Vince's home automation build - far from done

[vincenttor]

Well , i thought maybe someone is interested in what i am doing with my home automation build.
I must say, be prepared since i have allot of pictures ( pictures say more then text )
Please be gentle when you enjoy reading my Dutchlish since English isn't my foreign language

So here we go , i copied most of it from another forum thats all about HA.

Well i just bought a new house and it comes with some "green" options.
The house has a few solar panels on the roof, i am not sure how many but coming Friday or Saturday i get the key so i can check.

renedijkstra.nl/bg-22106-7-4979/bog/vol ... erend.html

Also using a solar water heater thats build on the roof and i am using heat from the earth to warm up the house and water.
So far i got this fairly cheap since it came with the house, now i do like gadgets allot and have allot of them collected in the years but to keep in a bit in the green energy saving style i thought would it not be great to be able to switch everything in the house.
All the power sockets , lights , that i am able to turn everything off except the equipment like a fridge or something that needs to stay on of course.

My question is to you guys, what do you think is the best solution or is a better solution of what am i not thinking of.


First idea was to use SSR , easy to use and i want to use Homeseer with an Arduino to control everything.

The advantage of these "relays" is
-its easy to connect on the arduino since most of them are usable from 3-30 Volts.
-Will not fail fast if used normally
-smaller size then a mechanical relay
-SSR itself uses low power to switch
-No sound when switching

But the disadvantages are
-always "leaking" power and the higher Amps it can handle , more it lets trough when it should be closed so giving problems with LED lights and still leaking power so resulting in a higher billing the end of the year.
-needs a heatsink when using some load on them
-if being used with a heavy load lets say a 1000w light it can peak/draw up to 60Amp i have been told, even just for a few mili seconds, not sure what the result is in this in the end.


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Using Mechanical relays, i am not sure what the correct name is

things i have found an can think of are

Advantages
-doesn't have leaking power
-doesn't need a heat sink

disadvantages
-bigger
-using more power then SSR
-Wears off faster contacts burning in
-using higher voltage
-Sound when switching.
-when using the arduino to trigger the relay you have use with most bigger relays 12 or 24 Volt so i use the arduino to trigger a small relay that uses 5Volt to trigger the big relay 12/24 Volt that is being build in the power socket or next to it.


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Then comes the other part when installing one of these options, i need to put cables to all of the sockets and light switches in the house and need to find a solution to hide the relays as best as possible.
Hiding the cables will be some work, thinking of a bigger in dutch called Plint to put the cables behind but then there are still the relays with there sockets or ssr with heat sink.
I am aware how much work it is, since in the house of my parents and in the garden is placed about 2200M wire roughly but these are things that if all works ok makes it more satisfying and my experience is with wireless equipment that it is much more stable.

In France at my parents house its much more easy to get things like this sorted since all sockets have there own separate power line to the fusebox...

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Plugwise

I have read into this system and it looks very promising but after founding some other websites with reviews i see many bad messages about the system.
Especially about the software restrictions they suddenly are putting in the updates.
Also that they send your information to there servers is a thing that actually they do not have to know if you ask me (gaat ze gewoon niks aan !)
but i have read that if you block the outgoing port and program you can stop it with most firewalls.

A big advantage and fun to have also informative is that it logs the power usage of that plug.
I am running homeseer and i read about the new plugin not using the software anymore that comes with plugwise but now being read straight by the plugin.
What are the advantages about this system except the power usage loggin.

So the advantage i can see here is:
-works out of the box
-using a mesh network that should be covering the whole house without problems
-measuring the usage of that plug


Disadvantages i can think of are:
-its a big plug in the socket ( has anyone opened it yet and build in there power socket ?)
-price is rather high compared to a relay and some wire (not counting the installation time of the wires)




So guys, what is wise to do , any more advantages or ideas about the above solutions ?
I'd like to hear your opinion about it.

Maybe its a bit overkill for some people but its something i like to have , since i am away from home for some weeks for my work its satisfying to know that i am using less power then is necessary.
And because its just fun if all this works and to make it in the house.


Well its not really the time of the year to start with making the holes in the wall and such but i tried a little part.
Tomorrow i am going to start and hopefully finish it so i can use clambs to put pvc pipes in the wall for the wires.

used plastic to cover up everything because it makes a big mess, very dusty

First test with the machine.

Some of the wire thats going in the house.

Thanks, but i used my festool vacuum machine, not sure if its stil ok after this job but the dust is not as bad right now as the fist time i used it.
The old wiring is a mess, and the whole living room and kitchen are on 1 fuse......

So its good that i do this because i would have had allot of problems then, and the suction hood for the gas stove i opened up .
The pipes that should let the air outside go out was not even connected so behind the stainless steel cover were the engine is it was all greasy and yellow :S

Well , i have done some work again.
Big project but little time :S

Anyway, what i was planning to do, since i am going to use allot of LED lighting.
I want to use a DMX controller and some decoders to control the lights.
Also wire some of the lights in case there is a error in whatever that breaks down, so i can turn a switch and some lights turn on for emergency for example.

But, the question here is, i am reading and reading for a few days now, is there anyone that is using DMX at home to control his lighting ?
And more important, can you control it in Homeseer ? (HStouch)


Well some pictures of the progress,

You would think that in a house that is build in 2001 that they can work more precise (haaks) but its not everywhere the case.
anyway i got some tools that make it easier.

at first we used screws to make some sort of a base for the cove, but this took to much time so i grabbed the air tacker and some wood glue.

i had to work around a bit for the tube that goes outside for the cooking fumes.

Part one is finished now, only needs some small pieces more so the cove can be mounted on the frame , but the guy that is going to "stuc" the walls said its easier for him without the frame being fully installed.

My dad helping me.

taking out the carpet since its very old and dirty, putting in some wood later on.

other room on the first floor we pulled out the carpet and put some cove frames on the roof.

Thats it for now, tomorrow hopefully i can find some time to go on.
First i am going to pick up about 100 Relays with sockets that are being used for switching every socket and device.

This weekend i had some time again, but the coming weekend not so much.
Luckily i got some extra work the coming Saturday because the money goes out very fast :roll:
Anyway, Saturday i went to a little electronic parts store about 35 km away from home and i did some shopping.
Got 100 relays with sockets from Omron, 8 Din boxes that can fit 11 Relays per unit.
100 relays 5V for the arduino since the coil power ? (spoelspanning) of the omron relays are 12V i need to switch them with another small relay :roll:
A pile of 16A Automatic fuses, all kinds of small electronic components.
Got allot of free stuff as well 30 pvc tape rolls and some switches , small components etc :wink:
Also bought the din rail earthing connectors and some other connectors which i do not know the name.
Some very nice LED lights, and these are bright and real 3500K yellowish warm white instead of the Chinese warm white that is still pretty cold cool white.
Some very nice cable trays.
And allot more parts , the price ? 505 €

Also picked up a server rack somewhere close by where i live what is going to hold most of the equipment like amplifiers/server/modem/switches/apc/ups/ etc etc.

Finished the frames for the cove, but since the roof is not level and allot of the walls are not "haaks" either i first need a laser that i can mount on the wall to make the cove level.
This is the final step i have to do because i get problems otherwise when the L shaped parts will be mounted on the cove frame.
This process will only cost some spaces and more time ofcourse.
I did manage to put some 3x1.5 / 3x2.5 and 5x2.5 wires in the tray, i am thinking of placing between the frame a aluminum tray to place the cables in.
Not sure if this is necessary but can be done whenever i want since there is enough space.

