Final PRoject


Digital Smart Home

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


Task to be done

BUild the interface GUI
Build the interface hardware.
Build the wireless modules
Build the control modules


How to know the public IP of your computer













Html interface



So far i have the interface running just a few changes that will done within a short time.

The changes to be made include redesigning of the interface to give a representation of a control panel of a house, showing the different areas of the house.

Usb to serial

The communication from the interface to the hardware will be done through USB to serial convertor. I could not use the FTDI cable because it was not avaialable.

This made me to use a Nokia T42 data cable. One end is a usb and the other end has the TX and RX links to a microcontroller.

The image for the USB serial convertor is as following.




Wireless Modules


Transmitter






Receiver





For the wireless modules, I faced some challenges when ordering the tranceiver IC's. My order was for tranceivers and individual transmitter and receiver IC from maxim electronics. They were offering free samples which I was able to receive only the individual transmitter and receiver. The rest of the transceivers were detained at the airport which needed to paid for customs duty and tax. This was going to be expensive for me especially that I was running on a tight budget.

What I got was transmitters and receivers separately. The challenging part now is that getting components for the radio is tricky.

One option is to order from www.digikey.com which will take about 2 weeks. The other option is to buy avaibale components and locally and also fabricate what can not be found in Nairobi.

The parts for fabrication will be inductor. The inductors are in the nano henry range. They will be air core inductors which should not be hard to wind.
Inductor fabrication

To wind the inductors, i used some calculation from a page which would give me the inductance in micro henry and then convert to nano henry.


Inductor calculator
Inductance Calculation

Inductor convertion
Inductance Conversion



Bill of Materials
Transmitter

Receiver

Findings

From this project I have learnt alot on wireless communication.

I thought fabrication of a communication device would be simple. In my project, I was required to have a spectrum analyzer so as to taste and fine tune the receiver and transmitter to the sam frequency.

The availability of the proper crystal did limit my devices from communicating. Either they did transmit and receive but at different frequencies which I could I have with the use of spectrum analyzer.

Conclution

This project is viable and I have tested the different parts of the system and I know they will work

Future work

After testing the samples from maxim for wireless communication and doing more research, I will use the Atmel Chip for communication that was used in the Fab Radio. The specs for the Fab Radio transceiver will still enable me to finish my project and improve on it.