Connect the Classroom and Zigbee Smart Building Automation

[chrisjako]

We are approaching the quotation phase of our connect the classroom project, and I have just been given the models of Aruba kit for the install.

 

Researching the model i see the latest Aruba AP's also have Zigbee.

 

I have a fairly smart home, to the point I can tell Alexa to cut my grass and my robot lawmower will begin it's next cycle (its scheduled to do it anyway, just really a party trick more than anything else) so I am quite familiar with smart home use cases.

 

However, I'm looking to find best use cases for smart control and automation in a school building, the most obvious is lights, temperature control and possibly locks

 

I want to take advantage of this technology to try save make us more efficient where possible, does anyone have such use cases they can share?

[Aprice]

I've never used that functionality, however it does seem to be available in the instant mode which we tend to use now.

 

There's an IOT section in the document here giving some config examples.

 

The BLE feature is probably more interesting to me than Zigbee at the moment, I've had the idea of sticking BLE tags onto laptop trolleys then tracking where they are based on the nearest AP. I've got some Mikrotik tags and might see if I can get it going with a spare AP I've got at home.

 

One of the Mikrotik tags has a G sensor in it, suppose it could send me an email if the laptop trolley goes flying down the stairs

Aruba seem to mention Assa Abloy locks in their guides quite a bit.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Aprice

[FN-GM]

I had the thought that something like Shellys (maybe a commercial equivalent) installed at the lights would be useful. You can turn all the lights off when the site is empty. You could also turn on courtier lights etc automatically at the start of the day.

 

Shelly use WIFI not ZigBee but there could be more appropriate devices that serve the same function.

[Aprice]

I would be cautious about planning for the retirement of the WiFi solution, I'd expect Assa Abloy locks for example to long outlive the lifespan of the access points. It may limit your options when it comes to replacement.