That said, this example only uses the DHT11 sensor, which can read temperature and humidity, plus the MQ-2 which reads propane and CO. A breadboard, wires, and resistors seemed a bit excessive at first, but I have ended up using just about every part in this kit. The buttons, sliders, and various tactile input devices feel surprisingly nice for a relatively cheap kit. This saves a lot of time otherwise spent digging around the internet looking for the right libraries. The Adeept kit comes with excellent pinout diagrams and source code in a PDF. This is a great place to start if you’ve not built anything with Arduino before. I first got my hands on a 3-pack of Arduino nanos ($14) and an IOT sensor starter kit ($75). Finally, you can package the finished product in any creative way you like, making it more aesthetically pleasing ( see what I mean). Plus, it’s cheaper than buying brand-name sensor packages. The electronics have gotten cheap enough, and the tools good enough that anybody can put some pieces together and make… something.Įntertainment value aside, building DIY sensors for a smart home offers increased security and privacy. There’s a reason there are so many maker-kits aimed at kids. I know I was daunted by Arduino before I actually started playing with one. You can skip this first section or two if you already know your way around Arduino the second half of the post looks at the process of integrating Raspberry Pi sensors into a network.

And since the cabin is heated with propane, a smoke+ CO2 sensor helps with a sense of security. But why stop there? The cabin is outside Denver, where it is extremely dry - humidity readings set the stage to later automate the humidifiers, too. The first step in building a learning thermostat from scratch is to have good temperature readings in each of the zones.

It was the first step toward building a “Nest-equivalent” smart (programmable) tri-zone thermostat with Grafana integration. This was the first sensor built for my retrofit of a snowy cabin into a smart home. One simple approach to home automation is to treat the Arduino as a USB device which provides the Raspberry Pi sensors’ readings. Many people come to the DIY IOT space by way of Arduino Uno & Nano.

Arduino uno pinout firmata