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LoRa WAN - new network of 'things'. Homey compatible??
Hi guys, just heard about this new Dutch initiative:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/419277966/the-things-network/
Open source and free IoT platform.
Their kickstarter FAQ says:
"Our hardware will be compatible with 433mHz, 868mHz and 910mHz."
So I am curious (and hopefully @Emile can provide an answer) if this can be made Homey compatible through an app. Or even by adding native support to it because the needed hardware (868 MHz transmitter is already present in Homey and The Things provide their code on github...
So let's say I buy only a few of their 'nodes' at €40,- a piece, will those be usable (of course not at such a long distance but rather short distance)?
Or will I only be able to let Homey communicate with their router/gateway which in turn dies the communication with the nodes?
Comments
Well, of course I can't be sure, but if it's working on 433 MHz it should theoretically be able to get them to communicate
Thanks @Emile. They also say "LoRaWAN is currently active on three open frequencies. Europe uses 868mHz, the USA uses 915mHz and Asia uses 433mHz."
So Europe will be 868. Do you still think it might be compatible?
If so, if I want to become a backer, would I still need their gateway of will the nodes suffice for me?
Yeah, 868 works exactly the same as 433 in Homey.
And the nodes might work, but without having tested them I can't be sure of course.
@Jonathan, I've also seen that kickstarter, but not sure how it fits into things. Is it that you're wanting homey to act as a gateway?
@DaneeDeKruyff I would like to somehow let Homey interact with LoRaWAN so that the input signals of their nodes or any other sensor working on large distance and can be included in Homey scenes.
I guess I'll need their gateway then as well?
Ah, ok, I understand. So to use their example; when your boat in the canal starts sinking, you want your homey to be notified and let homey take care of alerting you.
I took another look at their project page and if I understand it correctly a node sends alerts to the gateway via a 868mhz signal, the gateway forwards that (via the internet) to a router that act as a broker. A handler can subscribe to messages on a router and can process that further via 'existing internet of things cloud platforms' such as IFTTT.
So if homey can act as the receiving party for IFTTT all you would need are nodes (that is, if I understand it correctly
I think that's correct. Your LoRaWAN 'thing' needs to be in reach of a LoRaWAN router, then you somehow receive the message through the regular Internet and of course Homey can be made aware of the message. So Homey doesn't need to be LoRaWAN capable through its 868MHz radio.
We just have to make sure Homey will support MQTT. TheThingsNetwork uses this protocol.
Amazon IoT, which is also just released, also works on MQTT. I think this will be a very important protocol in the future for IoT applications.
I'm not an expert, but personally I think it will take a while before the big outdoors internet of things gets connected to the indoor smart home.
It is my understanding that LoRa Wan is most suited for projects which gether slow changing urban data like http://blog.safecast.org/maps/. Of Course there are many more hugely diverse things the technology can be used fro, but I don't see many relevant use cases for the smart home at this moment in time (but please surprise me).
Homey is a significant step in the right direction as it combines vendor specific drivers with into one platform with the ability to implement any open standard. Thus, if I would implement a driver for a temperature sensor and someone else would implement MQTT, the temperature sensor would be able to communicate over MQTT. OpenHAB is a pretty successful software project which uses the same strategy.
The great thing about Homey is that it doesn't need to speak many more languages. It has all the antennas it needs and it has a well defined internal representation of devices. Instead, I think the platform will focus on becoming smarter. Sharing the information will be secondary.
I think the smart home will converge toward standards like Google wave, Apple homekit and whatever Amazon and Samsung do. Platforms like Homey have the edge because they can keep crossing the vendor boundaries without worrying about strategic value and market shares. Two years ago the smart home was debating zigbee, z-wave or bluetooth. Now we are already talking on a higher (ecosystem/vendor) level and we don't really care anymore about which antenna to use.
Well, lora is not aimed at indoor smart home use, so no I also don't think it will soon be used for the same group that has an interrest in homey.
When lora proves to be reliable and secure it will mostly be a competitor for the m2m network that telephony operators are providing now. So the users will be mainly large companies that have a huge amount of devices spread over a wide area that need communication. Eg. Traffic lights, smart meters, enviromental sensors, alarms systems etc. Some will use it as their prime communication method, others as secondairy.
I don't think that IF Homey should be able to communicate to their devices it should be done through the air frequencies but rather through MQTT and their bridge.
some dutch article about loraWan for who is interested. engineersonline.nl