1.
INTRODUCTION
The determination for Wi-Fi control of ceiling fans both in homes and offices is
the main focus of this design. Technology is rapidly growing in various
directions and it has been necessary to apply it to all sections of human needs.
This need has been so necessary in order to reduce stress and other
inconveniences associated with switching on or off of ceilings fans either in
our homes or offices. Wi-Fi control of
appliances may include centralized control of fans, doors, lighting, and air
conditioning. It also entails appliances and other security apparatus such as
burglar alarms, motorized closed circuit television cameras in order to provide
improved convenience. The idea of
“Internet of Things” is globally becoming closely associated with the rapid
commercialization of domestic and industrial automation [1]. Home automation can
be realized through telephone line, wireless transmission, or the internet to
provide control and monitoring via smartphone or browser. The idea of smart
house concept was first conceived in the early 80’s as a project of the National
Research Centre of the National Association of Home Builders [2].
1.1
RELATED WORK
1.1.1 GSM OR SMS Based Home Automation System
In [3][4][5], a GSM or SMS based home automation is presented. In
this design, a remote control system for electrical appliances and lighting is
provided. A GSM shield is used for receiving short messages service from the
user’s cellphone which automatically enables an Arduino Microcontroller to
activate necessary actions like switching ON and OFF of electrical appliances
such as fans, air conditioners, lighting points etc.
1.1.2
BLUETOOTH Based Home Automation System
[6]
Presents a Bluetooth based home automation system in which Bluetooth devices are
used to connect to interfaces controlling connected home appliances and
lighting. The design depends on a stand -alone Arduino Uno and Bluetooth board.
1.1.3
IOT Based Home Automation System
In [7], IOT
based home automation system is presented. It uses a NODEMCU ESP866 Wi-Fi module
which hosts a webserver. By connecting to the webserver through mobiles, tablets
or PCs, the home appliance and lighting can be controlled through sets of relay
drivers and switches.
2
MATERIALS
AND METHODS
The
proposed system comprises two main parts, namely; hardware and software. The
hardware segment consists of: An Arduino Nano board featuring an
Atmega
328P Microcontroller, an Esp8266 Wi-Fi Module, a coil inside an old manual fan
regulator, a relay board comprising of four relays, a USB -to Serial converter,
a USB cable, a 3.3V regulated power supply unit, connecting leads and Wi-Fi
network to connect to. The appropriate drivers are installed for the boards
while the necessary libraries are included on to codes written using the Arduino
Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The 5V power supply from the Arduino
board is taken on to the power board for regulation using the LM 1117 voltage
regulator. The RST terminal of the Arduino board and the GPIO0 of the ESP8266
module are connected to GRD. Enable the Chip by connecting the CH_PD pin to
Vcc through a 1k resistor. Nothing should be connected to the
GPIO1 pin while the ESP8266 Wi-Fi is in the flash mode. A reset button is added
by connecting one between the RST pin and ground. The codes are uploaded on to
the flash memory of the ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. Thereafter, the GPIO0 pin is
removed from ground in order to put the ESP8266 in to the normal mode. Any Wi-Fi
device can be used to select the speed of the ceiling fan through an interface
designed using html language. An android phone (Infinite Note 4) and a Dell
Inspiron11 Laptop is used to send data to the esp8266 module which control the
relay board on to which the fan control coil is connected.
Figure 1. Block diagram of the
Wi-Fi fan speed regulator system [7]
In figure 1, a PC or an Android Phone sends data to Esp8266 module which
receives the data and passes it to the Atmega 382P
microcontroller. The data is processed by the microcontroller which executes the
necessary decision to activate the relay board. All the connected appliances are
driven by the relay board.
2.1
Esp8266 Wi-Fi Module
Figure 2. Pin arrangement of the esp8266 Wi-Fi module.
The Rx pin of the esp8266 module is connected to the TX pin on the Arduino board
as defined in the set-up file. The TX pin of the Wi-Fi module goes to the Rx on
the Arduino board. The Vcc should be connected to a
constant 4.3 Volts d.c. The power requirement is necessary otherwise the Wi-Fi
module will not work. The GPIO0 pin must be grounded while uploading codes onto
the board. The RST pin should be connected to Vcc
while the GPIO2 port is used as the general input and output channel.
2.2
Relay
Board
Sending commands from software to turn ONB/
OFF an appliance may not guarantee the correct operation of the appliance as the
device may be defective. To solve this problem, a feedback circuit is provided
to indicate the actual status of the device after it receives the command
(ON/OFF) from the cell phone. Once a command is sent to turn ON a device,
circuit senses the current and gives an output signal by turning ON a light
emitting diode on the switching circuitry indicating the device is turn ON. If
perchance the device is not turned ON when a command is sent, it indicates that
the concerned relay is defective. Figure 3 and figure 4 shows the relay board
and the switching circuitry of the relay board.
Figure 3:
Relay Board
Figure 4. 5V
-240 V switching circuit of the relay board [6]
2.3
Variable
Power Supply Unit
Figure 5. Variable Power supply unit used in the construction.
The power
supply unit shown in figure 5 is obtained by connecting the 5V pin on the
Arduino Nano board to an LM1117 voltage regulator which gives the stabilized
3.3V required to power the ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. The first pin of the regulator
is connected to ground. A 10uf capacitor is placed between pin 2 (Vout) and ground. Also place a 10uf capacitor between pin 3
(Vin) and ground. Now the pin 2 of the LM1117 is
connected to the 3.3V or the Vcc of the ESP8266 wi-fi
module. The pin 3 of the LM1117 regulator must be connected to 5V pin of the Arduino Nano.
In this
system we have established a wireless connection between the application on the
mobile phone and the Arduino esp8266 Wi-Fi module. Having established the
connection, we send messages through a graphical
user interface on the phone to the wi-fi module as shown in figure 6b.
The data sent is processed and interpreted by microcontroller which sent control
signals to the relay board to drive the lamps. In figure 6c, none of the lamps
is activated. In figure 6c, only the white lamp is activated while in figure 6c,
all the lamps including the 13A socket are activated.
4
GRAPHICAL
USER INTERFACE ( GUI)
The
graphical user application allows user easily select the required command button
to turn the fan on maximum speed or power off the fan. From the interface the
user can also select medium speed or turn off the fan.
Figure. 9. Cell Phone Graphical user Interface for
controlling the speed of the fan.
5.
RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION
The
complete system is shown in figure 8. The system works by initializing the hot
spot on the mobile phone and connecting the phone to the fan regulator as shown
in figure 8. Once the wi-fi link is established between the phone and the fan
regulator, any wi-fi enabled device can then be used to connect to the fan
regulator through the default I.P address of the wi-fi module. Once the IP
address is accessed, an interface is displayed through which the fan speed can
be selected. On the interface, we have only provided two speed levels: the
maximum speed and the medium speed as shown in figure 9. A computer system with
a wi-fi facility was also used to control the speed of the ceiling fan.
6.
CONCLUSION
In this
presentation, we have designed and implemented a wi-fi based ceiling fan speed
regulator. The system is protected against access from unauthorized users. The
user is required to provide a username and password for authentication before
access is provided to access the webserver hosted on the ESP8266 Wi-Fi module.
REFERENCES
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[2]
Mohamed,
S.S., Ahmed, A., Alahmadi, A., Mash, A., & Mohamed, O.E. (2017).
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Arduino Microcontroller Kit and Labview Platform
International Journal of Applied
Engineering Research” Vol.12, no.18, pp.7259-7264.
[3]
Effah, E.,
Aryeh, F.L.,
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