Welcome to Juham™ - Juha’s Ultimate Home Automation Masterpiece

Try to be nice

Welcome to the new release of Juham™ v.0.0.2 - a Python-based home automation framework!

Project Status and Current State

Despite the fact that the software already works and controls my home, the project is still in the early planning stage. In its current state, you might call it merely a home automation mission, rather than masterpiece, but I’m working hard to turn it into a masterpiece!

There are so many changes in this release that it feels excessive to try to keep log of them. However, as a place holder for future releases, a few major ones can be found in the CHANGELOG

Goals

Have fun with learning Python ecosystem! The ultimate enjoyment and a sprinkling of practicality will be achieved by cranking the Fun-O-Meter™ up to 11. Coding should feel like a rollercoaster ride—minus the screaming and the long lines.

As a byproduct of the fun factory, the project should result in software to minimize one’s electricity bill while maximizing pleasure as a homeowner.

The prime directive is to develop the ultimate home automation framework that can control all the apparatuses in my home, and maybe also other homes.

Install

  1. pip install juham. This installs all the dependencies as well, I hope.

  2. Set up InfluxDB 3.0 and Crafana for user interface. Not an absolute requirement, Juham™ can live fine without them. However, I stongly recommen using Graphana and InfluxDB, as they allow you to monitor your home anywhere in the world.

  3. Configure Juham™. When started all classes attempt to initialize themselves from their JSON configuration files, located in config sub folder. The files to pay attention to are:

    • config/Base.json - fill with your MQTT host and port information.

    • config/JDatabase.json - fill with your InfluxDB account information.

    • config/RVisualCrossing.json - you need APIKEY to fetch weather forecast from Visual Crossing site.

  4. Configure myhome.py to run as a service, or as a quick test from console: python3 myhome.py. This program is a fully functional automation system, serving as a good starting point for your real home.

Design

The design is based on object-oriented paradigm, a modular plugin architecture, full abstraction, and overall robustness of design. If you appreciate these concepts, look no further — you’ve come to the right place!

The magic of Juham™ home automation emerges from the ‘Object’ base class. Just like all creatures on Earth share a common ancestor, all components of Juham™ trace their lineage back to this first life form of software (okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but you get the idea).

The ‘Object’ base class plus a few others in the ‘juham.base’module are generic by nature, any software could be built on top of them. I’m actually planning to publish them as a separate python packages (yet another task to be added into TODO).

The actual home automation specific classes revolve around the MQTT broker and standardized Juham™ MQTT messages.

Data acquisition clients, such as those reading temperature sensors, electricity prices, and power levels from solar panels, to name a few, publish data to respective MQTT topics. Automation clients listening to these topics can then perform their designated tasks, such as control the temperature of a hot water boiler.

Developer Documentation

The documentation is still a work in progress. Originally, the documentation was generated using Doxygen, a tool primarily used for generating developer documentation in the C++ ecosystem. To feel more like a Python professional, I replaced it with Python’s native documentation tool, Sphinx. After several frustrating hours (okay, days), I got it working, but it will require a few more hours (okay, days) of effort to be really usable.

Special Thanks

This project would not have been possible without the generous support of two extraordinary gentlemen: my best friend, Teppo K., and my son, Mahi.fi. The project began with Teppo’s donation of a Raspberry Pi computer, a few temperature sensors, and an inspiring demonstration of his own home automation system. My ability to translate my ideas into Python is greatly due to my son, Mahi. His support and encouragement have been invaluable in bringing this project to life. Thank you both!