The wood parts also arrived somewhere the last week and need some work also.

Placed some plastic/paper sheets on the floor to protect the marble since we were walking and hammering on the wall allot of concrete was pressed in the marble, and the walls/roof are going to be made smooth later on with plaster.

Some of the cables for the power sockets in the living room, going to make a gutter , and since there are 2 tile floors put in this house the doorstep is allot lower so i can place it up about 4cm.
This gives me some nice space to hide some cables beneath.

Here is the hole for the wires that are coming from the cove in the living room.

Another hole for some audio/network cables that go into the garage where the server rack will be placed, i could not find another nice location for it and the wall between the house and garage is 41 CM thick so it took some work to make this hole.

Garage side

The wiring of the kitchen, few 3x2.5 for the sockets , 5x2.5 for the induction cooker, 3x1.5 for some lights

Thats it for now

Got some time saturday afternoon and picked up some materials after work.
Just got home so it has been a busy week after so many hours of paid work but it was worth it.

I do need more wires because 3x 1.5mm2 and 3x 2.5 mm2 wire is gone
same as some cat5e wire, there is about 800 meter of cable placed at this moment for the living room.
Made a small checklist but it is not finished yet, also wrote a few by hand at the list that i need to update on the computer also.

So as you can see the list is getting bigger and bigger and i must even rewire the garage downstairs and upstairs.
For the LED strip and spots you can say, isn't 0.8mm2 to thin ? well no, i just take a few pairs to compensate for it since i have no other cable at this moment.

Some of the wire holders i picked up

Mounted them on the roof

I also made a camera holder that i can place on my tripod so the turning point and the lens are on the same spot and you can make 360 degree pictures , i do need to make pics at day time with another lens zo the quality is better and you can move up and down.
For the interested people, here on this link you can view the image and scroll arround in the room.
photosynth.net/preview/view/bdeb334f-c4 ... ?startat=0

I did have done some work the last weekend but not much,
all the cable holders are on place now downstairs/upstairs.

I went again to the electronics "store" to pick up a bunch of stuff and the first time we were there we bought a few LED panels.
Working on 30Volts and the light amount is amazing and little to no shade when you hang above it.
Very nice working lamps for in the garage, so he had 1 box left of these and i bought them all , 29 pieces with LED drivers and the drivers where free
These will do in my situation, i was planning to buy LED fluorescent tubes, or should i say LED tubes .
But now i will make some nice boxes and in front of these led plates i will place a thin layer of milk white polypropylene plastic that i get at a guy i work for allot so probably cheap/free

This is the light from 1 panel ( they use at 220V 70mA)

Turkish brand as far i could find on the internet

Also got a free pump, this will be placed in the tumble dryer, it has a reservoir that collects all the moist and i did not plan to empty this by hand all the time

Also bought 30 fuses that cover the 0-wire and the phase wire instead of just the phase wire, some for 380V for the garage and the same story 0/phase/phase/phase.

Started to primer the MDF wood for the light cove in the rooms, they do use allot of paint
at first i planned to spray polyester filler on them to get them nice and smooth but since i can't use a paint booth and i do not want to spray it in my garage because of the overspray and mist that will fall down everywere i decided to use a brush and a roller.
Just about 20 more to do and then use filler to make it nice and smooth (epoxy)

Also started to do drill some holes in the wall for the bathroom, going to redo the bathroom later since this only can cost allot and i got to much "projects" at my hands now to start with this as well.

The fuse cabinet i have made a bit more tidy and placed some of the wires in the holder to see what and were because it was pretty messy.

The coming weekend i must drain the warmth pump and solar boiler system so i can relocate the old pipes,
probably the most funny/strange thing is, the previous owner was a entrepeneur, he was a plumber.
But you can't see it on the work he has done, its messy, not documented at all, faulty connections and thats the pipes, if you see the electrics and the things he has build.
Nothing is great to see when you look closer :roll:
Also going to put a big part of the wire checklist hopefully into the house, today i received some of my packages and 2700m of wire

This is 3x0.75 mm2 Olflex cable, so if someone is interested in buying some cable ?!, leave me a pm.

Got lucky today, not really HA related but a friend of mine called that they threw away an airtank of a compressor,
since i have a compressor that is only the pump and no resevoir this was a great win for free
Drove to the company and luckily it fitted on my jetski trailer.

My package arrived from the US also, 3 XAP 800 units.
i probably need only one but leave a second one as a spare unit, 1 unit works but the lcd screen is broken and a cooling fan but this is a minor thing.
They do all start , hope i can set it by the menu and doing this by pressing the same buttons on a working unit so i know what and where i am to set the rs232 port etc.

Also a bunch of relays arrived today, bought these last week from marktplaats could not resist.
Only have no holders/feet that comes with the relay but a soldering iron does a great job or buy a separate feet from internet.

If anyone is looking for good relays, same as the cable, leave me a pm.

There have been some days passed since the last update,
and what do you think ?

Haha right, still busy with wiring the whole house, but the living area seems to be coming to an end now.
Amount of cable that went in till now, about 3500M / 4000M.
The latest cable that i picked up, only 1 roll is left with 720M on it and 1 with 500M on it,
in 2 days we have done about 1200M of wiring :S and to be honest i can almost not see any wires anymore haha.

But what i started needs to be finished so were still going, last saturday i took a small break (was my birthday) after 44 days of work in a row paid and none paid.
Some pics , not really much to show since last time.
Most of it are pics that there are only more and more wires :roll:

I got a long ladder to reach the roof and clean the solar panels, did not expect that they were so clean and did not needed any cleaning

(yes it looks like a dress haha, and its my dad, he doesnt give a S$%^ how he looks like )

received my DMX shield for the arduino , a box of reed relais (door magnets ) and some fresh PCB that is getting ready to be engraved.

Testing here if the little schedule works to switch the small relais , and it did
You ask , why not use the cheap outof the box know arduino relay boards ?
Well, those are the biggest problem in the system here at my parents , the optocoupler burned out 3 times in a row and resulting in 1 or 2 relays not responding anymore.
So i bought a more known relay brand and some BC547 transistors , some diodes to make my own relay boards that hopefully are more stable compared to those ebay boards.
I am probably the one of the few persons that have problems with those but since a big part of my system relies on switching relays i found it important to make them myself with better components.

Also made some holes in the wall for 86x86 boxes, these are for some DMX light controllers that i ordered.

These are the models i am talking about , this is for visitors that do not know how to control the lights from a tablet or phone etc..

Here are now somewhere about 280 cables laying around and waiting to be connected

 

[vincenttor]

in the mean while i got some packages by mail from my Chinese friends ( and a dutch one haha )
This is btw the first time i have seen this sticker on one of my packages, normally when i get "punished" with paying import costs and tax i get a invoice but i haven't seen anything yet.

nice length of flat cable, some extra space for my parents there NAS and a ssd for my older laptop that starts up like lightning as if it is new
Also some XLR female connectors for the DMX decoders, and 2 hidden PIR IP cameras that are just 1280x720 pixels.
The image is more then OK, i have used them before and for 25 USD i cant complain, will buy some more.

