Whether or not to use different home-made devices in your smart home, everyone should decide for themselves, because on the one hand, home-made devices are at least interesting to make, but you still need to understand how it all works, what it can be assembled from, and for example, I really created there on the basis of Arduino, then on the basis of ESP, then for wireless battery-powered devices based on Attiny85, I made different devices, many still work, but some had to be turned off, because it's still a homemade device, this is some risk, because it's not clear what I did correctly, connected some component, or maybe some kind of power supply is used, but it may not be suitable for this device, it may accidentally close something on it, if it is touched, or for example I used lithium batteries from an old laptop battery there, and it is also clear that if something happens there, for example, it will discharge strongly or it may if something is also shorted, then this battery may explode at all, something will catch fire, this should also be provided for.

And for the device, everything is easier with them, first of all, there is a manufacturer's warranty, there is some manufacturer's responsibility, some devices are certified most often, and it is easier with them, of course, that they will not make any completely wrong decisions there, that is, it happens of course that they do not work correctly, they are buggy or the battery is they fall off from the network, but this in general may not affect any special operational properties of this device, but for example, if you use something that works from a permanent connection to the electrical network, for example, smart sockets, relays, or for example smart switches, or even LED bulbs, they are all certified there.

Maybe not the best components are used there and it is not clear what certification is there, how real it really is, well, in general, someone looked, someone checked and at least there is experience that other people used, you can always read reviews and see there that this device burned down or did not turn on.

For example, I even have a lot of power supplies that I bought to connect a smart home server for example, they are 3 amps, but in reality half of them no longer work, although they seem to be designed for this current, but for example smart sockets, even the cheapest ones, in principle, can withstand the current that is claimed on them., that is, if there is a relay for 10 or 16 amps, then they work like this, and I connected them and nothing was heated normally, and such sockets work for a very long time and so far none has failed, that is, it means that even if very cheap components are used, they do not work properly, the fact that they are somehow completely incorrectly assembled and made there completely incorrectly, and can quickly burn out.

But it is also very difficult to do without home-made devices for smart homes, because branded devices still mostly do the most common functions, for example, temperature/humidity sensors, opening sensors, motion sensors, that is, it is very difficult to find any more specific option, for example, even an elementary carbon dioxide sensor, too it is very difficult to find a normal one, it is clear that it does not particularly affect anything, that is, in reality, of course, this is not the most critical function and many do not put such sensors on themselves at all, but in sales, find it to show correctly, integrate well into the smart home system, they are practically very difficult to find, the same may apply and devices for controlling, for example, ventilation, or there opening a window, these are also branded devices, they are either very expensive, generally some specific ones, they can only be used for some integrators, and they can be controlled by wire, but they are practically inaccessible to simpler solutions, and they are also there or you can do it yourself, or buy such a device from some enthusiasts.

For example, I recently had a problem that you just need an elementary relay in the socket, which to fit, worked from 220 volts, not necessarily even a dry contact, that is, to just pass current through the relay at 220 V, and there was also monitoring of electricity consumed, because you need to understand how much the device will consume, this is for me it is necessary that the underfloor heating, it sometimes turns on and off by the thermostat, and if I do not monitor consumption, then I may not understand that my underfloor heating is not working now, and in general, you may just need to provide some other scenario.

Well, then you won't be able to calculate the consumption exactly, how much was spent on heating this underfloor heating, so I need such a relay, but it's not there, there are some pretty good options, but they work over wi-fi, that is, it means you need to use a certain ecosystem, put an application from this manufacturer there, maybe there is there are some DIY modes, but it still turns out that this is already such a specific solution, and wi-fi itself also has certain limitations.

Well, or there are other options, but they are already large, large, their podrozetnik can not be installed, but you can find them made by enthusiasts, on the Internet such an offer that they have collected, everything seems to meet the characteristics, everything is very compact, everything can count there, integrates into the smart home system, work on zigbee, like everything is fine, but it is not clear how well they did everything correctly, and even if the components can be checked separately and they really seem to be quite good, then perhaps there will be a local overheating somewhere, for example, of some device, or there may be some relay that they bought for installation, it does not meet those characteristics or maybe something was installed incorrectly and may also cause some problems in the end.

