Android Controlled Home Appliances

By: Vivek S. Gupta on 09:59

ABSTRACT

 The project ‘Android Controlled Home Appliances’ is designed to operate electrical loads using an Android application device. Here in this project the Android smart phone is used as remote control for operating the electrical appliances. The system operates electrical loads depending on the data transmitted from the Android application device. Operating conventional wall switches is difficult for elderly or physically handicapped people. This proposed system solves the problem by integrating house hold appliances to a control unit that can be operated by an Android smart-phone/Tablet etc

Remote operation is achieved by any smart-phone/Tablet etc., with Android OS, upon a GUI (Graphical User Interface) based touch screen operation, interfaced to the microcontroller of 8051 family. The program on the microcontroller serially communicates with Bluetooth device to generate respective output based on the input data (sent from Android application device) to operate a set of relays through a relay driver IC. The loads are interfaced to the control unit through the relays. The system can be used in existing domestic area for either operating the loads through conventional switches.

                                INTRODUCTION

           

              Modern hand held devices such as smart phones ,tablets and PDAs have become increasingly powerful in recent years. Dramatic breakthroughs in processing power along with number of extra features included  in these devices have opened the doors to a wide range of commercial possibilities. As mobile devices become more like PCs they will come to replace objects we tend to carry around such as checkbooks, credit cards, remote control etc. In short we will be using them to accomplish our daily tasks. One application that falls  into this category is REMOTE OPERATED DOMESTIC APPLIANCES CONTROL BY ANDROID APPLICATION.

                 As the world gets more and more technologically advanced, we find new technology coming in deeper and deeper into our personal lives even at home. Home automation is becoming more popular around the world and is becoming a common practice. The process of home automation works by making everything in the house automatically controlled using technology to control and do the jobs that we would normally do manually. Our project illustrates Appliance Control System accessed by a remote device such as mobile phone to allow owner to control, monitor and coordinate the appliances.

             This project is a fine combination of Android mobile technology and embedded system. User can control Home appliances using Android mobile. An application should be installed on his/her Android mobile handset to control various home appliances. User can send commands using that application. Wireless controlling technique used in this project is Bluetooth technology. This project consists of a Bluetooth receiver. This Bluetooth device is connected to the circuit which has a decoder. This decoder sends code for respective command sent by user. Then the respective device connected to the circuit will be turned on or off depending on the command given.

Objective of the project:

       

           The  project  aims  in  designing  a  system  which  makes  operating  of  electrical appliances in home through Android mobile phone possible. The controlling of electrical appliances is done wirelessly through  an  application  in android phone.

 The main objectives of the project are: 

1.     To develop a home automation system with Android application controlled remote

2.     Controlling of AC devices wirelessly through mobile phone.

3.      Shifting from conventional switches to centralized control system, involving wireless controlled switches.

4.     To assist handicapped/old aged people.

5.    To make more sophisticated and advance system for computing.

System Requirements

 

   HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:

1.     8051 series Microcontroller

2.     Bluetooth device

3.     Relays

4.     Relay Driver IC

5.     Crystal Resistors

6.     Capacitors LED,

7.     Diodes,

8.     Transformer,

9.     Voltage Regulator,

10.                        Lamps.

    SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:

1.     Keil compiler,

2.     Languages:  Embedded C or Assembly

3.     Android Application

 Modules :

    The system contains two units, one is process unit & other is monitoring unit. Process unit consists of microcontroller, Bluetooth for communication, LCD for display. Monitor unit consists of Smart phone. Using smart phone, we can switch devices ON/OFF, also control fan speed.

Block diagram:

                        Fig.1

Monitor   Unit

1) Android mobile:

          

                       Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. Android is a customizable platform that can look and feel very different on every different handsets. Android gives us tools for creating apps that looks great and take more advantage of the hardware capabilities available on each device. Android is mainly based on Linux operating system which uses java- like languages for running applications. The purpose of use of android in our project is to send the control signals from smart phone through Bluetooth.

Software Design (Android App Design):

            The software or the android application for this project  is designed using a very innovative product initially provided by Google but now under the maintenance of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) known as MIT app Inventor (App Inventor 2012). The application building process in App Inventor involves three aspects:

(i) App inventor designer,

(ii) App Inventor Blocks editor, and

(iii) An emulator or Android Phone.