These are my new LED spot lights that i am going to use in my home, these are the warmest warm white color i have seen with LED, not the Chinese 3000K (actually German) still pretty bright or cool white as they say.
Not very good visible on the pictures but it is much warmer in real life not like the china LED.
Somewhere next week i will probably have 50 pieces and with LED drivers that are compatible with these lights so they have the longest life span.
For specifications of these LED spotlights : lichtkaufhaus.de/en/Home-Lighting/LED-l ... types.html

I also used a meter to see how many amps they used, and it is not much i can say with this amount of light they give.

This would be 0.048 mA x 220V = 10.56 Watt

10 of these gives much more light then a 100W bulb

haven't done much this weekend except building the relay and fuse casing.
Not all of them since i got short of boxes but next saturday i will pick up some more.

Got some other relays , first it were the omron type but those were not the right ones ( he gave me 3 and 5 Amp rated relays and i needed 2x10A)

8 boxes filled , 2 of them with fuses and the rest with relays

I must add something for the DMX that i forgot to mention.
With DMX is there a constant signal over the cable, so lets say 0 0 0 0 0 is all channels off and 1 1 1 1 1 is a channel on 2 2 2 2 2 2 is a channel.
Decoder number 1 is off, but it sends constantly 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
I want to turn on controller 2, that is located in this case in the kitchen.
The controller nr 2 sends out 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

Here comes the but, because controller 1 is idle and sends out 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 and now suddenly controller 2 starts sending 2 2 2 2 2 2 , you can see what is going to happen - 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 and this will get the decoders confused since he does not know what to do with this type of signal.
This is what i have understood about the DMX and have been told about.

So please correct me if i am wrong !
Now what i am going to do is this, i am going to use a IR ( lichtsluis) i do not know the english word but i have used some and got a spare here that works without a reflector.
The range will be about 15 CM that he detects a movement like a hand that is getting closer to the switch.
When the lichtsluis response it powers the relay that is connected with the DMX signal wires of this controller
What happens is that the decoders only get a signal from controller 1 where the lichtsluis detects movement, so the problem of the 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 is solved.
Same with all the other controllers, the relay is activated at that time when you need it.

I am not totally sure if this will work ! but when my dmx equipment comes from my Chinese friends with the mail i can do some testing.
One other "problem" i can think off is if there is a button press at the same time then you have both signals again.
But i think i will solve this by using again a relay that cut's off the other controller relays, so when controller 1 is activated first then he shuts off the power that the relays feed from the other controllers.
And if this all works , i will try to find maybe another solution or probably make a nice pcb with this switching drawing on it.

If this all fail, then i have another solution and this will be with wired or wireless butons that i connect to a arduino input, or rfxom.
And these get connected to a event, If pressed, then light dmx ch 3 4 5 6 7.
If pressed twice, shut down dmx ch 3 4 5 6 7 and so on.
It will be allot of work to program everything and get it running but i actually must say that i can't wait especially to get it working correctly like i want.

If someone has a better idea , please say so , i am interested, i am all ears.

I actually have done some work also but saturday i had a surprise party from a friend of mine so i had to stop early.

This is the picture of the cables that come from downstairs mainly for the lights and some sensores and power

Busy closing the cable holders, the wires and tubes/hose that you see on top of these have to be removed but first i have to drain my heating system so i can remove them out of sight.

Everything that goes into the server rack

Cleaned up a little, when the covers are on it looks so much better instead of the spaghetti, it is still allot of work to get the wires in the holder nice and firm next to eachother.

Biggest mess is gone , only needs the covers to be placed on them, it is still allot of work to get the wires in and the wires out on the right places.

And i did some shopping, some more cabinets for the relays and fuses and some nice LED light spots.

Very nice one and real warm white color

Very small LED spot , amazing how much light comes off even when it is running at 12V and 10mA

Small animation of this LED on and off

Nice led for in a hallway on the ground or something

The usage of the LED above this image

This i like for in my garage, it gives allot of light but it is more white then 3000K

Still pretty bright in the dark but the camera's auto settings show it like it is not bright - notice the power usage on the background.

Also got very nice LED drivers that are maybe if the dmx part is not going to act like i want, another solution for my "problem".
Will make a movie about the options it has.
This is it for now, probably friday/saturday/sunday that i am going to work again in my house.

I have done some more work again, progress is slowly but the next week i have no work planned so i can work all week in my home.
This is from the previous week, closed the wire holders and it cleaned up .
You almost ask yourself , where did all the cable go that i have been very busy with the last couple of weekends in a row..

I used the rotation laser that was set level to get a good line for mounting the frame for the cove.

It was more work that i participated but its finally done.
Also made a different plan for the cove, first the whole piece could be removed so that the cable holder and the frame were visible and accessible but now i make the front or side or whatever you want to call it removable.
So the bottom piece is mounted, on top of that comes a 12mm plaster layer so the "stucadoor" can smoothen this out.
The front panel i am going to make removable with magnets

Here i have done some tests to see if it looked nice what i wanted.

Also my DMX decoders arrived yesterday, i do need to add some forced cooling and heat sinks to be sure.

Today i received my Aritech EV475AM PIR units also, bought them fairly cheap, since the new price is 160 or 175 euro at this moment and i paid a little under 20 euro's a piece (and they are new )

Another bargain i could not resist, just 2 euro per roll , bought 25 of them so i can use this my whole life probably haha

Little update, its taking hours and hours of work but i will get there
Have to fold the small bridges for the relay boxes to connect some of them to each other so they form groups.

Got 3 boxes ready now, and it takes a couple of hours, just 12 more to go :S
And i mounted a part of the cove already , now a friend of mine has to make some pieces for me on his job with a big milling machine.
Can do this by hand, but will take days and he can make it in some hours.

Looks much better


These are some of the front pieces for the alkoof piece of the living room, need to mount the neodymium magnets that i still haven't received

And my dad gave me a UPS, not very happy of the constant power consumption it seems to have , about 50 - 75 Watt and thats not even with anything connected to it.

And here are some of the magnetic switches for the more heavy consumers in my house, also got a bunch of impulse relays that use no power at all after being activated.

Also received the energy monitor systems from Brultech in Canada, they gave me a nice Discount also and a present when i opened up the box

Hope to do some work next weekend , got to drive tomorrow night to Germany for work and not sure when i return so we will see.


