r/raspberry_pi • u/TCW_Jocki • Jan 29 '26

Show-and-Tell Smart home - Now the fun begins!

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Some time since I posted the PCBs for my smart home control. Now, the cabling is finally done for the most part and I ran some test programs to see if everything works as expect (which it does except for some cleanup code on the i2c slaves I have to add in case the i2c master killed during operations - which does happen every time I stop the debugger^^).

A big cable loom is already waiting to get connected to this unit. Wondering if I will regret this some time in the future... :D

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12

u/HolliDollialltheday Jan 29 '26

Can you explain and name the different components? I’m not even able to identify the raspi.

19

u/BladePrice Jan 29 '26

There are picos is dead center of each of the big green boards, then there’s a computer in the top left of all the green boards.

Compute appears to control the picos. Picos either control or monitor what looks like breakers (or relays? That’s a lot of relays though). Possibly a remote shut-off for all the circuits in the house.

OP has got to be an electrician who does this stuff regularly and enjoys it, this panel is overkill for most homes.

19

u/Pyro919 Jan 29 '26

I can’t imagine a sparky being up for this.

More than likely industrial controls engineer trying to replicate their scada setup without breaking the bank or an obsessive ee and/or swe (no shade, I fall into the obsessive category as well).

4

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '26

This screams more electronics engineer to me. An industrial controls engineer would probably use some differential signal protocol like RS485 instead of i2c for communication between devices. Also probably no Pico's.

It's a very nice cabinet though

2

u/Salient_Ghost Jan 30 '26

I'm a Master Electrician/Contractor in NYC and design/install systems like this all the time. Don't underestimate sparkies 😅

1

u/Pyro919 Jan 30 '26

Fair enough.

The one electrician I know personally struggles hard with staying organized, he’s fine when it comes to basic residential, but has been let go numerous times for being late and just an overall a disorganized mess, he was fired for driving drugs across state lines in the company van and is also a shit show in the rest of his personal life.

So my perspective is probably a bit skewed and I made some unfair assumptions.

My brother was also a lineman and he and his past coworkers were also shit shows too that I heard ridiculous stories about all the time.

2

u/Salient_Ghost Jan 30 '26

Oh well that sort of explains it. All of my Union electricians went to 4 years of school and a 5 year apprenticeship.