Home automation security software

Why not give it a try? Download ioBroker or read the documentation. AGO Control is a neat open source dashboard that allows you to control and automate your devices faster than any other platform. Its strength lies in its simplicity.

As a framework for home automation, AGO Control allows you to connect anything you want inside and outside the home. The lightweight protocol makes it easily readable both by machines and humans Download AGO Control or check out the gallery. It's hard not to like Domoticz because it gives you everything you need without asking for much in return. On their website, you can find step-by-step guidance for installing and implementing the software.

Even better, the community is very active! At the time of writing this article, there are plenty of posts on how to use plugins and devices.

This is exactly what an open source platform like Domoticz needs, and it's the ideal support for students who are looking to learn. Download Domoticz now , get the manual PDF or visit the forum.

FHEM is well-known in the world of home automation. It's an open source GPL perl server used to automate common tasks in the house such as switching the lights on or off, regulating the heating, and more.

Most of the protocols used in home automation are supported with FHEM, and the documentation is great… if you can manage to find what you're looking for. With a bit of a messy interface and some German popping out of nowhere, FHEM is still a good choice for enthusiasts.

Download FHEM or read the wiki. Another French player, Calaos is an open source platform for home automation with a decently sized community to back it up. The forum is not as active as the one from Domoticz, but it's good enough to learn more about the traits of the software. Calaos is interesting because it offers an entire stack of apps to be used across multiple devices: Web, Android, iOS, Linux, and more.

The documentation also teaches you how to get everything set up on your own. Try it on your own! Download Calaos or learn how to use it. Like many other frameworks in this area, Pimatic runs on Node. The key focus of this framework is flexibility: it can be picked up rather quickly and "easily.

Install Pimatic on your system or try the demo. This means that, once installed on your low-power machine including the Raspberry Pi , it can service the same requests you are used to on your iOS device via Siri. The original contributors to this project thought of this because of the countless devices that couldn't connect to the Apple ecosystem, bringing the best of both home automation and open source projects together.

Check out the Homebridge plugins or visit the Github page. A community project. That's what Uwe Freese calls Smarthomatic. Uwe built the framework after years of working with microcontrollers in his personal and work life. Being so close to the world of home automation, he started putting many of the ideas he gathered on a daily basis together. And while it's not the most extensive platform out there, this open source solution is definitely interesting considering that it was built specifically to handle tasks for the home rather than anything else.

Download Smarthomatic or visit the GitHub page. Alexa, turn on the lights Use Alexa to control Home Assistant. Now available for pre-order. Home Energy Management Monitor your energy usage, transition to sustainable energy and save money.

Home Assistant Blue! Where style and performance meet privacy. Join the Home Assistant t-shirt revolution! Look sharp in blue, black or gray. Wearing a HA t-shirt is okay. Works with over devices. Home Assistant integrates with over a thousand different devices and services. Turn on the light when the sun sets or when coming home Alert you when you leave your garage door open.

It also, of course, works as a central home automation hub, and easily connects with many other smart devices. You can control lighting, heating, security, and the typical range of smart home through voice commands or the user-interface by swiping or tapping screen options as required.

Where the Google Nest Hub really excels is through its integration with Google Services, not least web search, which is still more developed than most competitors, if somewhat over-whelmed by ads and Google self-promotion these days.

However, the Google Nest Hub isn't a full media device so you can't access digital subscriptions the way you can with Chromecast. Additionally, while the display is great for close-up interactions, the small 7" screen means it's not so usable when across a room. Altogether, the Google Nest Hub is a great little piece of kit that works fine with other smart devices, and the addition the visual element can be user-friendly at times.

However, Google continue to be plagued by privacy concerns, not least the company's zeal in storing as much user-data as possible. The Wink Hub 2 is one of the most versatile of the featured hubs for home automation. The hub itself can be set up wirelessly or connected to your router with an ethernet cable. After that, you download the Wink app to your Android or iOS device, and then control everything from inside the app. From there you can select which other smart devices you want to connect with, and control their settings accordingly.

This means that commands are generally made via a visual interface, similar to the Google Home Hub. However, as it's all run through a device you're likely to be carrying, such as your smartphone or even wearable smartwatch, you don't need to worry about looking across a room for information. However, the Wink 2 doesn't use voice commands by default, but you can use any existing voice assistant built into your device, such as Google Assistant or Siri, or you can even use Alexa.

Where the Wink Hub really excels is the ability to set up conditions for your other smart devices by default, making it truly the center of your home automation system. For example, you could set your smart lights to come on automatically at specific times, or the heating or air conditioning to come on at set temperatures, or tell security cameras to record when a door sensor is activated.

In this way, your home can become not just connected but automatically controlled. The one downside to this is that the Wink 2 app might not offer the same fine-tuning that dedicated apps for the smart devices might also offer, such as command a smart thermostat to be switched on-off across vacation dates.

Overall, though, Wink offers a decent system with more options than some other automation hubs offer. This is especially by allowing your controls to be more personalized using IFTTT as a built-in default, something other hubs often need third-party software to enable. The Samsung SmartThings hub aims to bring the smart home system together with a single home automation hub, which is operated through a mobile app.

Samsung also produce a number of peripheral devices to work directly with it, not least motion sensors, multipurpose sensors, and smart buttons. The Samsung SmartThings hub also plays well with with most third-party smart devices, though it doesn't have so many connectivity options as some, being mainly restricted to Z-Wave and Zigbee protocols.

A notable feature of the Samsung SmartThings hub is that it comes with a built-in battery power option, so that in the event of a power failure the system will continue to run, unlike some standalone hubs.

It's also relatively simple and painless for other smart devices to connect with the hub, at least at first. However, while Samsung are known to be good with hardware, they've yet to established their credentials with software, and this shows with the SmartThings app in that it isn't so user-friendly as some other app-based home automation systems.