The set-up process for the software is very easy. The system requirements are very basic and it is compatible with Mac OSX, Windows and Linux Operating systems.

App Inventor Designer:

        The first phase of application design goes through App Inventor Designer. Designer  is  accessible through the web page and all the ingredients for the app are available on  the left side of the window. The ingredients include elements like a screen for the app, buttons for tapping, text boxes, images, labels, animations and many more. Adding the components to the screen is a simple drag-and-drop process.

App Inventor Blocks Editor:

            After the completion of design process, for the app to function as desired, users should go through the blocks editor. App Inventor Blocks Editor uses open blocks java library. Those open blocks integrate to create visual blocks of programming language. Hence, the blocks are the programming codes which can be dragged and cemented with other blocks to create a desired functional program. The Editor can be opened from the options available in the App Inventor Designer which launches a Java applet for Blocks Editor. With a little logic in programming any user can combine the blocks and make the components added in Designer to function as required.

An emulator or Android phone:

        The final part of the application design is testing the application. Thus, for the users without the android handsets  App Inventor gives the option of testing the application in an emulator which is very similar to the real device but with some limitations. From the Blocks Editor, the user can connect the application to the emulator available via the connect option and test how the application functions in real world. Apart from the emulator, the user can also directly connect the android phone to the computer via USB connecter and test the application.

  Process   Unit

2) Bluetooth receiver unit:

            Bluetooth was selected as our way of communicating mobile with a central system. Bluetooth module receives the data serially in RS232 format from controller and sends it to wireless network. For interfacing it with microcontroller we need to build the circuit because Bluetooth module understands data in RS232 standard and controller understands data in TTL format. So we need to design circuit to make these two compatible with each other. The Bluetooth modem used in this project is  Bluetooth Serial Miniature RF. It has a range of 18 meters and is capable of transferring data at the rate of 2400 bps to 115200 bps. The operating voltage range is 3.3 V to 6 V and the temperature range is -40 ~ +70C.

            
3) Microcontroller:

         Microcontroller can be used as the ‘brain’ to control a large variety of products, in order to control large devices. It is necessary to interface them to the microcontroller. In our project we have used 8051 microcontroller which is 8 bit, RISC type, 40 pin IC. Relays board  are interfaced to the Microcontroller. The data received   from  Android  smart  phone   is fed as input to the controller. The controller acts accordingly on the Relays  to  switch  connected  electrical  appliances.  Also in achieving the task the controller is loaded with a program written using Embedded ‘C’ language.

4) LCD Display:

             The status  of the electrical appliances can be seen on LCD display.

5) Relays:

             A relay is used to isolate one  circuit from another.  Relays are used between loads and the control unit. It allows a low current control circuit to make or break an electrically isolated high current circuit path.

Power supply

              The power supply consists of a step down transformer 230/12V, which steps down the voltage to 12V AC. This is converted to DC using a Bridge rectifier. The ripples are removed using a capacitive filter and it is then regulated to +5V using a voltage regulator 7805 which is required for the operation of the microcontroller and other components.

 

 

Applications and Advantages:

1.     Home automation – This project can be used to control various Home Appliances

2.     We can control device from a long distance, thus it gives ease of access.

3.     Faster operation and efficient.

4.     No need to carry separate remote or any other controlling unit.

5.     This project is based on Android which is FOSS(Free Open Source Software). So the overall implementation cost is very cheap and it is affordable by a common person.

6.     Precise and safe blind control.

 

Conclusion

          This document presents a mobile controlled and user friendly approach to the available home automation system. This system can easily be implemented because of its wireless communication standards. Our prime objective is to assist handicapped/old aged people. This paper gives basic idea of how to control various home appliances This project is based on Android which is FOSS(Free Open Source Software). So the overall implementation cost is very cheap and it is affordable by a common person. Looking at the current scenario we have chosen Android platform so that most of the people can get benefit. The design consists of Android phone with home automation application. User can interact with the  android phone and send control signal to the which in turn will control other embedded devices/sensors.  We have discussed a simple prototype in this paper but in future it can be expanded to many other areas