Home automation in your expedition vehicle

[rubbens16]

I'm looking to integrate a home automation in my expedition vehicle so that everything can be controlled by an iPad. For the GUI I was looking at openHAB (which I've already installed at home).

But which system would be best on the road z-wave, zigbee, ... Any do's or don'ts that you can recommend?

These are the features I would like to integrate:

• level of the fresh water tank
• level of the grey water tank
• inclination of the vehicle
• voltage of the batteries
• condition of the solar panels
• exterior temperature
• interior temperature of the cabine
• interior temperature of the living space
• switching of the lights (probably 4 to 6 different circuits)
• ...

 

[DiploStrat]

Lots of Raspberry Pi here: https://everlanders.com/

 

[Rando]

Most of the things on your list can be achieved with the Victron VenusOS running on an RPi and using their power management systems. It is all open source so you can tie in what ever else you want. The vast majority of ZWave/Zigbee etc devices are built for AC, not DC so there is probably not much advantage of going with these.

It would probably be worth looking at marine installations as well - there is a lot of cross over, but the marine world is generally a few generations ahead of the RV/camper world.

 

[shoredreamer]

Check out Simarine‘s Pico system. It’s easily the most user friendly, clear monitoring system I’ve seen. A couple friends of mine have been running that system in their 4wds and have had a lot of fun with it.

 

[plh]

Some aspects of home automation actually makes more sense in a vehicle than in a house. Most of this junk is obsolete the day its purchased. Vehicle life is 15 years, homes 150 years....

 

[rubbens16]

Most of the things on your list can be achieved with the Victron VenusOS running on an RPi and using their power management systems.

Will I be able to use this VenusOS to switch lights? I don’t find any info on this feature.

 

[Rando]

I am no expert, but it appears that you can control relays:

Make more than two relays visible on RPI Venus OS - VictronEnergy

community.victronenergy.com

But once you have an RPi set up, it has a slew of GPIO so you could add your own script to do whatever you would like.