About the project

The SmartESP project is based on the experience of an IT entrepreneur who wanted to set up remote control of heating at his dacha. After heating, other issues began to arise: watering the garden, controlling lighting, greenhouses, a hothouse, chicken coops, a dog house, etc. All these devices had to be controlled not only by him, but also by other members of his family, ordinary people without technical education. As a result, he faced certain difficulties of existing smart home systems that required a beautiful solution .

Today, thanks to Arduino controllers and their components, homemade automation has become very accessible. However, on the other hand, despite the simplicity and cheapness of the components, this homemade automation can still be quite complex and incomprehensible to the average user.

Everything that is easy to assemble and solder turns out to require much more time for implementation, namely, for programming the algorithms for the operation of devices. The problem is that there is no user interface that is both functional and visual. This interface should not only display current indicators and contain options for turning devices on/off, but also allow for flexible changes to automation algorithms.

Of course, there are solutions like MajorDoMo, OpenHAB, ESPHome and Home Assistant , but they are all imperfect for two simple reasons. First, you still need to be able to program controllers and administer a smart home server. Second, in most cases, it is assumed that the developer will create a clear programmed functionality of the system, and the user can only change key parameters or switch global behavior scenarios. This reminds me of a joke:

They sent a monkey and a user into space. When the ship entered orbit, the order came: the monkey is to perform an experiment on the neutrino search equipment; the user is to feed the monkey, and not to press any buttons!

It is obvious that there is a lack of such a solution that will not require a novice amateur to delve into programming controllers and administering servers, and will also contain a convenient user interface for creating automation tasks. Only then will such a smart home be easy to assemble, but most importantly: implement among users. When any of them will be able to create tasks and scenarios themselves , without resorting to outside help from the system developer.

This is how the SmartESP project was formed. Each time, gradually, step by step, it was necessary to solve some new and specific task on home automation. And each time for this separate task, a separate project with a clear user interface was created. Then it was necessary to somehow combine all these separate projects so that they could interact with each other. Then the Smart Network appeared, a fundamentally new concept and solution for linking all the separate projects together. Now the user could feel like a "conductor" of a smart home and synchronize all the projects, creating an impressive "orchestra" of home automation!


Cooperation


If you find the SmartESP project interesting and want to take part in it, we will be glad! Today we are interested in cooperation in the following areas:


Contacts

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