Ive had a nice bargain actually on marktplaats
Someone sold 4 pieces of the Ubiquity AP Pro versions, that is the dual band accespoint 2.4 and 5 Ghz
These normally cost per piece 227 euro's and i bought 4 of them with a ubiquity gbit POE switch and shipping for 225 €
Very very happy with it of course

I also made a prototype of a simple pcb that contains some relays that the arduino is going to control.
i must say that the result is pretty good, need to solder the components on it and if all works well i will make a few more of them.
Why not use a simple arduino standard board you ask yourself, well i have a couple of these in my parents house and some optocouplers burned out a couple of times.
So i did not want to change them all the time and i made my own board with different none china components and instead of a optocoupler a transistor.
It worked on my breadboard so it should do the same on the pcb as well

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRrV9-K8v18[/youtube]

Hope i can do some work the weekend, i thought i had some spare days but i got work again so no time for the house
I did manage to drain the central heating system so i can change the pipes and some of the parts that are connected wrong.
My neighbour had a very nice tool, he had a sort of mobile freezer, placed 2 clambs on the pipe, top and bottom, after a few minutes it was frozen and i could connect a drain to the pipe without my whole electrics cabinet was getting wet


Today i picked up some extra solar panels and transformers for my home, 20 x 230W panels and 2 GE inverters.
I do need to make a solarpanel ramp to get all of the panels installed on the roof.

since there are already 15 panels on the roof for energy, i need to make something like this :

It is not hard at all, but then i read something about the angle, in the beginning of the year you have more profit when panels are at a 35 degrees angle since.
The roof measurements are about 13 meter x 10 meter
Somewhere later in june or july the sun stands almost on top of us, so then the angle of 15/20 degrees would be better for a bigger profit.
So my idea is to make it changeable .
Use some strong actuators that can lay them flat at 15 degrees or lower so i can play a bit to see what gives a better profit.
Also it will be nice when there is a big storm coming, i could automate then and lower them so that they are as flat as possible on the roof and the wind does not get hold of them easily.

Any one that thinks this is a crazy thing ? or has some experience with this ? glad to hear it, also have been thinking of placing tubes that contain a fluid so the heat that is generated (and normally also gives a lower power output ) could be used inside the home/pool/etc and at the same time trying to take the panel temperature down so that they improve with the power output.

I have done some work on the system again and several other components.
I needed to redo the heating system since the previous owner ( his profession was plumber) has connected it wrong.
When i had a mechanic coming over that specialized in "green" heating systems the first thing he said is that its a miracle that they could get the house at a certain temperature.
I will not list all the problems here but one of the biggest if you ask me is to connect the cold water to the output of the warm water on the heating pump.... also the solar boiler was connected wrong with actuators on it that didn't work , resulting in no water coming from the solar system.

How you ask ? not sure , its a miracle that he was a plumber and got work :roll:

Here i changed the pipes, luckily i could borrow this upenor machine to crimp the connectors on the white hose otherwise i had to use copper and since he did used uponor tubes it made it a bit more easy.
Connectors etc however are pretty expensive :shock:

After i was done, this is the second floor in the garage , also placed a faucet in case i plan to use water upstairs.

Another pretty important thing he forgot to add is the thing you see here, inlaat combinatie, don't know if there is a english word for it :wink:
This has to be placed as close as possible to the CV or in my case the first in the line, solar boiler.
I believe there is even a rule in the law that it is necessary.
So i mounted one.

there is a sewer pipe to drain the water that comes out of it.

All kinds of pumps and stuff placed between the system that are unnecessary.

And its still a bit messy as you can see, need to replace the pipes for plastic pipes HDPE since these contain the cooling liquid going in the source into the ground and because of condensation , waterdrops will hang beneat this steel pipe and start to oxidate.....

I did got a wire in the corner , planning to connect some temperature sensors on the pipes coming out and going in the heathpump.

I have been thinking for a while how to connect or hang the led strips in the cove in the living room and other rooms, i cut some steel plates my dad had laying around ( made them 40 years ago as dividers for his assortment boxes ) and now i am using them as little plates that u mount with double sides sticky tape.
I stick them on the plastic holders that hold the LED strips , these i stick on the magnets i mounted on the cove.

This way i can replace parts of the led strip ( 2.5 Meters) a time if some leds are broken.
Coming weekend i can continue

it's photographed with my phone and my other camera (nex5) hence the different kind of image/color.

Need to place a piece of white wood in the most ugly piece of glass in the world, if you look closely it contains Chinese signs , reminds me a bit like the matrix haha.

Thanks the tape works very good, even when i cut it with some scissors it sticks on them and is difficult to get it off

Also done some work the weekend again, it takes so much time to connect all the LED and place the magnets,plates,led holders and the front of the cove.
But its coming there piece by piece.

it's photographed with my phone and my other camera (nex5) hence the different kind of image/color.

Need to place a piece of white wood in the most ugly piece of glass in the world, if you look closely it contains Chinese signs , reminds me a bit like the matrix haha.

Well a little update since the last post.
I didnt do much since i have allot of work going in and out of hotels even most saturdays i have been at work, what can i say, i can use the money :roll:

 

[vincenttor]

But, i did have a bargain with some nice real warm white colored LED spots.
I was shocked about the price they normally would cost in a store:

led-verlichting.org/led-spot-700ma-25-w ... f392004d63
I will use these in the house on several places, and maybe if they can withstand a little bit of moisture i can hang a few outside (below the gutter)

Also i have "rebuild" a bezel/frame for of a pipo x8 computer with screen,
old one was broken.
its actually for a friend of mine, and not totally completed yet, he is looking for a nice wood sort that he likes and then he only use vernis to finish it.

I did not have my heatpump system on for a while since i was not much there,
but when i wanted to turn on the system the red light was on, resulting in a error , anode was gone

I needed to drain the tank but that did not go well since there was allot of build up chalk.
After about an hour i got it empty enough to open it up.

These are the anodes, just a aluminum rod , 1 with a small hole in it with a pressure switch on the end so when they are dissolved i get the red error light lighting up

This is how i took them out.

Also there has been not much maintenance if you ask me, and as i said before, the previous owner was a plumber.....

So not much work to be done at this saturday but i did have a working system again.
Also i could test my FLIR camera, since i wanted to drill a few holes trough the ground/floor tiles but since i got floor heating and no drawing whatsoever i didnt do this yet.
Now i got it visible with the camera.

Another thing i found is probably a leakage in the draining system for the rain water, the neighbor told me that when the house was build, they forgot to connect 1 of the pipes to the sewer.
Previous owner did connect it himself, but again , his job hasn't been a good one.
Big part of the sand has flushed away beneath the stones at my front door....

Still got some work to do since i could not find the leak yet, under my house is a private swimming pool but now i know why.
I can see from the outside the plastic isolation foam and the water has probably flooded in because of this.
The water level is much lower then the water under my floor in the house so it has to be a leakage or something / somewhere ( yes i have checked my water meter but thats not it)

I bought some Chinese LED floodlights.
But as with most they come for 220-240 VAC with a CE approved sticker on them haha.
I have had 2 explosions of these sort of LED drivers that are placed inside a piece of isolation tape.
So i replaced that driver right away with a european one, and these are also self adjusting, with the ampere output and voltage.
These are also dimmable by 0 - 10V or with a pulse .

Then i thought , hmm i can make it dimmable for outside, jst for fun
Used the pwm ports on the arduino, but these are normally 5v output or maybe 3,3 v so i needed to make a little circuit and it worked after some searching on the internet and playing around
At first i could not get it right because i could not get it down to 0V but it stayed on 2V .
Now i got it working from 0 - 10 Volts.

Made a prototype for a sort of break out board for the arduino mega.
the flat cable i have soldered at this picture on the board but the idea behind it was to use the male/female connectors so normal flatcables could be placed on the board.
So they are easy to replace or connect and since the arduino has also a i believe 42 pin connect on it this was the best solution.
At that time i didn't have the connectors yet and i needed this board but it did work.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yumdmc0qOxQ[/youtube]

Small test board i made with some relays also for the arduino

Another nice thing to know is that , i actually do not fully understand but well its ok
There is about 35/40 meter of LED strip on the side of the walls , warm white.
The chinese sellers say that the strips are using about 2A or 2.5A per 5 meter.
Let's say i have 40 meters, that would be then 40/5= 8
So 8 x 2A would be 16A right ?

