My First Project: Monitor and Control Vivariums

Community Playground Getting Started & Initial Setup
1

Hi

I’m totally new to home automation, but pretty tech savvy. Here’s my goal:

My wife have two tanks with reptiles in them. For her Christmas present, I want her have the following abilities:

  1. View the Lizards Remotely by Cam(s)
    1a) Would be nice for a PTZ cam to double as home security
  2. Monitor temperature in each enclosure
  3. Control and monitor lights in each enclosure automatically plus manually

I realize there is a bit of a learning curve, and I need this set up and tested before Christmas, so I’m hoping for some guidance!

Here’s the equipment I got:
http://imgur.com/a/UQVFj

So far, I’m aware there are apps/plugins for this stuff, and I’m aware that some people just straight out code this stuff with “luuc”. Either way is fine with me, so long as it works great! So far, I have the Vera running, and the d-link 5020l ipcam is talking to it.

Here’s kind of what I would like to do:

  1. Ability to pan/tilt/zoom Cam to optically check on lizards. Cam is mounted on wall opposite lizards. (maybe unrelated apps are best for this, not sure)

1a) When camera is not in use it turns to watch doorway. If something moves through the doorway, it sends alerts and records for n minutes.

  1. Temperature sensors. One in each enclosure. My wife is able to view the temps recorded via web and/or app. If something causes the temp to drop or spike n degrees, she gets text and email alerts.

  2. Heat lamps and UV lights, one of each in both enclosures. They turn on at a scheduled time and turn off at a scheduled time and she gets confirmation alerts. In addition, she can turn on/off manually. She gets alerts if they stop working (though not necessary due to the temperature alerts)

One unpurchased item: I think I need at least one UPS, to keep modem and router going and if possible, alert me that they have kicked in. Is there something cheap and awesome for this job? Might be great to have one for the lizard lights, too, which unfortunately are in another location.

Your thoughts, suggestions, guidance, references and flat out solutions (lol) would be greatly appreciated.

2

There are others who have more knowledge than me but here are some starters…
Remote cam - quite possible - have at look at at the monitoring forums to see what your cam is compatible with ref plugins.

For temperature monitoring then I suggest 1 option would be to check out fibaro.com for their universal module to which you can attach up to 4 temperature modules each of which can have up to 30 m cable runs back to the module. For best use then the module would need a low voltage supply derived from mains but the input voltage range is quite wide (I used a 12 ups supply derived from an alarm power supply but the are lots of options for power)
Ref lights then so long as they have mains power then options are pretty endless. You could simple use plug in modules for each light - then for manual control press the button on those. A more elegant solution might be to use either z wave light switches in wall or ordinary light switches with micro modules behind them - I use fibaro units but there are others as well.
For automatic control of lighting on schedules then scenes in the standard vera use interface should suffice. Likewise I can’t see that you will need to use anything other than the standard vera ui and maybe a plugin for the camera for all your needs.
If you want to add some neat extras then consider control of lighting etc via hand held devices - pretty much free - I use homewave but again there are others. This allows remote monitoring of temp and lights over the internet.
Looks to be a interesting project - enjoy.

3

I appreciate your advice.

I have already bought items, per the gallery link above.

I may upgrade to the temp sensor your recommend. It sounds better (ESPECIALLY NOW THAT MY WIFE HAS ADMITTED TWO MORE LIZARDS AND TWO MORE ENCLOSURES ARE ARRIVING :(((() lol but for now, I’d like to use the two temp units I already bought.

I guess what I have not yet grasped is: how do I add the devices I already bought to the vera lite, and how do I see them as individual devices with their own features? And once I have them added, what’s a good tutorial of setting up a “scene”?

Thanks for the reply. I was feeling unloved. :cry:

4

To include is very simple follow this link which comes from the getting started guide at your Vera’s homepage… http://docs5.mios.com/doc.phplanguage=1&manual=1&platform=3Lite&page=include_mode

Then go to you vera homepage IP address. Here you are at the ui5 interface from where you can see all devices included.

Then you need to configure the devices. Each device will appear on the devices tab, initially each will be represented by one blues topped box - more might created as a device is configured. If the devices need waking up then check in the instructions for the device, vera will then do the Initial configuration. Clicking on the spanner that appears on the top right of the blue top to each box opens the configuration tabs. From there you will see in each devices set of instructions there are parameters you can alter for a variety of things - you set these in the device options tab of the device.
Here also you assign a “room” to each device so you can group them to keep things tidy. Room is simply a name you can use to be able to see a group of controls in one place on the homepage.

Scenes are also quite well described in the getting started guide - look in the section on “guided run throughs”. You may find that the scenes within vera will not do all that you need - for example more complex and/or logic. For this you have two options that I am aware of - lua coding or the very useful plc module you can find in the App Store here: MiOS Apps - it takes a bit of getting into but it is very powerful and it Can avoid direct lua coding in most circumstances. Have a look around the store in general for ideas as to what Vera’s can do.

In my short time on the forum I have had lots of help so I’m very happy to hand the favour on to others. :slight_smile:

5

thanks I’ll look at them now. I keep starting on the guide, then chasing some link down a rabbit hole somewhere. I think it’s so much information that I get overwhelmed. A little focus is helpful. I’m also going to see if I can find specific device instructions on sending out the initial signal or whatever.

Forum question: is there any way to get around answering the verification questions every time I post?

6

No, it is to prevent spam and will go away after a certain amount of posts.

  • Garrett
7

Update: So, I’ve muddled through, and gotten things working very reliably, though it may not be the prettiest configuration possible. This doesn’t come naturally to me, but I intend to keep at it, adding projects throughout the house. For future searchers, here’s what I’ve done so far.

I have the two “Evolve” outlet switches in wall outlets. I have lights to enclosures plugged into powerstrips (surge protectors) and those are plugged into the Evolve switches.

The Evolve switches were added to vera lite.

I have created scenes. The scenes are “LizardLightsOn” and “LizardLightsOff”. I used the scheduling feature so that the lights turn on at 9:30am and turn off at midnight.

I added one of my thermostat devices to Vera light. I’m not doing much with it and will probably get the more sophisticated device with sensors kindly shared by Markle. It does notify us if the temperatures get too hot or too cold in the room.

I have a webcam added, it’s the DLink 5020L and while it has its strong points, I’m going to opt for a better cam. It has great nightvision but it’s a pain to tilt and pan one click at a time. And visual range is relatively narrow.

I have installed the Vera free app on our iDevices, but it’s very limited. I doubt I’ll spring for the pricey paid app for all those tablets and phones, so I’ll probably get another product. I got the Homewave app but haven’t felt motivated to start designing interfaces yet.

Still to do:

[ul][li]Get a better text message notification system. micasaverde is too limited with 2 texts per day. I tried Pushover but it’s not really sending text messages and requires the app to be installed, seemingly. Gonna keep looking at the other compatible services.

Set up IP cam to double as security monitor. Will require more sophisticated setup by me, I’m sure. But I may as well wait until I decide what better cam I’m going use.

Get UPS devices in the event of power failures.

Purchase and install more sophisticated temp monitoring devices, as suggested.

Add another Outlet switch or two, so that remote turning on of space heaters is possible.[/li]
[li][/li][/ul]

Thanks for the help. As before, comments and suggestions are welcome!

8

@Markle, it looks like Fibaro is not yet available in the US.

9

I’m unable to find a z-wave device with probes or sensors for temperature. Anyone know of a practical device of any remote flavor for monitoring each enclosure, preferably monitoring the temperatures of two zones per enclosure?