My van, my home?

Share your Projects!
1

Hello

Not a done project yet, I am just curious if somebody else shares my idea…
I would like to convert my Van (VW California in my case) into a SmartHome.

Thins which are easy to integrate:

  • Battery & Solary Power
  • Lights/LED Strips
  • Geolocation
  • Fan Control
  • Temperature / Fridge
  • all ODB2 my care gives
  • Media player
  • Hotspot with ad-blocker etc…

might be more Data gathering (Car Logbook) than Automation at the first step. Raspery Zero and some ESP would be enought Hardware I guess. (ESPhome)

I’m struggling a bit if Home Assistant is the right platform for this - but hell why not? (e.g. Location is always fix - or can HA’s longitude and latitude be dynamic?)

Thanks for any advice or inputs - I will keep you posted (sorry if I am wrong here…)

3 Likes
2

As of 0.95 there is the homeassistant.set_location service so HA can be more easily used in RVs, Vans, and campers, by being able to dynamically set your location.

1 Like
3

Wew… I remember i had read this 0.95 post already. Thanks!

4

I’ve been wanting to do this, but I need to buy a van first :slight_smile:

Would be very interested to see how others have attempted a project like this.

5

Great project. Space and power consumption will be your major issues I suspect.

6

Nice! I have a California myself (2003 T4 California Freestyle). Currently I track it’s location with a LoRa GPS tracker, I have a thermometer which sends data over LoRa, and I keep an eye on Diesel prices here in the neighborhood.

So far I am a bit reserved with really connecting DIY modules to my van, because I’m not 100% convinced about my electronics skills (and afraid that I burn down my van :wink:)

I’ll keep an eye on your progress and hopefully I can contribute a little!

7

Interesting project. I’m thinking along similar lines for my boat. Mostly it would be remote monitoring for when I’m not there, not so much automation.

Interestingly, new boats often are built with a certain level of automation built in. Things like lights, outlets, appliances, etc. are all controlled via a network, rather than old-fashioned power switches. I forget what they call it, but it would be interesting to see if it could be integrated. Not that I’ll be buying a new boat anytime soon…

Another useful integration would be to the NMEA 2000 networking currently used by most marine electronics. GPS, depth, engine data, wind data, all kinds of data are available on that network.

NMEA 2000 is based on CANBus, which is used in vehicles. So a solution for one might be easily ported to the other.

All kinds of possibilities!

8

cheers… ordered a van, can’t wait to start with mobile HA
than it’s my 3rd HA environment ^^
home, work, van

yeaahii

@bierchermuesli some effort on your project??? I’m really interested in sensors e.g. … easy would be the wireless way but i’m not sure if this is the best way in a van ^^