At 12.5 Volts it uses just 2 Amps ???

I used another psu, this was a older transformer one peaked at 13.8 Volt
With a multimeter i measured a big higher amps but thats because of the 1,3 Volts more so logical that it draws more amps.

Anyway, its not a disaster if these lights stay on for a night by accident, not that its going to happen
And the light is not even that bad, enough sight even to do some reading but better for watching TV for example.

Another thing i could buy somewhere are a pile of automatic fuses, going from 2A to 120A for 2 / 3 phase and 220-400 Volts.
All are brand new
got about 1600 pieces of them.

- - - Updated - - -



Not so long ago i have been in contact again with Dave from the USA.
He has made some sort of plugin/script for homeseer that controls a arduino with a DMX shield and ethernet shield.
I am a sort betatester so very grateful for this that he wants to share it

I do have one problem with the green board, it does not work...
Tested most options i could test, they do work if i set the jumpers to a certain number so there is a output signal
But it does not respond on the arduino/dmx device.

Luckily i got some 3 channel pcbs also, and those do work, strange thing is that i linked the arduino dmx master to the green 30 channel board from thta board i linked a cable to the 3 channel board.
i could turn the 3ch board on/off and program but the bigger board doesnt respond like it should .
Contacted the seller, he asked me first to test with another dmx master, i do not think it will matter since DMX is DMX, and the smaller board is working.
But i agreed , hopefully next week i can borrow a dmx mixer to test them otherwise i have to find boards that do work.....

So have to test and see what comes out of this matter.
That didn't stop me from making 1 of the cabinets for my lights since i still need this.

used the cnc router to puncture small holes , can't do steel with the machine, maybe it is possible but very slow.
So now i have the machine made small holes and i have done them all by hand :roll:

It took me a while but well, its for a good cause.
Pity that the machine does not like steel otherwise it would me much more in 1 line, some are a bit next or off the line because the drill (loopt weg ?).

Small Amp/watt/volt meter build in, that i am going to connect on the 12V source just for fun, also next to it a small temp meter.
Ofcourse i am going to be able to read this on the computer, but this is for when there is a emergency or broken controller.
I can turn on all my lights in the house just on a 12v battery and to keep the draw low i can now see how much it uses and use the dimmers i a going to build in 2 x 30A.

matt black and some silver with matt vernis/clearcoat on it.
then the fun part , place all the switches and led bezels.... pff been busy on the 24th from 9.30 till 15.30 haha and still not done because i did not received all the led bezels yet.

Thats that for now, tomorrow ill post some of my other stuff i have been working on, not fully related with my house but still nice project that im learning from and i want to be able to use in my system.


Anyway, i have done some work.
Placed a couple of camera's on my building
Also i made a support so i could hang the ptz on the corner of the garage to have a better view.

But then i thought why not place it a big higher on top of the roof and i made some other supports

Time to place the camera's

Here is a video of the quality, and i am pretty satisfied actually.
At night its also ok, will make a video later at night mode.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txk7iT03Viw[/youtube]

2 other 4 Mp camera's hang on the wall, 1 has a 2.8 mm lens and thats the widest view, the other is 3.6mm that i need to adjust first.

for a bigger image click this link : im1.shutterfly.com/ng/services/mediaren ... 25/enhance

I know, its messy but hey haha the camera's work
using a old accespoint to receive the internet from my neighbors but since they have a very weak Wifi signal i had to place it behind the front door.
There's is at the opposite side of mine and there ziggo modem is also located there.
Still the signal is weak so i can't receive any signal inside the house, here i used a ubiquiti AP that i had laying around so i broadcast the signal again

The cabinet for my lights i have also done some work on, i ordered some blue diffused LED and warm white since that looks better and more easy to recognize what switchs is turning on what color.
So i have to wait on those LEDs and some big resistors 2watt and 3 watt to hang all those led's on instead of all a small separate resistor.

Also managed to mount the plaster against the cove , bit of a hassle when you are working alone to get it all properly aligned but at about half of the room a friend of mine came to assist me and holding some of the plaster.

Also received a package with some new toys in it.
I do need to build the table and supports for it but it's sort of ready to go.
This is a galvo co2 laser engraver with a 100W tube.

 

[karmadhi]

thank you for sharing, very interesting.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Looks like you are having quite an adventure. Enjoy!

 

[nayr]

now thats how you do it, good work.. cheers.

 

[Q™]

Van I buy the book on Amazon yet?

 

[vincenttor]

Haha, i guess it will take a little while longer before i publish
Very busy now trying to figure out how to make a dmx receiving slave and post this information in my HA software so i can see what light is on or off.
Not much luck yet since i have no idea how to write code, but i'm reading and trying to work something out

 

[johngalt]

Holy shit, I barely have time to read through all this let alone take on a project like this. Awesome work! Thanks for all the cool pics.

 

[vincenttor]

Thanks haha, i know it is a bit to much maybe.
But hey, its a hobby

I am busy now the last several days trying to fetch the dmx signals from a master and make them readable in the home automation software, so i have feedback what light is on and off.
But i have not much luck yet.


So i will have to come back on this when it works, not sure when but i just have to get it working !

 

[tom95521]

I would avoid mechanical relays just because I hate the idea of replacing them in the future due to weak solenoid, contact arcing, etc. I know you can do cool logic stuff with relays but it's the 21st century. The master LED/switch panel looks complicated. I would rather have a software programmable touch screen. Of course your budget is probably less than SpaceX. Also I hate flat roofs with a passion. Just kidding. I could not do what you are doing. You are doing an amazing amount of work and very high quality construction and I wish you success.

 

[vincenttor]

Thanks for the reply Tom

I do not use the relays that i have in the first pictures anymore.
Now i use the DIN size puls relays that pulse and stay on there position so to hold them , no current is needed.



Also i hope these stay in business or still are being used at the time they need to be replaced, i did not feel quite happy with the idea that 16A would go over the other relays.

The led panel is just for when there is a error /broken dmx controller / or when the power is out.
This will be hidden in the closet with all the other electronic stuff.
IT is for manual use for let's say the power is gone, since i have everything on 12V (most of the lights) i can manually turn them on or off but then the dmx controller will be offline as well and the computer. (running from battery)
Same when something is broken , then i still can turn on the lights instead of having a major problem haha and must light some candles because my server is broken or whatever

The rest will be controlled at the wall on a touchscreen/tablet or with your phone.
And most should go automatic when the time i am done making events for every situation that i can think off and would be helpful of course.

I am probably over doing it, but hey, its a hobby and im still enjoying it. Time is one of the problems at this moment haha

 

[vincenttor]

Well i thought I'd update this topic as well for the interested.

I have done some work again , it is getting there but does take some time and i like to do it right.
Busy with the soldering of the wires to the switches and the led.

Some evening hours from this:

to this:

And then this

Then with some cable ties to this:

Had to label the cables temporarily:

Glued the cable holder/divider on it:

And finally it looks like this:

I do have some little wires to solder on it and resistors for the led's but with a small test it kinda looks like this:

Also got the controller/master for the dmx lights , going to place this one at the wall in the living room.
Connect dry contact switches or pulse switches in all the other rooms that i connect to the controller, so for people that come at my house , they usually grab on a wall to find a light switch.
Now they have, when the contact is made, it will trigger a scene that you can create per room and so you have some variation and real switches.
Rest will normally be controlled or automatically or by tablet that hangs on the wall in every room.

