Bhanu Prakash Maiya, INDIA

bhanumaiya@gmail.com

ANANYA
Unique home of future
WINDOWS EMBEDDED CE 6.0 BASED HOME
AUTOMATION

SPARKS WILL FLY 2009 CHALLENGE

Final Report
 ANANYA
BHANU PRAKASH MAIYA
UNIQUE HOME OF FUTURE
INDIA
PROBLEM ANANLYSIS
Problem Statement
Today technology has touched all the spheres of life yet the homes of common men are
untouched by the comforts of home automation. With changing lifestyles of the people,
future needs an intelligent and integrated home automation system which organizes and
schedules various activities in the house, secures the house and takes care of all the
basic comforts. In fact, many home automation solutions exist in the market. But, most
of them are bulky, costly, non-customizable or complicated. Today, there is a need for a
home automation system that is simple, interactive, flexible, intelligent, reliable and cost
effective. A system that adjusts the security, temperatures, lighting, and audio
automatically for comfort, energy saving, and convenience. A system that can be
managed from remote location. Need for all in one solution for the “Home of Future”

Solution
ANANYA-unique home of future is a prototype built using VIA Artigo PICO ITX kit,
provided by the ‘Sparks Will Fly’ contest. This kit makes it possible to integrate various
hardware components and software on a single platform. It is ‘One Box for
Everything’. The compactness of the kit and control boards helped in making a less
bulky and cost effective system. Different features are provided by interfacing actuators,
sensors, alarms, special switch boards. All sets of devices working in symphony or
independently both at home or while you are on move. The prototype is made to be
simple and interactive, with plug and play features enabling easy installation. Using
ANANYA-unique home of future one can dream to live in a ‘Dream Home'.

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 ANANYA
BHANU PRAKASH MAIYA
UNIQUE HOME OF FUTURE
INDIA

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Overall Architecture

Application Overview
The user interface for ANANYA is a .net based
managed application deployed on VIA Artigo
PICO ITX kit, provided by the ‘Sparks Will Fly’
contest. The smart device application was
developed using Visual Basic 2005 (A project
environment for creating a .NET Compact
Framework 2.0 forms application for Windows
CE 6.0). The database is maintained on
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for Compact Edition.
At different levels of the application
data/readings are stored in the database for
latter references and to manage scheduling
jobs. It is a very interactive and user friendly
interface that can control entire home from a
touch screen or a TV. One can securely access
and control home from anywhere in the world via Internet.

Building of image: Using Windows Embedded CE we were able to make a small foot
print of OS (25MB) which was running on the embedded platform. Windows Embedded
CE offers a rich set of features that one can use to customize a platform. Component
services, networking capabilities, multimedia support, and many other capabilities are
contained within individual operating system features. A device running CE 6.0 can run a
larger number of more-complex applications.

Based on the key features of ANANYA-unique home of future, the application is

categorized into six heads:

1) POWER: This screen allows the user

• To see the status (on/off) of various electrical gadgets connected to ANANYA.

• Operate and control various gadgets.

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 ANANYA
BHANU PRAKASH MAIYA
UNIQUE HOME OF FUTURE
INDIA
• Coordinate various gadgets and set by schedule, time of day, or event, such
as vacation.

1) SENSORS: Through this screen user can

• Monitor ppm concentartion of various gases within home like smoke, LPG
etc.
• Monitor the intensity of natural and artificial light.
• Monitor the temperature.
• Schedule the system to initiate alarm and send warning mail.

1) SECURITY: Through this screen user can

• Operate the entrance door(Open/Close).

• Operate LPG Gas Valve, Garden Sprinkler.
• Remotely see the status of doors, valves etc.

1) AUDIO: This screen enables the user to play, share and enjoy his favourite music at
one or more
location(s) of home .

5) ROBOT: This screen provides a virtual joystick enviorment to the home member to
navigate the
robot/remote assistant to desired location inorder to perform desired task like
fetching, picking
and placing object(s).

6) MANAGE: This screen allows the user to

• Maintain a to-do list to organize daily activities.

• Schedule tasks, gadgets, reminders etc.
• Keep track of documents, letters and important notes.
• Set ANANYA in different modes like vaccation, no one’s at home, going to
sleep mode. When the mode is set ANANYA will automatically enable
security features like all lights turn on in event of alarm or fire, giving false
illusion etc.

