IT Voice News : Time and again we keep on asking this question, is there something that the humble Raspberry Pi board cannot do? Well, as thing stand currently, the answer is a resounding no! The Pi Board has been used immensely in a number of interesting home automation projects, ranging from lighting controls to automatic sprinkler systems. It’s even used as a prototype for many commercial systems. But, managing entire buildings? Well, if Czech startup UniPi has its way, the Pi board can cross this barrier as well, with ease.
The startup is seeking Indiegogo funding to the tune of 99 Euros ($133) and 109 Euros ($146) for its UniPi building automation add-on board based on Pi that to put in brief comes with analog and digital I/O, changeover relays, and 1-Wire interfaces on-board. All you need to do is connect the Raspberry Pi into the UniPi baseboard via the accompanying 26-pin expansion connector and you “can control an entire building (modest sized we believe)”, according to UniPi. Controlling lights, doors, curtains, sprinklers, and gates by way of reading signals from switches, alarms, and temperature-humidity sensors is quite the fun part here, and could be a major crowd puller to the interesting tool that comes with the added trust of the Pi board.
The UniPi can read 5-20V sensor signals via its 14 opto-isolated digital inputs that come with LED signalisation. In addiion, there are dual analog inputs and one analog output (both 0-10 Volts). The add-on board integrates a 12V power supply. However, the inclusion of eight changeover relays that can switch at up to 5A @ 230V ensure enough juice to run an entire building stacked with sensor devices. A single-channel 1-Wire interface connects hundreds of temperature and humidity sensors while the second I2C port and UART enable the connection of other devices. The device can remain in synch even in the event of power loss thanks to a real-time clock (RTC) module.
For Your Raspberry Pi An All-New Building Automation Add-On Board is now available
