Home Automation Question

Hi everyone

I want to make a home automation system but I don't know what PLC use, I need 60 digital outputs and 60 digital inputs.

Most outputs are to turn on/off lights and to open garage door.

some inputs are to check if there's an opened door and other stuff.

I´d like to know what's the most economic PLC with that number of digital inputs/outputs.

But here's the thing besides I need all that digital input/outputs I also need to communicate the PLC with a PC so I can store information about the number of times something it's activated and the time, and that I can enable/disable ligths from the same PC(create my own screens or interface).

I'm not into using smart gadgets that already have an interface.

I have thought about using raspberry pi or the PLC Eaton Easy 822 using an expansion module for more digital signals; I don't know how many raspberries I would need to have that many digital signals, but maybe raspberry is not my best option becuase of the number of signals.

What PLC would you suggest me, I'm open to learn to program any PLC and any program that let me create the inferface on the PC, I have basic knowledge in PLC(AB and Siemens) and RSView and Winccflex.

This is to me more like a DIY project challenge.


Hope someone can give me some advice on this please.


Best regards =)

I'd look at any of the offerings from Automation Direct. Inexpensive, reliable, expandable, free software...

IDEC has a good line

Internet ready, fairly inexpensive, expandable, free software, free support.

If you buy 16 point input cards, a Click from Automation Direct would be your most economical choice. A Productivity 2000 gives you a lot more flexibility and functionality, but it comes at a higher cost.

If you want to try your hand at using a raspi, you might take a look at Node-Red. This may give an advantage of distributing your control, and still log things back to a central database.

Note I only say may, because I have not delved too deeply into it yet.


http://nodered.org

Hi everyone (rdrast, John Morris, T Gibbs, JordanCClark)

Thank your for your advices as always they're very useful, I'm reading about each system(productivity 2000, ClickPLC, nodered, IDEC's PLC) those systems have pretty interesting features and are affordable, I'm checking which one I'm going to pick, thank you again I'll be back.

God bless you.

You may want to look into some of the smart hubs. yes, it isnt as fun as programming it yourself but you will miss out on some of the stuff that the smart hubs do like geolocation where your lights will come on when you pull up near your driveway.

also, some other things to think about is scheduling. these hubs have this built in already and just a few clicks on your phone and the scheduling and action will be done. Doing this in the plc will take much more time to program not to mention if your plc fails you may be out of lights for a while. with the hub all of the switces will still work even if the hub is disconnected.

then of course you have resale value of your home. Your average person will be very hesitant to purchase a home with a plc running it.

I would vote for the Click PLC as well, but it would be best to know what type of devices you intend to connect to it. It won't do you any good to find out that they are incompatible...

There is a Codesys runtime for the Raspberry PI, all IEC61131 languages available in free software (ladder, function block, structured text, SFC, instruction list, CFC). The PI runtime is some €35 (for one RPI). It can drive several inputs/outputs. Many more with ethernet remote I/O's. HMI with ethernet HTML on pc, tablet, phone, whatever.

Cheap and fun for a PLC programmer. Not very attractive from a house resale value point of view.

diat150 said:

You may want to look into some of the smart hubs...

Click to expand...

Sage advice right there!

Thank you all for replying(diat150, rootboy, Toine, gbradley)

I'm going to try both ways using a smart hub(I heard Wink Hub is good) and using a PLC too; the PLC thing is going to take me a while I guess, but there's no hurry.

I think that the scheduling option on smart hubs is great.

I just watched some videos about raspberry pi with wago and another one with nodered, it's awesome; like Toine said "Cheap and fun for a PLC programmer. Not very attractive from a house resale value point of view."
anyway I think it's great to know about this.

Rootboy for now I'm just thinking about on/off sensor to check if the output is enabled

thank you all for your advice and help, I really appreciate it

Check also regulations of your area of living if there certain things that are needed for homeautomation devices (usually related to electrical safety and usually it is the insurance companies that are the most conserned about).

Happy holidays to everyone vartile, diat150, rootboy, Toine, gbradley, rdrast, John Morris, T Gibbs, JordanCClark

Thank you for your reply Vartile

Over here(Mexico) what I've heard is that you need a special permit if you want to install solar panels, because injecting electricity to the electric net may affect them, but haven't heard about home automation electric regulations I guess there is no problem as long as your system doesn't interfere with their electric supply, I'll check that anyway just to be sure.

In case of having a home Insurance this might be a concerning issue as you said.

thanks for your adive =) merry xmas and happy new year

I'm all for going the Rasberry PI on this one. Node Red as Jordan said. Also you'll be looking at lower cost devices as opposed to forcing a round PLC into a square home-automation hole. While CoDeSys supports MQTT it makes much more sense to me to go the low-cost/high performance PI route where MQTT is everywhere anyway.

My recommendation is to look into the "how-to" home automation demos on YouTube. Get the education that you need and then make the PLC decision. After seeing what's out there and the ease of implementation on the PI I'm reasonably sure that you'll decide to go the PI route as well.

Good Luck,

Yosi

Check out Velocio

I recently found Velocio. They have two types, ACE and BRANCH. The Branch style is expandable to meet the IO count you've talked about for very reasonable cost.

The software is free, including HMI software (I will qualify that I've not had a chance to plug mine in yet, but I got a PLC with 12 DI, 12 DO and 12 AI (0-5V) with a DIN rail mount for $160 shipped.

Check them out.