1. Remote Control of Home Appliances Using the Internet
Team DEC0905
Elie Abichar
Rachel Ayoroa
Chris Tefer
Ananta Upadhyaya
Faculty Advisor & Client:
Dr. Ahmed Kamal
Website:

2. 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

3. Concept Sketch plate DEC 0905 User Internet IR Sensor Server
Bluetooth USB Adapter
Bluetooth module
Microcontroller
Garage door Opener
plate
DEC 0905

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 devices, to the user
Must have a logon method for verifying users
DEC 0905

7. 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

8. 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

9. Deliverables Server User Interface Device control Unit Project Plan
Project Poster
Design Documents
Final Report
DEC 0905

10. Work Breakdown
DEC 0905

11. 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

12. Project Schedule
DEC 0905

13. 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

14. User Interface Description
DEC 0905

15. Server Connections
DEC 0905

16. Server Description
The server contains three components. The HTML website, JavaScript page handler, and the HTTP server.
Chris I’m assuming you’ll talk about how the server works so feel free to set this up how you want.
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

17. 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

18. 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/ rounded to nearest integer
A specific protocol was setup for proper communication
Do we want to talk about how BT-BT communication works like we did on the poster?
DEC 0905
Bluetooth Module

19. Send device name {gd,th} for garage door and thermostat respectively
BT dongle
BT module
BluetoothConnection n
Request for command
Send device name {gd,th} for garage door and thermostat respectively
Device name (**) 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
up: garage door is open
dn: garage door is closed
Respond the with status ** = {up,dn} where
* *
DEC 0905

20. 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

21. Relay Circuit
Connected between the microcontroller and the garage door opener
Takes 5V output from the microcontroller and switches 24V garage door motor
Diode protects the microcontroller from back EMF
Relay
DEC 0905

22. 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

23. 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
Each hardware component would be tested as soon as we receive it
Double check wired connection
Double check components configuration
DEC 0905

24. 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 output
Server Test Program
DEC 0905

25. Hardware Testing Microcontroller Testing Bray’s Terminal
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 library and a serial communication program called Bray’s Terminal
Once the UART code was developed for basic serial communication, three separate test modules were developed for the infrared sensor, Bluetooth device, and garage door relay. Each module was developed to run on a separate port of the microcontroller
An LCD screen connected to the microcontroller was used to output results for each test module until the Bluetooth server was fully functional
Bray’s Terminal
DEC 0905
Microcontroller Testing

26. Future Work More Devices with multiple microcontrollers
Adding more security features
Adding user authentication and separation of device controls
DEC 0905

27. 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

28. Any Questions?
Internet
DEC 0905