What is your opinion on the reliability of the Arduino for the smart home?

Question

Arduino

I would like to hear the opinion of people who have assembled systems on Arduino a year or more ago, the following points are especially interesting:

• Have you used Arduino or similar? How many years (or months) did they work for you before they failed? Or are they still working?
  
• A similar question about relays (turning 220V appliances on and off), how many years or months have they worked?
  
• Can you share recommendations for buying components (sensors, relays, etc.) - buy on aliexpress? And if so, then it only makes sense to choose the price (the quality is about the same for everyone, or are there any manufacturers who are better?)
  
• Now, after some time, would you do the same project on Arduino or something else?
  

Thanks :)

Answer 1

Now, after some time, would you do the same project on Arduino or something else?

If you are in Moscow, then from 31 Oct. until November 2, visit the exhibition "Smart Home" at the expo center. There you will learn that there are PLCs (Siemens (Simatic), Schneider Electric ...) with special programming languages ​​(read about Codesys), as well as distributed networks (KNX), where configuration is used.

Answer 2

By itself, Ardurino is quite a good platform, although after working with AVR in C I believe that without Ardurino you can write more efficient programs and use cheaper components. However, if the thing works, what's the difference on what the firmware is written on?
As already noted above, if the circuitry is properly built, then Ardirino will work quite stably. Regardless of the Chinese board or the original. But you need to understand the ongoing processes, check the power supply of the MK, do not overload, etc.
As for the smart home, before doing something on the Ardurin, I would think that it will be in 5-10 years when this device will be covered with you and you will need to change it. And you will no longer be interested in poking around in Ardurin? Or will you be on a business trip, and your wife is at home? Or just don't have time for it?
Therefore, I would advise you to make as many standard devices as possible in the future, replacing them with manufactured analogues. Because now it's interesting and you can do something grandiose, but then someone will have to serve everything.
In general, I would advise looking at the RS-485 bus with Modbus or ESP8266 (Sonoff). And to make the most simple devices like Relays for 1,2,4 channels or "dry contact" inputs, etc.

Answer 3

A lot depends on the schematic. If everything is connected on snot and wires, there will be a lot of pickups from 220 V, therefore freezes or glitches. If you initially do the circuitry "in the mind", then everything is stable.
For 4 years, more than 60 devices based on Arduino have been developed. These are climate control systems, and dynamic lighting effects, and a network of devices for quest rooms and auto electronics. Yes, this is not directly a "Smart Home", not everyone works around the clock, but for 8-12 hours, but in more stringent operating conditions, i.e. the bias is rather in industrial applications, but there the rules are even tougher - every hour of downtime is a lost profit.
And if briefly and to the point - no need to sculpt an "all-in-one" combine, use the ideology inherent in Unix: "Each module should perform only its highly specialized functionality. But he must do it perfectly ." This is the guarantee of the reliability of the entire system.

Answer 4

Made a test project. The DS1822 thermometer is connected to the Arduino and once a minute sends readings to the server via the Ethernet Shield.
I had to make a cold reset scheme and reset the shield, because it hung after about 10 requests to the server.
Sometimes it freezes when turned on if the 220V network fails. You have to turn it off and on manually. In principle, this problem can be solved if a diode is included in the microcontroller power circuit. There is a diode in the Arduino circuit, only in the circuit for the jack. And I have it powered through the USB connector.

Answer 5

I made an exhaust ventilation controller in the country on an arduino. The base is an arduino mega, DHT22, photoresistors and IR motion sensors are connected to it through a mega sensor shield, as well as a shield with 4 relays and an Ethernet shield (it stands nearby on a DIN rail, because a sandwich is not going to be on top of the sensor shield), yet I2C clock, I2C OLED screen and 6 buttons. Ethernet itself did not implement, only an SD card is used for logs. Arduino collects information from all sensors, writes logs to the card and turns 4 exhaust fans on and off. In principle, it has been working for a year and a half, only at some point the SD card failed and the logs stopped writing. The date was reset one more time (in the I2C board with the clock), but this, you see, the battery was stale there.
All components from aliexpress, including a 12V 5A power supply. The whole structure is mounted in an ordinary metal cabinet on 2 DIN rails (all fasteners are printed on a 3D printer).
Z.Y. If interested, write in a personal - throw photos.

Answer 6

1. Arduino (nano, micro), esp8266 (12, nodemcu, wemos) I have been working for two years now. noedmcu the brain receives via wifi and sends via nrf24l01. There have never been any crashes. eerpom and microsd did not use.
2. Relays are also two years old without problems, the most common Chinese ones from Ali
3. They are the same everywhere, Ali is a very good platform.
4. Yes, it is simple and has a lot of ready-made solutions.

Answer 7

Relays, arduinos and other automation have been working without failures for years. The first devices were put into operation in 2007 (then they were still just homemade products on atmega8, but they were equivalent in terms of reliability to arduino). They also work at temperatures down to -20 and high humidity on the loggia (some crafts without cases).
I recorded only one case of failure of such automation: during the winter in the country, the HC-SR04 rangefinder sensor rotted, it was on the lid of a 200l tank with residual water and a closed lid without a case. But in this case it would be foolish to expect otherwise.
We are talking about devices not assembled on breadboards, all connections except for detachable ones are soldered.

Answer 8

My Arduino Mega 2560 works as a sensor and actuator controller. For 2 years it did not turn on and did not freeze even once. It runs a simple firmware, which in fact only provides data transfer through a serial port. Actually, the software itself is written in PHP and runs on VIA EPIA under Debian.
Previously, communication with the Arduino passed through TCP / IP and this was a glitch on a glitch. Up to the point that the connection could disappear for no apparent reason and the Arduino had to be rebooted.

Answer 9

I have my own light control unit soldered and mounted from an Arduino Nano, motion sensors, a relay unit, a UART -> RS485 converter, a 12V power supply, everything is permanently plugged into the network, it has been working for more than a year, I took everything on Ali