HomeAutomation on Helios64 / Armbian

Some of you may be interested to not only store your data on Helios64 but to also run other services on it - such as home automation. One of the popular platforms for home automation in Europe - and in Germany in particular - is "Homematic". They opened up their ecosystem some time ago and allow others to implement their own components (some excellent examples from Jérôme are here). 

As of yesterday - with the latest commit - it is possible to run a virtualised "ccu3" base station for that platform, called pivccu, with support for a detached antenna module (RPI-RF-MOD) coupled to Helios64 (and Armbian 20.11 kernel 5.9.10) through a tcp/ip network using a dedicated circuit board developed by Alex Reinert (HB-RF-ETH). All of these projects are in the open domain. Actually not only Helios64 but also most of the SBCs running Armbian and a recent mainline kernel should now also be supported.

There is a logic layer built into the pivccu system, but actions can also easily be automated using i.e. Node-Red or OpenHab2.

Just to let you know: If you don't want to build stuff yourself, components could be purchased in Germany from i.e. elv and smartkram.