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    Step 1

    Have you heard of the new Raspberry Pi Zero? Only priced at $5 (or $10 for the W version), it revolutionizes smart home by making it cheaper than ever and accessible to any budget. Another part of making smart home more accessible is the connection and automation part. That’s why we developed Prota OS, the Raspberry Pi based OS, that helps you connect your devices, sensors and services in a single smart hub and write automation workflows in natural language.

    In this project, we hope to show you what you can do with Prota OS with no skills and a very limited budget. Here are our four objectives:

    • 6 features
    • $38 budget
    • 1 hour setup
    • 0 skills needed


    Let’s find out if we completed them!

    FEATURES

      • Automated and connected appliances
      • Trigger automation when entering or leaving home
      • Old webcam turned into a smartcam
      • Motion detection while away
      • Notification of intrusion
      • Old smartphone turned into a smartcam
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    Step 2

    Step 1: REQUIRED COMPONENTS

    • Raspberry Pi Zero W = $10
    • 16GB SD card = $8
    • GPIO pin header = $3
    • RF transceiver (with soldered antenna) = $2
    • 3*RF socket = $15
    • Old webcam = $0
    • Old smartphone = $0


    TOTAL = $38!

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    Step 3

    Step 2: SETTING UP YOUR PROTA SMART HUB

    Prota OS is already available on RPi 2, 3. We are currently adapting the OS to RPi WZ, we will very soon update the OS version to allow RPIWZ support. If you want to use it on early access, make sure to join the Beta Program explained at the end of the project.

    Prota OS can be downloaded for free on https://prota.info/prota/pi/. It’s only 3.8GB and easy to burn on a SD card (make sure to use a 16GB card).

    Follow the instructions of Raspberry Pi foundation to write the OS image on your SD card. Extract the .img file from the zip folderPlug in your SD cardDownload and open Etcher, select the image and the drive and start the process.That’s it!

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    Once Prota OS is burned on the SD card, you can follow this simple installation guide to set up your Prota hub (less than 1 minute!). You only need to define its name and password, your time zone and your email address and the rest is completely automatic!

    That’s it! In less than 15 minutes and with no hassle, you transformed your Raspberry Pi into a Smart Home automation hub!