting heating or cooling settings accordingly. Security and surveillance systems are also common, with smart cameras, motion sensors, and smart locks providing remote monitoring and alerts for enhanced safety and peace of mind.

Capabilities such as these, enabled by advancements in computing technology, artificial intelligence, and wireless connectivity, have made home automation quite popular. But that does not mean that there is a suitable off-the-shelf commercial solution that will work for everyone. Many people have concerns about their privacy — installing closed-source devices that are always listening to the happenings inside one’s home can certainly raise some major red flags. Furthermore, many commercial solutions do not work well together, which can result in a patchwork of devices that do not play well together and must be controlled by different apps. That is the opposite of the convenience that people want in a home automation system.

A software engineer named Bernard Kerckenaere came face-to-face with these issues, and rather than compromising, decided to build a custom solution. This setup has been under development since 2009, and it is likely one of the most elaborate custom home automation systems you have ever seen. It consists of over 1.25 miles of Cat 6 Ethernet cable, dozens of Arduinos and Raspberry Pis, and sensors, switches, and lights galore.

Over 164 network cables are arranged in a star layout throughout Kerckenaere’s home, and are terminated at RJ45 patch panels in an old telco rack. This links Raspberry Pis and custom PCBs equipped with Arduino Mini 04 development boards to 31 different sensors that measure light, temperature, and detect movement throughout the home. These sensors determine when to turn on a set of 29 smart lights. Manual inputs can also be provided by 28 two button wall switches and 8 thermostats.

In the kitchen, there is a 23-inch touchscreen driven by a Raspberry Pi. This is connected to a website that displays recipes to help with making dinner. This system also controls the playing of music in the kitchen. There are 10 smart speakers in total throughout the home. A custom sound server allows different streams of music to be played in each room, or in combinations of rooms.

Just about anything you can imagine automating has already been done by Kerckenaere. There are automatable blinds, smart locks, switchable power sockets, and even the garage door can be controlled by the system. In the near future, Kerckenaere is even planning to install an electrovalve to fill the bathtub along with an ultrasonic range finder to determine when it is full. After that, some smarts will be added to the washer and dryer.

Chances are, your home automation setup pales in comparison to Kerckenaere’s. But after working on the system for 15 years, some very interesting things have been accomplished. Take a look at the project write-up for some inspiration and tips to bring your own home automation system to the next level.