Only minor thing is that when this switch is pressed, i do not get any feedback in homeseer , so i never know what light is on or off when this happens.
But for this i am busy to get a working solution, i do know one but that will cost me some money, so first i hope to get it working with a arduino that receives the dmx and converts it to serial/ascii so it can be read by homeseer.

I also am building the rest of the light controller cabinet, have to add more dmx decoders since i need more channels but because of the Chinese new year i have a delay with some of the parts i have ordered.

And there is the sad news that my PTZ 20 x Sunba ip cam is sort of broken.
I do have contact now with the seller so i hope we can get it solved instead of sending the camera back.
Will keep it updated

Thats it for now

 

[nayr]

all that quality work and you went with Sunba for your PTZ? shakes his head, cut your losses and get your self a Dahua, I am on year 2 now and its still operating like the day its was installed.. **knock on wood**

love your wiring porn, keep it coming.

 

[vincenttor]

Well, reason i tried this sunba cam is that for the price of a hikvision model i can buy several others.
In this case it seems like i have a shitty model ;( is actually the first cam that is broken after a few weeks, got a older cam here about 8 years in a row running and still moving.
Think it costed 140 usd or less then ( analoge) so i was hoping that this cam would have the same life.
It is probably the controller board/pcb that has an error since the image still works and zoom, only up down left right and IR are gone

But you are right a Hikvision model could have saved me the trouble indeed of getting the cam down i know , i do like the Hikvision auto tracking function, have been looking at a camera from them but the price is what holds me from buying.
Hope it all get's solved by replacing a part or software setting , if not , i will see what i can do with it .
If it is only the board for the motors this can be easily replaced by a arduino with stepper controller if needed
haha another project

 

[nayr]

look at it like this, PTZ is like multiple cameras in one.. Instead of me having a bunch of cameras dedicated to looking at a low risk entry point (ie, window, mailbox) you can put 1 PTZ in a clever enough spot it can cover the roles of many.. each of My PTZ's has at least 5-6 presets being monitored by physical sensors, so at $100 a camera then a $500-600 cost for a quality PTZ dont seem like so much to swallow.. I dont have to cover the storage space of all those cameras looking at mostly nothing, and its much easier to stay discrete while still having very good coverage.

unlike fixed cameras PTZ's got way to many moving parts, and we all know nothing that moves will last forever.. im sure you know how expensive quality stepper motors can get when compared to the cheap ones, the cheap ones are really nice for a budget but nobody ever expects them to last the long haul.. I bet most of those cheap ptz's are being killed by there own motors spiking current back through the board.

Be happy that now days you can get a good quality camera PTZ for $500-800, a decade ago it would of cost you a couple grand and I could see the logic behind replacing many cheap-o ones before even coming close to the cost of a commercial grade one.

 

[vincenttor]

Well for me the PTZ is just more fun.
And the ptz can't be everywhere this is why i have the static cams.
Always the image you "need or want".
So for a toy 500+++ is a bit to much, but i understand what you mean.
For security purposes i do not think a ptz is a great tool to replace many cams with the thing in mind if there are more then 1 burglars and the ptz is tracking just 1 of them.

Still for a toy it's also allot of money especially when it breaks.
Got contact with the seller right now and they want to perform some tests, that's ok.
Will see further what's going to happen and in the future what happens with the unit self.
I probably have a faulty version , let's hope this is the case and when this part is replaced it will stay working for years.
Like my analog toy that runs for years in the cold/hot days without any service

 

[vincenttor]

Been almost a year ago that i have been active here, shame on me
It has been a very active year for me with my work and everything around it but allot of things happened and luckily most in a good way.

So here the post with allot of pictures will come.
Sorry for all the images but i guess most people have a fast enough connection to load them all

Well there is an update. actually a bunch of updates but i couldn't find the time to do it.
Also had some personal stuff that i needed to deal with and my work was getting in the way, work work work and well nothing is what drove me crazy and still does but i have changed things.
Said no to allot of jobs outside of the Netherlands and to jobs that take weeks/months of my time and sleeping in hotels or bungalows.
So thats that, still a few weeks to go (10) before my sort of deal/contract finishes and then i got some work close at my home and more time for sport/friends/building my house.

I was busy with my lights, this took a bit of work as you can see.

im not sure where i got the other images but this is when i had a small part of the wires connected.
need to clean up the wires coming out of the cabinet and in side a bit.

A small video with the test of some of the lights, cabinet is not fully build yet and i had no idea how this software worked but i could get it running and make some scenes.
[youtube][/youtube]

I also am not a fan of warm white Chinese made LED lights, well most of them are not really warm white as far i have discovered after ordering allot of test lights.
The lights i am fond of are from lumotec, i believe the company is now in Poland but was in NL as well.
Got a box with the led pcbs , they are warm white like a light bulb.
But i need to place them into a housing because it need to be cooled for the longest life span and i needed something to mount in the ceiling etc.
So i bought some cheap aluminum housings , took out the China LED and placed mine in, used some cooling paste for a computer cpu so the heat would be transferred a bit better.

done some tests to see what temperatures it would reach, also added a cooling fan on the back with a heatsink, connected this small fan also on the 12v power supply and since the led's are dimmed by PWM , the small motor was also turning slower.
This luckily resulted in almost no sound when turning

very difficult to solder on the aluminum pcbs btw, because they heat up and cool the hot spot to fast ;(

without cooling fan , and 700mah on the led's the max temp i measured on the led itself was 48 degrees.

with the fan on with the same ratings these measurements came out.

Much more satisfying, not sure what temp they are able to reach but it looks good so far.
After a while i decided to buy some of the led spots with the same led pcb in them but a original modell from lumotec because the light image was smaller .
Mine are very wide, the "home made" ones and when testing them at night sitting at the couch they were a bit bright and you could look into the lights much faster that would probably be irritating after a while.


Then suddenly my van broke down that i use for my work, well the turbo was broken.
so needed to replace this in the little time i had, nasty job with the old oil, i know needed to replace it sooner but well...

So that was nice, later on my alternator was broken as well, bearings gone etc
This is because i used an amplifier for my cb hobby that could draw 90Amps at 12Volts and the alternator handled this for a good 2 years


Then my other interests , cctv camera's
ordered some cams cheaper and expensive ones to review the sensors for the best image, only want the best for the least ofcourse haha.

made a camera stick haha, the worst part is i put it up outside and did not even bother to make a review per cam :roll:
need to get into this again when my house is finished

a bit of garbage after cleaning for the second time, this is from wiring the light cabinet.

then i took my couch out of the plastic to see how it would fit and where i would make the holes for my lights.
i know its a bit big but hey, its great to watch some tv or whatever

days passed because of work , in the weekend i didnt feel to do anything but i did build with some old stuff a sort of rack for my other hobby
going to make a small prive gym upstairs since i got enough space.

its not the nicest thing i have made but well im not a carpenter haha.

did in the mean time some wiring for a friend of mine in his new home, man i hate bending 6mm2 wires with a plier and my hands.

