Repalcing DELTA DORE by HA on a SBC

[PackElend]

Hello,

I intending to install a customized internet access point and home automation system at my mother of law’s cabine.
The reason is that her current system is broken and a replacement is ridiculously expensive.
Moreover, she was used to having a second home internet connection offered by her ISP of her main home for not little money plus a fixed-line plan.
The fixed-line was necessary as the old system was controlled by calling the fixed-line.
This is obsolete now as she is on a very decent mobile data plan.

She could go the usuals way for a non-techy and upgrade the current system to work via wifi and mobile internet but is that hell-like expensive and will cause following-up costs.
So I told her that there are reasonable prices alternative using e.g.

1. a Raspberry or similar
2. plus automation hardware
3. low-cost mobile plan
4. home-assistant.

I hope that you folks can give me some bits of advice on the components than if anything goes wrong with that system I’m going to burn in hell .

This is the current hardware what is installed including the hardware that needs to be replaced (partially):

1. electrical heater 1000 W, model ATLANTIC SOLIUS 510312, there is a manual but in French the most important is this illustration
   
   
2. Thermor wall mounted boiler what is self-regulating
   
3. ADSL modem
4. DELTA DORE home automation
   1. TYPHONE 500, to control the system via fixed line
   2. GP500
   3. DRIVER 520
      second and third comes as the PACK LABEL PERFORMANCE package. The installation and operation manual are in French but the illustration below is the most important piece of information:
      
      

As at least the DRIVER 520 is broken I want to replace the entire system and make it feature ready (video surveillance, medai server etc.).
I compete against the offer to replace it by the

• TYDOM 1.0 what is somehow reachable via web according to this youtube clip although it looks like to be designed for home use only. Details are in interogration
• three RF 6000 FP
  

bundled in the PACK RF6600 FP CONNECTE / RF 6600 FP CONNECTED PACK for 220 €
I don’t like that system as it communicates via the property X2D and X3D protocol altough there are attempts to hack it.

My current idea of setup would be:

• raspberry pi B+
• 2G/4G modem
• 4G Antenna
• cheap sim 2€ / month includes 50 MB, unlimited national SMS, 2 hours national outbound talk, unlimited incoming calls, upgradeable to 100 GB and unlimited talk if staying longer
• home assistant
• 230 V relays to control the heaters
• 230 V relay to control the boiler
• WifFI extension either by a
  • second access point
  • WiFi extender
  • Powerline
    for indoor and outdoor coverage to allow outside installation IP cameras.
    Moreover, I want to avoid to have low signal around that place to counter radiation exposure discussion.
• VLAN (home and guest wifi)
• Firewall allow internet access only when mobile plan allows it. (changed manually via Home Assitant command).
  I still need to check if SMS is received after a plan change. This could allow automotive firewall profile change.

possible extension

• alternating current source controlled by temperature measurement
• roller shutter control
• garage door control
• camera surveilance

[nickrout]

All very possible. Go for it.

[PackElend]

but how best?

It looks like that the GP500 in the drawing in the OP, what controls the heater and boiler, is still functional.

Are there any chances to communicate with it via X2D?
There is a discussion on

X2D/X3D protocole - Deltadore Roller shutters control

referring to its Zibase Binding but nothing is listed on their compatibility list.

I found RFPlayer but I reckon it is still not supported by HA.

Furthermore, RFLink seem to support it partially

Delta Dore - Deltia 8.03 X2D Thermostat (Send + Receive)

---

As this seems to be a bit hopeless, so I have to go digging for how to connect 230 V relays to HA.
I have just searched for 230V relay but the results are mixed:

• Any safe smart relays for heaters/AC? (17A+ / 240VAC)
• ESP8266 MQTT power remote relay & I/O board
• Moving to new house what hardware should I buy
• Detecting mains for sonoff switch

Any advice where to start a proper search?

[PackElend]

second is connectivity

I found sources explaining how to send SMS

Send SMS with USB GSM modem when alarm triggered

You can install chat in hass.io doing: apk add ppp So I figure out how to fix the error “Can’t get terminal parameters: Inappropriate ioctl for device” discussed here Turns out that chat is trying to read the response from STDIN, but in the context of Home Assistant this is incorrect as STDIN contains the message we want to send. It is also incorrect in that chat wont be able to verify if we got the correct response from the modem (e.g.: “OK” ) Here is a working script that can be executed f…

playSMS gateway Notification Component

This worked for me well in this case. notify: name: playsms platform: rest resource: http://yourserver.home/index.php?app=ws&u=yourseconduseraccount&h=apikeyfromyour2nduseraccount&op=pv method: GET message_param_name: msg target_param_name: to Call service notify.playsms Service data= { “message”: “your message”, “target”:“0123456789” }

but don’t know if that is the best one.

