My inspiration for this project comes from when I wanted to sleep on a day I was really stressed and wanted to switch off light that was shining in my eyes
But unfortunately I was too tired for that , so it dawned on me that I need to find a simple and cost effective way to control my whole house load from just my bed without need of WiFi , or sms or Bluetooth
That was how the power line inspiration began from I started research for best and cheapest way to automate my house.
What it does
The project uses the existing electrical power lines in our homes to pass command to other appliance on same line to automate them (ie put them on On state or Off state) without the need for initialization or network connectivity that fails or gets stocks on low data storage,
The project allows users to control any appliance in his house and even beyond at zero cost of communication fee even over long distances as far as 10km
How we built it
The project was built using low cost Atmega328p and low resources chip that that is easily available and affordable to interact/communicate with the grid line to superimpose command signal in form of frequency using addressing system to communicate with other devices on the same phase or line.
Challenges we ran into
First , there was challenge in testing in getting a log of output data from the Power line Module to my system from both module simultaneously due to limited resource (ie it has only one Serial Hardware UART module internally ).
Secondly , carrying out test was difficult as the system addressing concept requires logging of data on serial monitor
Thirdly, Noise affected us initially until I was able to filter them out
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Am proud of the fact that this project worked swiftly and successfully over long distance and cost just few dollars to recreate.
What we learned
How to design complex communication network system for IOT devices using just unique address system UUID
What's next for Home Automation and IOT integration
Integration of three phase support for automation so that limitation of being on same phase will be eradicated
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