But a licensed electrician came by to measure the grounding pen if all was oke, he looked into the case an said it was pretty neat job for a non electrician and the only 3 things where that 2 screws where not tight enough, and i used as main switch a 400v breaker since i did not have another one, with a logical explanation when another breaker will fail the main switch will probably then break and the whole house electricity is offline

So this was a great compliment

And then, i have a garden...

this took also 2.5 hours or more and now 2 months later you can guess haha, its back.

Here will come a swimming pool, using this water as a buffer to cool my solar panels
goodbye garden haha.

Time to drill the holes with a holesaw 140mm, the machine i use is one of the heaviest models on battery so i thought great since its a big hole.

Then on the second last hole it jammed , i was standing on stairs and there i went, well i as on the stairs but i thought my wrist was broken.
put it under the cold water, after a while it felt oke , but i had problems with it for 4 weeks, could not do much and i still went to work ....
probably better if i took some days off .
But most lights are fitted now.

made some acrylic gears for Aisharay or Bram on this forum , came out nice i must say.

At first i was busy making my own pcbs on my milling machine but this took to much time and effort, double sided was a problem as well.
Found a "cheap" Chinese company that makes for 30 usd 10 boards 10x10cm

drawed some relay boards for the arduino's (why not the cheap standard ones, well in my parents house, the optocoupler got broken/molten/burned on several boards am not sure why but this is not very good to rely on so i made my own boards)
Also a board that detects 230V , converts this to 5v so i can put this on the arduino and read out my pulse relais what is on and off.
Another board is the breakout board for the arduino mega.

one of the relay boards, of 2 that are running for the last few weeks without problems at my parents house.

Then i decided it was time to put away some of my hobbies/interests, still with a bit of pain but i quit the radio hobby.
My biggest tower from stainless steel got sold, i wanted to move this to France for my remote controller station but this will never be finished since i got my house and to much work.
so there it went ;(
I did manage to get 300€ more then i paid for it, i should have put a much higher price on the internet since it was sold and no questions asked about the price...

For my lights i needed some more space because it was to much in 1 cabinet and bought a used case made some adjustments and painted it, also put it on the wall on top of the one that was already there.

Then i was planning to use the small DIN rail cabinets for my breaker switches but i decided to buy the same case and build it like the one i made for a friend of mine.
at the moment i added more earthing switches and breaker switches since i had to little..

 

[vincenttor]

then it was time to wire everything and start with the puls relais wiring,
later friday evening i started, since there was a fun fair i guess its called in Volendam, i got called a bunch of times where i was to drink beer and all.
But i decided to work at my house from friday till monday ( had a day off )
I got pretty far i must say, it was even so worse then i dreamed about wiring haha.

and here on the left is another cabinet that i have added but i have to wait because i am waiting on more pulse relais..

Here you can see if you look closely that i added the CT rings (black/white wires on the image ) on each output so i can measure the power usage per item.

Also added a small wire , the grey one that is on the left , needs to be connected to the 230v detection board.
and 2 network cables that go from the relay board/detection board to the arduino breakout board.
this all takes allot of time and work, but well it is probably the last time i will see this .

and some of the mess i made after wiring it again...

and after these days i had a great discovery in my garden

thats that, story is not very great to read sorry about that but i really need to sleep.
Tomorrow again 6.15 in the car to work so i needed to hurry a bit :roll:

I have done some work again this weekend.
And this afternoon i connected the power , it didn't smoked or started to burn :twisted:
Some devices finally powered up again like the fridge and microwave without extension cords haha.

And busy with my lowered ceiling in the bathroom

far from done but its a start.
And hopefully somewhere next week or 2 weeks from now all the doors and windows will be replaced by plastic window frames with triple glass.
First wanted to do this myself since i have done this once and its a easy job.
But now i only will take out the old windows and they are going to be replaced by a company for the "service and repairs" if some will occur.
Then i need to do some little stuff to the house and make my tv wall.
Which i won't make with a sliding mirror in front of it but for now to finish/live in the house i will hide it only behind a wall with a hole in it.
And later when i live there and have some more time , i will make the sliding mirror in front of the screen behind the wall.
Need to think of a good system, and pretty easy removable system for this fake wall that hides the tv so i can take if off easily and change it.

Another update, not much to do with the home automation part yet, but it needs to be done.
Making a fake ceiling so it is lowered a bit to have some room for the LED spots that i want to use and some wiring that i can now run over the ceailing instead of hiding the wires in the concrete etc etc.
Looks like a easy job but it takes more time that i hoped for, and had a little accident also that set me back 1.5 days since something dropped on my finger top...

I needed some more space, just in case if i forgot some cables so there i went again , making a mess.

needed to make a "easy" slide in cable holder that went into the wall and then using some plaster to hide it again.
so i made it from polypropylene that i had laying around .

and the last part, lowered ceiling downstairs in the entrance hallway.
(yes the wooden parts are not really straight as you can see, bought it at a big pile and it was binded with steel wire, when cutting the wire some of the beams where not straight or right ? at all)

Also busy with floor heating on the 1st floor, reading allot about it how and what.
There are 2 systems that are interesting for me:
dry floors - no need for concrete, response for heating is very fast and good for cooling the house ( since i have a heath pump that supports cooling this would be nice)
wet floors - need for concrete, longer warmup time, probably more work because of the concrete mixing and pouring - drying time for weeks until usage is allowed.

But the downside of the dry floor is that it costs 2700€ for 80m2
And for optimal use you should place pvc floors on it, but those look pretty nice i must say.

Another thing that kept me busy is the forced air circulation system in my home, i think i will use a heat exchanger to use the heat that is normally sucked out of the house , to pre heat the incoming fresh air.
There is a "closed" shaft like space in the middle of the room and this contains the sewer pipes and the air pipes, but there is only 1 that takes air out , not bringing new fresh air in.
I will have to open the shaft and make a door in it, this is possible but i have to break open a wall.

And another thing is what i just like, the idea behind it, and making the piping system for it ( since i work with plastics this is a piece of cake )
That is using rain water, digging a hole in the grond 3x3x1.5m l x b x h and place 9 IBC 1000Liter tanks in the ground that are connected to each other.
use some small filtering and make a sort of tank with a concrete wall to get the correct PH values so it wont be acidic for the machines.
Since i like to connect the water to my washing machine (clothing) this has some good influence on the fabric, softer, less soap, no more, "ontkalken" ?
Flushing the toilets, and i have been thinking of using the water as shower water.
But i read somewhere that the roof i use is not very good for personal hygiene since there is Bitumen on the roof and that could be a problem.
Yes, i know that the water costs almost nothing the Netherlands, still i like to do it, the power is being delivered for the pump by my solar panels.
And who knows, the water becomes more expensive in a few weeks/months/years.

Food for thought

 

[vincenttor]

Thanks for the replies

I took a little while again, i went to the south of the Netherlands again for work and even to England for a little while.
Where someone crashed in the back of my fan when i was traveling , luckily still in the Netherlands.
Just damage on the back nothing further .

Had to rebuild a biogas installation that was burned to the ground a few weeks ago.

Only thing i know is that England is not a country for me to go on a holiday, the left driving on the 4 lane roundabout is kinda troubling for the first time especially when they for got the markings on the road and it is raining and dark... :roll:
I managed to come out without any accidents, the person driving with me said i was actually doing pretty good, and he told me why he wanted me to drive instead of him haha
Year before he went alone and it was no fun, probably better to rent a car there with the steering wheel on the right.
I did see something nice i must add, stoneheadge i believe it is called.