I found a suggestion for a GSM module in

Raspberry Pi 3, battery backup, and GSM

Should be easy enough. You can use a battery backup ups unit for the router and the pi. Then use a router that has cellular interface as a wan. I use peplink routers and they make this trivial. Then your only question is if you want to pay for the monthly cellular modem bill for something you may never use.

the Adafruit FONA - Mini Cellular GSM Breakout - SMA Version [v1] ID: 1963 - $44.95… but I need 4G as well. There are suggestions to use a LTE Surfsticks what can be bought on https://www.pi-shop.ch/zubehoer/wireless as the actual mobile network module is not cheap 4G / 3G / 2G / GSM / GPRS / GNSS HAT für Raspberry Pi, LTE CAT4

There is also

Home

At least the latter two can be connected to an antenna. That is crucial as an outdoor one is necessary to ensure an excellent signal.

So what is the smartest option?

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Connectivity gets me to the next point. How can I ensure that only very little data is sent to an outside central HA instance what records other places as well?

[nickrout]

Relays are easy, search for sonoff or shelly.

Not sure why you want to send sms, but there are at least 4 online services ha can use https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/#search/sms

[PackElend]

@nickrout

Not sure why you want to send sms, but there are at least 4 online services ha can use https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/#search/sms

I want to use SMS to control the device, SMS are sent via the GSM modul.

I don’t now if there is proper way to do it via voice (French) or by the dial pad.

[nickrout]

I thought you wanted to control your devices via home assistant? Where does sms fit in?

[PackElend]

HA is the hub but there is only 50 MB per month available but GSM I thought controlling HA from outside by SMS or voice would be a option

[nickrout]

I don’t believe there is currently a way to control home assistant via sms. Most people use sms simply to send out a notification that, for example, the alarm has tripped, or their kids are home from school.

It is possible of course, but I think you might be writing that bit by yourself. The immediate thought is authentication.

[PackElend]

@nickrout

It is possible of course, but I think you might be writing that bit by yourself.

I found some tutorials explaining it:

1. Receive SMS on a Raspberry Pi
2. SMS verschicken und empfangen mit dem Raspberry Pi
3. Send and Receive SMS Text Messages with Raspberry Pi and SIM800 GSM Board
   all use
   https://wammu.eu/smsd/

There is a tutorial using Python exemplarisch - RPi Tutorial

As SMS are stored as plain text combining them with Folder Watcher could do the job.

---

As the Pyhton tutorial mentioning sending Emails. Can HA be configured to send and receive super small data packages via GSM, 2G to ensure that monthly super low data allowance is not exceeded?
That would simplify all this.

[nickrout]

Yes the tools are all there, you have to put them all together.

[PackElend]

that leaves me with the question, when I send measuring data via GSM/GPRS. Is there any experience how much data is send if HA sends data to remote HA?
I find discussion about how to send:

1. Send data to php server using gsm module
2. TCP/IP Connection Over GPRS: How to Send Data to Server Using SIM900A Module
3. Send Receive SMS & Call with A6 GSM Module & Arduino

but only
What is the most suitable protocol for minimal overhead for a GSM sensor with a data packet size of 4bytes at 1/sec send interval to a fixed IP address with & without receive confirmation?
gives me some kind of inidication but I don’t now the overhead of HA.

[nickrout]

I now have no idea what you are contemplating. Where did this remote home assistant come from?

I take it this cabin does not have a regular internet connection, and you want to minimise data because a mobile connection is expensive.

What is it that you want to do remotely? Start the heater when you are on your way to the cabin? Monitor temperatures?

[PackElend]

thx for the quick reply

@nickrout

I take it this cabin does not have a regular internet connection, and you want to minimise data because a mobile connection is expensive.

yes

@nickrout

Start the heater when you are on your way to the cabin?

yes

@nickrout

Monitor temperatures?

yes

There will be a home assistant installed on a remote device what sits behind a wired internet connection where are not any traffic restriction.
It will show also to cabine’s data and shall us to allow to control it, maybe not live but somewhere close.
A data package every e.g. 5 minutes is alright when starting the heater otherwise maybe 30 minutes a data package.

InfluxDB

Recorder

allow remote DBs

[nickrout]

Yes but an external db will use too much data.

The usual way to link to home assistant instances is via https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/mqtt_eventstream/ but again I think that will be quite data intensive.

But you don’t need another instance of home assistant to control your cabin home assistant remotely. You can access it from your phone or a computer - anything with a modern web browser. You only need to use data when you access it, which if you are just turning a heater on every now and then you may get away with it within your data budget.

If data is very limited I am attracted to the SMS solution. Home assistant has a python automation component called appdaemon. Given that there are python libraries for various sms solutions, you could perhaps send commands via sms. Authentication would, I guess, be about checking the number the sms message came from. Not sure if that can be faked?

I envisage, maybe a two word message, like ‘heater on’ or ‘water off’. To get data maybe ‘temp kitchen’ or ‘humidity bathroom’. That would be easy to parse and tell home assistant what do do via the api.

[PackElend]

@nickrout

but again I think that will be quite data intensive.

would be nice to know how much data is transferred size-wise.

Moreover, I found the discussion MQTT eventstream multiple instances where it says that MQTT Eventstream may not cover all scenarios.
It is better explained in MQTT Statestream and MQTT Eventstream - pass back command.

I have read through the Include/exclude. It looks like you can only filter on top-level. Any change to stream only a single sensor?

[nickrout]

DO a setup on your lan and count the traffic.

[PackElend]

seems to be the only solution

Do you have any experience in the required hardware for this project besides the piece of advice for the relays