What Is Raspberry Pi Home Automation & How It Works

Raspberry Pi Home Automation

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Raspberry Pi home automation is now here and it works. With a bit of passion, tinkering, and concentration, you can up the security of your own home and automate certain chores at the fraction of a cost by using a Raspberry Pi. How do you turn your house into a smart home through this tech? Noobie has all the details to share.

Raspberry Pi Home Automation for a Tech-Powered House

What is Raspberry Pi?

What is Raspberry Pi? | What Is Raspberry Pi Home Automation & How It Works | Raspberry pi projects

The Raspberry Pi is a small computer, the size of a credit card, designed by its inventors to teach children computing concepts and the basics of programming. You can power the Raspberry Pi via USB, connect it to a TV, plug in a keyboard and a mouse, and boot up its free operating system.

DIY hackers and computing aficionados have integrated the Raspberry Pi into their projects and extended the application of the computer beyond its use for education. We’ll continue to talk about the basics of Raspberry Pi home automation in the next sections.

The Raspberry Pi Home Automation Hub

The Raspberry Pi Home Automation Hub | What Is Raspberry Pi Home Automation & How It Works | Raspberry pi projects

Apple home automation, Wink home automation, and other home automation systems require hubs in order for the smart gadgets to gel cohesively and work to provide a seamless experience. The principle also applies In a Raspberry Pi home automation system. Your Raspberry Pi unit will serve as a web server which coordinates the operation of the sensors and switches you’ll integrate with your Internet of Things devices.

Pros of a Raspberry Pi Home Automation System


1. Raspberry Pi Home Automation is Cost Effective

The cost of setting up a Raspberry home automation is cheaper than other systems. Raspberry Pi units sell as much as 41.00 USD and the Arduino chipsets you’ll need for sensors and switches costs as low as 19.00 USD. If you’re thinking of creating a hub and around 4 pieces of devices, it’ll set you as much as 150.00 USD or less.

2. Raspberry Pi Home Automation is Open Source

There are no licenses to pay or any provisions keeping you from tinkering around with the product or reproducing the devices.

3. No Limits on Inventiveness in Raspberry Pi Home Automation

DIY enthusiasts and electronics experts are always devising newer and newer Raspberry Pi projects. Best of all, the developers and device creators always share the blueprints of their work for free.

Cons of a Raspberry Pi Home Automation System

Cons of a Raspberry Pi Home Automation System | What Is Raspberry Pi Home Automation & How It Works | Raspberry pi projects

1. Technical Know-how is a Must

Anyone who wants to work on Raspberry Pi advanced projects like home automation needs to know a bit of programming and vocational skills like soldering electronics. However, crafting projects for your Raspberry Pi home automation system will upgrade your skills considerably.

2. You Need to Make a Time Investment

Since you’ll have to everything yourself, you will need to invest a certain amount of time in order to learning and tinkering with the devices. You will also have to install everything yourself.

3. The Form Factor is Bare

Unless you craft covers for your devices, they’ll appear as exposed chips. This can be a problem if you’re particular about design and how things harmonize with the interiors of your home.

4. No Technical Support to Back You Up

Since Raspberry Pi projects are strictly DIY, you will have to work on your own to troubleshoot issues that may arise.

Here are some devices you can make to automate your home with your Pi:


1. Uber Sensor

You can download plans for a general sensor design using Arduino and apply modifications accordingly to make the device sense motion or particular noise level or detect water leaks or smoke. Once something trips them, the sensors will send data to the Raspberry Pi web server which notify you through your smartphone of the activities in your home.

So far here are the things you can modify the sensor to detect:

  • Motion and presence
  • Smoke
  • Fire
  • Heat
  • Gas
  • Water leaks
  • Light
  • Temperature

2. Raspberry Pi Security Camera

Security isn’t limited to just sensors. You can also create a security camera which will activate once it detects motion, capture visuals, and store the clip in a web server.

3. Dog Wearables

In case you have a dog and you want to monitor if she escapes and poos somewhere far beyond your yard, you can create a special collar which tracks your pet. The collar contains a GPS module for tracking a tilt module to detect when the dog assumes a defecating position.

4. Doorbell with SMS Notification

There is a plan for creating a doorbell which will ring once someone pushes it. In case you’re far away from the door, you will get an SMS notification on your phone about your visitor.

5. Plant Watering System

You can even get your Raspberry Pi to automatically water your plants even if you’re not home. The Raspberry Pi unit can even work off weather predictions so it will water your plants if there is going to be a dry spell for days.

You can view more incredible Raspberry Pi home automation projects from Instructable and Techradar to consider automating for your own crib.

Check out this video from the Raspberry Pi Foundation on YouTube to learn more:

Why pay major companies for smart home gadgets, when you can keep the savings to yourself? The Raspberry Pi can fuel your smart home’s ecology and dictate the kind of information available to you about your own house. With some time investment and elbow grease, you can make your own home living not just smart but a stroke of its own genius.

What Raspberry Pi home automation gadgets excited you most? Do you plan on creating any soon? Comment down below.

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