So i was very happy when we where in the train again to France and then back home.
Have allot of work to do and took last week off, this week also for a few days.


About the rain re using, i have read some things about it, actually been reeding for whole evenings about it.
First i thought to use the water after filtering also for my dishwasher since there is little to no chalk in this water.
And i wanted to shower / bath with the same water, this would be possible with filtering machines to make it "drinkable" and will cost way to much money.
It's more a fun project actually, and who knows a few years later there will be certain discovery's to filter it for less then it costs now.
For now i will use a leave/dirt filter to catch the most debris coming from it, as far it would catch leaves because the building is high and far away from trees.
Something like this will filter the first part out as far as i could find , there are bigger filters but the price also rises rapidly ravshopping.nl/3p-regenwater-filter-col ... grijs.html or here for more types : dbcom - Regenwaterfilters

And i will use the water for my washing machine, the water could be with a wrong PH value.
I think they call it acid rain ?, but to get the right PH value when you use a plastic tank you can do several things.
Most easy way is use a concrete tank, but in my case using old IBC plastic 1000L tanks i will lower some concrete blocks in the tank and this will do the same.
So it won't damage the metals in the machine and my clothes.
Use a few small particle filters that do not cost to much or you can wash them to clean them once a .....

The other problem is that the roof needs to be repaired.
This is +/- 240m2.
There is some old layer of bitumen on the roof that needs to be changed.

This whole idea is actually because of another thing i wanted to add on my roof, and that's solar panels.
Since i have 20 panels sitting in my garage not catching any light and i want to place them on a solar ramp on the roof.
I need to drill holes in the roof, connect big pipes with a chuck connection on the construction beams of my house.
Not drilling in the supports or welding on them to leave there strength.
This way i have full strength instead of having to add enormous counter weight for 34 panels in total.
This way the roofing material won't be stressed to much and less weight on the roof, is less weight on the total construction.

Now the old bitumen layer is in a year or two ready to replaced, Bitumen is not great to use when you want to re use rain water since it is just tar , chemicals.
And i can replace the bitumen again with bitumen, but then after 10-15 years or a bit longer i have to replace it again.
So i am going to do my roof with Resitrix, this is a best of both worlds product.
Been reading and searching for days about what to use, what i need , etc etc, until it drove me crazy.

This product should be oke for at least 50 years Resitrix
A friend of mine is working as a slater and he gave me some info what to do and what not and said this is one of the better materials at the moment,
but when searching on rain water re using with a resitrix roof this was dismal, Why?
Well there are several reports on Belgium forum's about brown water coming of these roofs.
In Belgium they are much further with rain water use since i believe it has been mandatory when rebuilding or building your house to add a water tank in the ground and use it.
For this problem i could not find much except painting the whole roof with a special coating, alulon or something similar that would solve the problem.

This was discouraging but i found it more important to "never" have to go up to the roof and replace the material again.
After a little while i found on the internet the SEEH arrangement rvo.nl/subsidies-regelingen/subsidie-en ... eigen-huis
This made me smile a bit more , because it basically says when you insulate your house, at least 2 sorts of isolation.
You can get subsidized for it, for a certain amount of money.
This got my attention and i have been reading and searching how what etc etc for days until night times in bed on my phone :shock: :roll:

So now i am going to place insulatiom PIR plates on the whole roof that are 130mm thick and the RD value of these plates is RD 5.48.
I first opened my old roof to see what was under it, here i found 100mm PS plates with a RD value of 2 at most.. so this would be a great improvement.

But for the arrangement this is not enough just roof isolation.
I wanted to add cavity wall insulation , drilling a hole in the wall learned me that i have already small plastic sort of snow between the cavity wall.
Then i read a bit further, HR++ or triple glass will count as 1.

So i am in luck this time because i in December i am going to replace all the doors/windows and frames for triple glass and insulated frames.
Everything will be plastic and triple glass, these also count, and you have a extra option on the SEEH arrangement for using Triple glass in combination with insulated window frames.
Also the doors i ordered are like vault doors, insulated and for this you can get 120 € every 1m2
Since i have 14 m2 of doors and 16m2 window frames this will save me some money

These are the models i chose , a different color though.

Since i wanted to replace the air refreshing system for a balanced ventilation system with a heat exchanger i read allot about it.
But i came to the conclusion that it would take to much work to add this vent channel in each room and a channel to take the "dirty" air out.
I work quite some times with air systems but a bit bigger for, for example this is what i made a little while ago :

To have the right amount of airflow you have to start as big as possible and then make the end smaller to have the right air speeds.
When using to much elbows you will constrict the airflow resulting in bad values and noise.
Also another thing was that i have to go from round tubes to square tubing if i want to hide the tubes in my fake ceiling.
I also a little while added my fake ceiling plaster plates and it basically takes to much time to do all this and keep the sound production away.
Some good sites to read if you are interested are these :
Balansventilatie
olino.org/articles/2010/03/08/aanleg-en ... entilatie/

So i decided to just place a Itho box with a CO2 sensor in the rooms that will arrange when to start to vent if it is needed.
This i can control quite easily with a arduino since they have a 0-10v connection.
I worked for a few weeks for a friend of mine, he has a demolition company.
When demolishing a home in Amsterdam i took the central heating boiler away and the air vent from itho box.
Opened this and there was also a 0-10v connection

Also want to make a shower heat exchanger, i mean this model :

Just for the fun of it, and if it really works well , why not

Some stuff i have done in my house after some busy weeks again is taking out the floor of the bathroom.
Im so happy that my dad gave me a present a few weeks ago , they are pretty cheap in France , no brand, but works absolutely great.
Believe me when i say that this is nothing compared to the standard drilling machines from makita for instance with a hammer function, without this i would have been busy for several more weeks.
My neighbor is also happy i think , 3 weekends busy hammering the *** out of it haha.
my other neighbor came to me and asked if i needed some wooden supports, why i asked ?
Well we are shaking and enjoying the sound from your hammer, these neighbors live about 7 meters next to me and the houses are not connected , to give you a impression of the noise :twisted:

It took 3 trailers full with debris

and finally

Also made a choice about the floor heating system and i chose the wet system using concrete since the price of the dry system was way to high for me.

For a first time it was a bit of a hassle, first insulation so the heat would be radiated to the top instead of in the concrete.
and some gauze where the hose would be fitted on.

At first i placed a hose with my dad on te the bathroom floor, its very sturdy to handle the hose and it gets in a knot very fast.

After being busy from the morning till i think it was 23.30 i was getting mad and at the point of cutting the hose since this happened all the time, being alone it is very annoying and i stopped with it.

I spoke to a forum member on telegram and he offered me to help , thanks allot R_255 ;0 ext morning i picked him up and we manage to place the hose in some rooms.
Also the rooms need to be divided in zones, every zone can be 120M max in length otherwise the floor heating won't work optimal.
But where to end , so you have enough hose left to get back to the divider/connection point.
Well he thought of a great way, using a cable 120m in length and put that on the ground to see what we could do and this worked.

Been busy till the night, yesterday also some work but the tywraps i bought ( 2000) are gone so i am going to pick up some more to finish the last room.