Well, or for example, temperature/humidity sensors if you buy ordinary ones, I usually buy Xiaomi and Aqara there, they suit me in their characteristics, in general they are quite compact, they work on small batteries for about a year and a half, they measure in principle quite accurately, but they do not send information very often, that is, they have it is triggered only if the temperature has changed by half a degree, and the humidity has changed by 5%, you can still somehow put up with the humidity there, but of course I would like to be more precise with the temperature accuracy, but it is quite difficult from such sensors, well, it is generally impossible to get such parameters from them, but it is quite problematic to find others, so if you make your own, then you can put any scenario there, for example, so that they work when changing by 1/10 degrees, of course, you may need to somehow average the value so that they don't send it again, it happens because different sensors, some sensor can just work from a breath of wind, show below or there may be battery power there, for example, changed during frequent sending or something else, and they can also work and send, so you need to average and send already there more accurately, but at least here you can do as you need and with the right frequency, and then on the basis of such a sensor, you can already do various other scenarios, for example, maintain the temperature more accurately, and even think about what kind of hysteresis to indicate on such a thermostat, for example,if it is not used to control some kind of heater, that is, this is also such a function may be required and you will not be able to find a branded sensor.

Well, or for example, I made a motion sensor, which I need to send every 2 seconds of operation, well, if this movement changes in the dark, then it sends more often, if the movement is when it is light, then it sends less often, the company does not have such a function, it just works according to the algorithm that the developer provided and in general-then nothing can be redone, and sometimes it turns out that such a proprietary sensor can no longer be used in the script, you will still need to make your own.

For example, the Aqara sensor has a light sensor, they can probably provide some kind of scenario, or a way to configure this sensor as needed, but the Xiaomi sensor for example just has a motion sensor, but there is no light sensor and there is nothing you can do you will need to figure out how to get around the solution, well, or in general there is no use such sensors in scenarios.

With home-made devices, of course, there are different difficulties, well, first of all, it is quite difficult to make some good device, if you do it on Zigbee, you will need to figure out how to integrate it, you may need to write an additional driver for Zigbee2MQTT for integration, but you will not be able to add this device to any other device.some branded smart home, for example from Tuya, that is, it still already means that you need to use a home-made Open Source smart home server and create your own smart home based on it, that is, these are already new such restrictions appear, but if you use wi-fi, then there are many such controllers based on ESP.

In principle, it's quite convenient there, but they have their own specific difficulties, that is, they don't work quite correctly, they don't work quite correctly, they need to provide good nutrition, and in principle it's quite difficult to install everything there, install it well and somehow connect it so that they can be placed in some other place.that is, for all this to work, for example, I have many homemade devices, they are generally made on a breadboard, without soldering, without everything, that is, because this is kind of a temporary solution and I thought there, what then if you like everything, I'll probably somehow solder everything and do it there in a normal way, I even bought all the necessary components separately, well, someone orders boards there at all, does it, and already there they make such homemade devices quite correctly, in a smart way, but I made the layout like and normally if you need a case, then I also don't have a 3D printer and I can't print the case for myself, often I can't find a ready-made case, for various reasons it may not fit, well, in the end I just use some plastic packaging from under something, but in principle most often this is enough for this homemade device to work.

If this device is for example based on Attiny 85, then I also use the protocol on the radio frequency of 433MHz, these are special transmitters, they need a gateway that will receive all this, these are decisions that can only be made for themselves, but help someone there to do, teach it is quite problematic to do this, and they are unlikely to be able to use them, such homemade devices, in their smart home.

Automation in a smart home should be useful and create additional comfort, but sometimes everything goes wrong… The reasons for this, and how to configure everything, see on my channel.