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Arduino Home Automation Projects
Arduino Home Automation Projects

Arduino Home Automation Projects: Automate your home using the powerful Arduino platform.

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Arduino Home Automation Projects

Chapter 2. Control Lights from Your Phone or Tablet

In this chapter, we are going to tackle another very common project in any home automation project: controlling lights. There are many devices that you can buy off the shelves that will give you the ability to control devices in your home, but these devices usually have a high price point. And even if they are wireless, they usually come with a remote control.

In this project, we are going to take another approach and control lights directly from your computer, phone, or tablet, all via Wi-Fi. The following will be the major takeaways from this chapter:

  • First, we are going to build the hardware part of our project by connecting a Wi-Fi chip to Arduino and the device we want to control (here, a simple lamp) to a relay module. We'll actually use two relay modules in this project, but this can, of course, be extended to any number you want.
  • Then, we are going to write some basic code to test the different parts of the project...

Hardware and software requirements

Let's first see what you will need to create this project. Similar to many other projects of this book, this project is based on the Arduino platform, and we will once again use an Arduino Uno board. Note that an Arduino Mega board will work as well.

Then, you also need some relay modules so that you can control the lamps. A relay is basically an electromechanical switch. They are usually used when you want to command a high voltage device (for example, a lamp plugged into a wall socket) with a much smaller command voltage (for example, the 5V of the Arduino board). For more information on relays, you can visit the following web page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relay

For this project, I used a 5V relay module from Polulu that can handle up to 250V (thus supporting 110V and 230V devices) and a maximum of 10 A. The following image displays the relay module:

Hardware and software requirements

I used two of them, as I want to command two lamps from my Arduino board. Of course, the project...

Hardware configuration

Let's now see how to connect the different parts of the project. We are first going to take care of connecting all the components to the Arduino board, basically the relay module and the CC3000 Wi-Fi chip. To give you an idea, this is what you should end up with:

Hardware configuration

To know exactly which wires and pins you have to connect, the following image describes all the connections of the project:

Hardware configuration

Note that this schematic only displays the connections for one relay module. Let's first see how to connect a single relay module. To get started on the hardware connection, first place the different components next to each other and plug the CC3000 module on the breadboard. We are first going to take care of the power supply part. Connect the ground (GND) pin of the Arduino board to the GND pin of the CC3000 board. Then, connect the Arduino Uno board 5V pin to the Vin pin of the CC3000 board.

Now, let's look at the CC3000 chip. There are quite a few pins to connect to the...

Testing the relays and Wi-Fi connection

Now that the hardware configuration is complete, we can start writing some code to test our project. We'll first write a simple sketch to test a given relay. Go over to your Arduino IDE and you can start writing some code. The most important parts of the code will be detailed below, and you can find the complete code on the GitHub repository of the project at https://github.com/openhomeautomation/arduino-home-automation/tree/master/chapter2.

The first step is to declare which pin the relay you want to test is connected to:

const int relay_pin = 6;

We use a const int variable here, which is similar to #define but better, since we are sure the constant is of the right type. In the setup() function of the sketch, we need to specify that this pin is a digital output with the pinMode() function:

pinMode(relay_pin,OUTPUT);

Then, inside the loop() function, we are basically going to activate the relay, wait for 5 seconds, switch it off again, wait for 5...

Building a graphical interface to control the relays

Although it's good to use commands directly inside your browser to test the project, it's not so convenient to actually use the project for daily use. That's why we are going to build a dedicated interface so that you can control your relays from your computer, just by clicking on some buttons.

Since we'll use web technologies to do so, this interface will also be accessible from your mobile phone or tablet, as long as you are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Just as seen in the first chapter of this book, we are going to use a mix of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP to build the interface. Let's first see the important part of the HTML file. It is basically composed of several blocks, each corresponding to a relay. For each relay, there are two buttons: one to set the relay on and one to set it off. The following is the code which is responsible for that part:

<div class="relayBlock"><span class...

Testing the graphical interface

It's now time to test the interface. Make sure that the web server is running on your computer. Also, make sure that all the files of the interface are placed inside a folder at the root of your web server. You can go over to this folder in your browser (by typing in localhost) and open the HTML file. This is what you should see:

Testing the graphical interface

To test the interface, simply try to click on these different buttons. You will see that the lights switch instantly whenever you press the right button. If it doesn't work at this point, there are several things you can check.

The first thing is to check that your web server is running correctly. Also, check that you have entered the right name for your Arduino board (or the right IP address) inside the PHP file. Finally, make sure that your Arduino sketch is working correctly by typing the commands inside your web browser directly. Also, note that at this point, you should also have set the relay pins to be outputs, as...

Hardware and software requirements


Let's first see what you will need to create this project. Similar to many other projects of this book, this project is based on the Arduino platform, and we will once again use an Arduino Uno board. Note that an Arduino Mega board will work as well.

Then, you also need some relay modules so that you can control the lamps. A relay is basically an electromechanical switch. They are usually used when you want to command a high voltage device (for example, a lamp plugged into a wall socket) with a much smaller command voltage (for example, the 5V of the Arduino board). For more information on relays, you can visit the following web page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relay

For this project, I used a 5V relay module from Polulu that can handle up to 250V (thus supporting 110V and 230V devices) and a maximum of 10 A. The following image displays the relay module:

I used two of them, as I want to command two lamps from my Arduino board. Of course, the project will...

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Description

This book is divided into projects that are explained in a step-by-step format, with practical instructions that are easy to follow. If you want to build your own home automation systems wirelessly using the Arduino platform, this is the book for you. You will need to have some basic experience in Arduino and general programming languages, such as C and C++ to understand the projects in this book.

What you will learn

  • Connect home automation sensors to the Arduino platform
  • Use the XBee technology to build lowpower wireless motion sensors
  • Interface a relay with Arduino to control devices in your home
  • Utilize WiFi to control a lamp remotely
  • Employ Bluetooth and Arduino to measure the temperature remotely
  • Send energy consumption data to the cloud
  • Hack an existing home automation device using Arduino
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Table of Contents

8 Chapters
1. Building Wireless XBee Motion Detectors Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Control Lights from Your Phone or Tablet Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Measuring the Temperature Using Bluetooth Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Weather Station in the Cloud with Xively Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Monitor Your Energy Consumption in the Cloud Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Hack a Commercial Home Automation Device Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Build Your Own Home Automation System Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

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9.I like this book for your proyects about measurements with sensors and wireless communications.I recommend this book. It's for electronics engineer and people interested in technology.
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