Final PRoject


What will it do?


Digital Smart Home

For my final project I want to build a digital smart home interface and modules


Whose done what beforehand?


For this project, I may not be knowing the exact project that looks similar to mine. What I am aiming at achieving is to consolidate different aspects of what we have learnt in Fab Labs 2011 and have a project. This project involves the use of PHP and html, Microcontrollers and wireless communication. All this was taught in Fab labs and I am combining the different modules of Fab Labs into one.


What materials and components will be required?


For the parts and materials to be used, i will use separate receiver and transmitter. The bill of materials for the receiver and transmitter are listed below.

  • Transmitter
  • Receiver

    • What parts and systems will be made?


    USb to serial converter


    Wireless transmitter receiver modules


    Microcontrollers


    Interface


    Where will the materials and componentscome from?


    For the materials and components, the ones that will be available locallly in our market are more of through hole type of components. I was able to get most of the resistors and capacitors.

    Getting the crystal oscillators was a problem. The available ones are not matching the specifications that are required. This will need to be orderd from www.digikey.com

    Inductors are not easilly available as well, so this may mean that I fabricate my own inductor. This will need copper wires that will be wounded to meet the specific inductance that is required.


    What processes will be used


    The project is meant to be running over the internet. This is the most crucial part of the system. The proceses that will be needed are mostly comuniccation. Communication is between device to be controlled and the webserver. The other part of communication is the internet. The interface that I built takes care of the communication. It connects to the hardware through the usb to serial convertor or through the FTDI.


    Interface

    My idea of an interface is to use html and php.
    The requrements for my interface and application is to have Apache, Mysql and php installed in the computer. The operating system that am using is ubuntu.

    After searching on the net, I was able to get how to install the apache, mysql and php. This id done by typing on the command prompt

    sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5 mysql mysql-server

    Then follow the necessary steps that follow.
    Before Apache can see that php is installed you will have to restart Apache like so:

    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

    You have to first set a password for mysql. To do this, run the first command in order to get to the mysql prompt and the second to set the password:

    mysql -u root mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('YOURPASSWORD');

    Once apache,mysql and php is instaled, we build our application and save in folder in system files as follows.

    /var/www/


    Application

    My application is to build an interface for controlling hardware over internet.

    The idea is to use a webpage that resides in the computer which will have classes for accessing the serial port or the usb of a computer for communication to a microcontroller. To access the application from another computer, one is required to type on a webpage the ip address of my computer.


    How to know the public IP of your computer

    If you want to know the public IP of a computer, you can go to

    www.whatismyip.com


    Html interface



    What is the schedule


    For the parts and materials to be used, i will use separate receiver and transmitter. The bill of materials for the receiver and transmitter are listed below.

    How will it be evaluated


    For the evaluation, I would like it to be be evaluated according to the following;

    - Functionality.
    - Areas Coverered in Fab Labs
    - Relevance of the project
    - Components fabricated