Remote Control of Home

Appliances Using the

Team DEC0905
Internet
•
Elie Abichar
•
Rachel Ayoroa
•
Chris Tefer
•
Ananta Upadhyaya
Faculty Advisor & Client:
•
Dr. Ahmed Kamal

Website:
http://seniord.ece.iastate.edu/dec090
5/
Abstract
Problem Statement
Design and Implement a system that will
enable users to remotely control their home
appliances through the Internet and get
feedback from the appliance.

Need Statement
The system designed will provide a new
product to the newly emerging automation and
controls market. It will be used in households
to remotely control and monitor various home
appliances through the Internet.
DEC 0905 2
 Concept Sketch
User

Internet

IR Sensor

Bluetooth Garage door

Server Bluetooth module Microcontroller
USB Opener
Adapter

DEC 0905 3
 System Operating
Environment
•
The system components will operate indoors under
normal room temperature or in an environment protected
from weather elements.

•
The system would operate within the temperature and
humidity limits for proper operation of hardware.

•
A Internet connection would be necessary for the
operation of the system.

DEC 0905 4
Functional Requirements
Bluetooth Dongle
•
Must Be Wireless
•
Must be able to send and receive messages from the
blue tooth module

Bluetooth Module
•
Must be able to send and receive messages from the
access point
•
Must communicate with the access point wirelessly
•
Must interface directly to the Microcontroller
DEC 0905 5
Functional Requirements
(2)
Microcontroller Units
•
Must be able to receive commands from the
Bluetooth module
•
Must be able to send status messages to the
Bluetooth dongle
•
Must be able to control the device
•
Must be able to parse and interpret commands
Client Interface
•
Must be able to receive user input
•
Must display the devices, and controls to those
DEC 0905 6
devices, to the user
 Non-Functional
Requirements
• GUI must have an intuitive look and feel for the user

• Wireless antennas must be internal or shorter than

4 inches

• Access point must have a footprint of less than 50

feet

DEC 0905 7
Market and Literature
Survey
Similar Systems
•
HAI products
•
Proliphix
Technologies
• Wireless communication: Zigbee, Bluetooth.
WLAN
• Security: AES, RSA, MD5
• Microcontrollers: AtMega 128, Jennic, MIPS
• Transceivers: Easy Bluetooth, LMX 9820, WT11,
WT12
DEC 0905 8
Deliverables
• Server
• User Interface
• Device control Unit
• Project Plan
• Project Poster
• Design Documents
• Final Report
DEC 0905 9
Work Breakdown

DEC 0905 10
 Resource Requirement
Item Cost

Easy Bluetooth Module $ 70

LMX9820 $27
Bluetooth USB Adapter $15
IR Sensor $10
Garage Door Opener Donated by Door & Fence Store
Microcontroller Donated by Team May0613
Poster $50
Total $ 172

DEC 0905 11
Project Schedule

DEC 0905 12
 Risks

•
Time management: All four team members are
currently full time students

•
Project Complexity: Lot of subsystems
connected together that we have to figure out
how would they communicate to each other

•
New technologies: Deal with new hardware and
software

DEC 0905 13
User Interface Description

DEC 0905 14
Server Connections

DEC 0905 15
 Server Description

The server contains three components. The HTML

website, JavaScript page handler, and the HTTP server.

•
The HTML allows for an easy user interface.
•
JavaScript communicates with the server via AJAX
•
The server communicates with the devices via
Bluetooth
DEC 0905 16
 Device Control Unit ( DCU )
•
The Device Control Unit consists of the microcontroller
and a Bluetooth module that is connected to it

•
The Bluetooth Module: provide the microcontroller the
ability to wirelessly communicate with Bluetooth dongle on
the server side

•
The Microcontroller: connected directly at the other end
to the home appliance and is able to control that device

DEC 0905 17
Bluetooth Communication
 The Bluetooth dongle: connected on the server side
 The Bluetooth module: connected on the UART (Universal
Asynchronous Receiver / Transmitter) port of the microcontroller
which is PORT D
 This PORT has a UART transmit pin TX, a UART receive pin Rx
and a power and ground pins
 Bluetooth module sends data at 9600 baud rate and the
microcontroller system clock runs at 4MHz, we had to calculate
the baud rate register value to be 4M/9600/16 - 1 rounded to
nearest integer
 A specific protocol was setup for proper communication

DEC 0905 Bluetooth 18

Module
BT dongle BT module
BluetoothConnection
n Request for command

Device name (**) Send device name {gd,th} for garage door and
thermostat respectively
a
Request a universal action
b Acknowledgement

* Request action * = {o,c} for opening or closing

the garage door respectively
b Acknowledgement (command executed)
s
Request the current status of the garage door
Respond the with status ** = {up,dn} where
** • up: garage door is open •dn: garage door is
closed

DEC 0905 19
Microcontroller (STK300)

• The microcontroller: has 6 different ports with 10

pins each

• Port B is used to power up the garage door opener

control circuit, and the control signal wire is as well
connected on Pin 2 of Port B

• This pin can be programmed using AVR studio so it

sends 5V signals to toggle the switch

DEC 0905 20
 Relay Circuit
•
Connected between the
microcontroller and the garage door
opener

•
Takes 5V output from the Relay
microcontroller and switches 24V
garage door motor

•
Diode protects the microcontroller
from back EMF

DEC 0905 21
IR Sensor IR Sensor

•
Used to detect the status of the garage door

•
Range: 9cm to 90cm

The sensor’s Voltage reference is connected to the Aref

•

pin of the analog port and the sensor’s digital output is

connected to ADC pin of the microcontroller

•
The conversion is done programmatically

DEC 0905 22
Test Plan
Software Testing
•
Unit testing: Isolate the smallest piece of a testable code
and test it
•
Regression testing: Re-run previously run test after
modifying functionality
•
End Product testing: All of the functional requirements
would be tested at the very high level, using the user
interface
•
Non functional Software Testing
Usability testing: Usability testing depends on the
user feedback regarding the user interface.
Hardware Testing
• DEC
Each hardware component would be 0905
tested as soon as we23
Server Testing
The functionality of the server was first developed
•

using a test program. This program allowed us to

connect to the microcontroller via Bluetooth connection
without using a fully developed web server

•
In later development of the server we also used a
dialog box to let us know what actions were being
performed on the server

Server Test Server test output

DEC 0905 24
Program
Hardware Testing

• Since the microcontroller

communicates to three
separate devices via UART, a
test module that
communicated through a
computer’s serial port was
developed using the UART
DEC Microcontroller
library
Bray’s Terminal
and aTesting serial
0905 25
Future Work
 MoreDevices with multiple
microcontrollers

Adding more security features

Adding user authentication and

separation of device controls

DEC 0905 26
Final Thoughts
Allocating more resources to the
server

Being able to begin basic

implementation during the planning
stage

Understanding the scope of our project

DEC 0905 27
Any Questions?

Internet

DEC 0905 28