I’ve just deployed a Raspberry Pi into our summer cottage to function as a general purpose home automation and internet access point. This allows visitors to connect to internet via wifi and also enables remote administration, environmental statistics and intrusion alerts.

Parts:

• Raspberry Pi, 4GB memory card
• PiFace Digital (for motion sensors and heating connection, not yet installed)
• D-Link DWA-127 Wi-Fi USB (works as an access point in our case)
• Huawei 3G USB dongle (from Sonera, idVendor: 0x12d1 and idProduct:          0x1436) with a small external antenna.
• Two USB hubs, one passive and another active with 2A power supply
• Old TFT display, HDMI cable and keyboard

I’m not going into the details how to configure this, but I’ll give a quick summary:

• Sakis3G script to connect the 3G to Internet. Works flawlessly.
• umtskeeper script which makes sure that sakis3g works always. Can reset USB bus etc. Run from /etc/rc.local on startup.
• hostapd to make the D-Link WiFi to act as an access point.

In addition I run OpenVPN to connect the network into the rest of my private network, so I can always access the rpi remotely from anywhere. This also allows remote monitoring via Zabbix.

Plans for future usage:

• Connect to the building heating system for remote administration and monitoring.
• Attach USB webcams to work as CCTV
• Attach motion sensors for security alarm. Also record images when sensors spot motion and upload directly to internet.
• Attach a big battery so that the system will be operational during an extended power outage.