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 ANANYA
BHANU PRAKASH MAIYA
UNIQUE HOME OF FUTURE
INDIA

Hardware Overview

1) VIA ARTIGO PICO ITX BOARD: The Artigo is an Embedded platform which has
Windows Embedded CE OS image running on it. This
board gives a platform to integrate the user interface,
peripherals and the controller board made for
automating home. The managed application developed
on .net compact framework is deployed on Artigo
device. This system is capable of controlling and managing home round the clock.

2) PROTOCOL CONVERTER: ANANYA uses RS485

wired signaling system in order to control the
controller board installed at various location(s) of
the house. RS485 meets the requirements for a truly
multi-point communication network and the
standard specifies up to 32 drivers and 32 receivers
on a single (2-wire) bus. With the introduction of
"automatic" repeaters and high-impedance
drivers/receivers this "limitation" can be extended to
hundreds (or even thousands) of nodes on a network. RS485 extends the common
mode range for both drivers and receivers in the "tri-state" mode and with power
off. RS485 drivers are able to withstand "data collisions" (bus contention) problems
and bus fault conditions. The input of this board is a RS232 communication protocol
from a

serial port of VIA ARTIGO PICO ITX board and then the RS485 communication is
carried out by CAT5e cable which is installed in bus topology all over the house.
Bus topology reduces the cost of network cable. The signals become immune to
noise due to balanced differential signaling.

3) RS485 SWITCH: The RS485 bus topology has provision for 32 nodes. The driving
repeater gets power supply, from the Protocol Converter, on a CAT5E cable, which
can take load upto 60W. MAX485 IC's are installed on this board. Provision for extra
nodes can be made just by installing RS485 Switch.

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 ANANYA
BHANU PRAKASH MAIYA
UNIQUE HOME OF FUTURE
INDIA
4) MAIN CONTROLLER
BOARD: The heart of all
the controller boards is
AT89S8253(4) which is
an Atmel
microcontroller. It can
be serially programmed
for any kind of
automation. This board
has a 5 pin IN-SYSTEM
PROGRAMMABLE PORT
which allows controller
to be programmed on
board. On this board the
electrical gadgets can
be interfaced(1) without
worrying about 240V or
150V electrical
specifications because it
can manage both. The efficient Relays connected to the system gives spark proof
electrical conductivity. Controller based board has no moving part so no risk of
board getting damaged. On this board 2 motor or solenoid connections are present.
We use these actuators to Open/Close the door locks , gas valves, garden
sprinklers. L298 IC (3) is present which drives 2Amp current load for controlling
motors. This board has provision for 4X4 switch keypad(5) to be installed at the
main door for authenticated/password based entry within the house. (In video I
have managed lights and fans through this board).

5) ROOM BOARD: The room board has

AT89S8253 microcontroller which is
controlled by serial data coming from
the network. Many sensors are
integrated on this board.MQ-2 gas
sensor, whose features are wide
detecting scope, fast response, high
sensitivity, stability and long life
simple drive circuit. They are used in
leakage detecting equipments at
home/ industry. The sensor detects
LPG, I-butane, propane, methane,

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 ANANYA
BHANU PRAKASH MAIYA
UNIQUE HOME OF FUTURE
INDIA
alcohol, hydrogen and smoke. LM-35 temperature sensor with a range 20oC to
90oC. Two LDR light detecting sensors to measure brightness inside and outside the
house. This board also interfaces two 1Amp geared box motors to control the
Doors. This board can also manage 4 electrical appliances.

6) AUDIO AND ROBOT BOARD: This

board has 1:4 high quality home
music switches to interface audio
system. Through this board we can
play music at one or more location(s)
of the house simultaneously. There is
HT12E encoder IC connected to the
board. The data of encoder is given
to 433 MHz serial wireless transmitter
module. A reliable communication is
established between robot and the
board and then the robot can be
managed with user interface. (In
video the prototype is shown
running), ANANYA is made so flexible
that it interfaces with any device
which follows simple UART serial
transmission and reception of Data.

KEY FEATURES
1) Security
2) Compact (occupies less space)
3) Cost effective
4) Energy conservation
5) Remote access
6) Intelligent and interactive interface.
7) Plug and play controller boards.
8) Customizable

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 ANANYA
BHANU PRAKASH MAIYA
UNIQUE HOME OF FUTURE
INDIA

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