Lamp, fan, home ventilation and radio..

For home automation, I've choose to make lamp, fan, ventilation system at home and radio become automatic.

The lamp is adjustable to control the dimmer of the light. As for the lamp, I've choose the DC lamp because this DC lamp is more practical then the AC. AC lamp such as the LED just can be use for the prototype and for the small used. But for the DC lamp such as bulb, it can be used direct to the house. But to connect the bulb to the PIC, I need to do the experiment on the voltage so that I can adjust the dimmer of the lamp.

For the fan, I make it automatic by control the speed of the fan from the remote control. The fan that I used for this project is just the laptop's cooler pad fan.

The home ventilation is just for the prototype. It just add another fan and make it move to the apposite direction so that the air will be absorb out from the prototype home.

And as for the radio, I still in the process to make it real. I mean that I still learning to make the radio can automatic on from the remote control.

Design circuit..

This is the basic circuit of my project. The function of this circuit is just to run the PIC16F877.

As you all know that the PIC16F877 can only receive maximum 5v of supply. If the supply is more then 5v, the IC will burn or damage. But in the real world, we can get the supply power from battery or adapter. Your adapter can be 9v to 15v and you cannot direct connect the power supply to the PIC, otherwise, your PIC will burn or damage. To overcome this problem, the regulator is used in this circuit because this regulator is function to reduce the power from high voltage to 5v. And I take 1000nF for the capacitor near the regulator because 1000nF is faster then 100nF to reduce the noise.

The LED near the regulator is function to alert me that there is power or not in the circuit by LED will on when there is a power and LED will off if there is no power in the circuit.

To set the reset button in this circuit, the switch button is connected to the MCLR pin of PIC16F877.

20 MHz crystal is used in this circuit because PIC16F877 peripheral said that this PIC can accept until 20MHz of pulse. If more then 20MHz, the PIC cannot run the program that burned inside them. Crystal is one of the important component that need to have in every circuit that used PIC or microcontroller. It is because this crystal is like a heart beat of the PIC. It control the pulse of the program inside the PIC. And I choose 20MHz because it is the fastest pulse that PIC16F877 can support and the program inside the PIC can be run faster then 8MHz or else.

Home Automation

Actually, i forgot to explain about home automation. haha.. All those previous post is about zigbee and the function of xbee, the way xbee communicate with PIC and all the software that decided to use in this project with all the method. And now, I want to explain about home automation that already popular at USA but rarely use in Malaysia. In home automation, it can be build using wired or wireless. But I decided to use wireless because it can be install to the exist home and you no need to renovate your house just to install this application in your house. Wireless also easy to do maintenance. In this project, I've choose xbee as a wireless medium because it is current technology. ZigBee technology can minimizes the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interference and also reduce amount of network traffic.

ok


As you all can see picture above, all the things in the house can be automatic. You can control all the light, air-conditioning, surveillance or even watering the grass with using only one controller which can be in term of remote control or touch screen controller or it can be in the computer.

Look at this scenario. Each time you came back home, you need to switch on the light, fan or air-conditioner, and television. Each time you reach home, you need to walk out from your car and open the gate then go back to your car and parked it into garage then walk again to the gate an close it back. Or every week, you need to turn on the sprinklers and turn it off when it finish. But sometimes, you need to go out in the weekend and you forgot to turn it on and the result is your grass all lose their freshness. Or, your electrical bill is overdue because of unlimited usage of electric or forgotten to switch it off when you go out to work in weekdays or go back to your hometown in weekends. And you always feel uncomfortable to go outstation or go back to hometown or go to holiday because worried about your house if it save to leave all your belongings inside there. Sometimes, when you go back home, the environment of your house always the same and you got bored easily and stress because of that.

With this home automation application, all those problem can be solve easily. it is because home automation is design to make your home automatic. Such as turning on the sprinklers at a certain time every day and detecting burglars in the middle of the night. You can simply open the gate from your driver sit without need to move from your position or sensing the presence of the person in a room and adjusting light ambiance, the temperature in the room, the volume of the music, according to different factors like the day of the week and the time. The home ventilation also can be setup by certain time when you feel your home not in the fresh environment.

2nd briefing

Yesterday was 2nd briefing for final year project. The briefing is conducted by FYP committee. The content of the briefing is about method in completing full report and reminder of all date line such as demo day and report submission. Demo day is on week 13 and all student must prepare the project and also poster to present at demo day. As for the report, it must be submit on week 14 and not only the hardcover report, the softcopy also need to be submit with the hardcopy. And FYP committee suggest that all the hardware and software of the project must be fully complete before Chinese New Year so that all student can focus on the report.