Best Approach for Starting a Linux-Based Home Automation Pro

[Aria James]

Hello everyone,

I'm in the early planning stages of a personal project to set up a smart home automation system using a Linux-based Raspberry Pi setup. My background is in electronics and embedded systems, but I'm relatively new to working with Linux for this kind of application. I’m hoping to get some advice from the community which lightweight Linux distribution would be best for running automation tasks smoothly on a Raspberry Pi, any recommended libraries or frameworks that make working with sensors and relays easier under Linux and common security or performance pitfalls I should keep in mind when exposing Linux-based devices on a home network?

[trcooke]

Hello, I'd probably start with an open source off the shelf solution such as https://www.home-assistant.io/

There are tutorials on their site that cover installation onto a raspberry pi so you should be able to get to and running fairly quickly.

It sounds like a fun project so please do let us know how you get on.

[Dani]

What about using something like IFTTT?

[trcooke]

Oh yes IFTTT definitely a good shout. I've had some success with it in the past.

When our son was a baby we had real trouble keeping his room warm in the winter because the upstairs thermostat was out in the hall which was nice and toasty from all the heat of the house rising to meet it, while his bedroom with the door closed was cold.

I happened to have a thermostat connected to a micro-controller (I'm a technology hoarder) which I connected to my home network and had a little bash script running on a raspberry pi that polled for the temperature every now and then and fired a webhook event to IFTTT to turn on or off our heating via a Nest integration. It was rather a convoluted solution but it worked well and IFTTT was the key enabler since it already knew how to control our heating system.

It might be a good middle ground between nothing and running a fully blown automation system 24/7. Keen to hear what you go for, so please do report back.

[Dani]

I assume your son is no longer a baby, but nowadays you can get Nest temperature sensors to put in different areas of your home. You can officially tell Nest to control the HVAC based on the temperature of the family room during the day and the temperature of the bedroom at night, for example.

[trcooke]

Indeed not. He's 7 now.

Yes you can get those free standing mounts, but I don't have any. My thermostats are wired into the wall. It'd be cool if you could just pop them off the wall and stick them on a stand anywhere you like, but alas you cannot.

[Dani]

Huh? I'm referring to these. They're just tiny wireless pucks that you put wherever you want.

[trcooke]

Oh I have not seen those before... interesting.

I was thinking of this

[trcooke]

Apparently not available in the UK. Although Amazon UK are selling them and there are lots of angry reviews left.

[Dani]

How can you bear to live in such an uncivilized country?!

[Dani]

P.S. Here in the US, our Nests are directly connected to the HVAC system hardwired in the wall, so they aren’t movable at all.

[WilliamOG]

Great project idea, and you're already ahead with your electronics background. For the OS, Raspberry Pi OS Lite is a solid starting point—lightweight, well-supported, and ideal for headless setups. If you want something even more stripped down, check out DietPi or Ubuntu Server for Pi, but the trade-off is slightly less community support.