Smart Power Strip-DIY

-
I have just completed making a Smart Power strip that features 2 sockets that can be independently controlled by an app as well as can be voice controlled using Alexa. The product also features a multi-colored mini lamp as featured in my earlier post that can be controlled by app too and also features voice control via Alexa. The module also has 2 master switches that can be used for completely switching off the sockets so if someone wants to use the power strip in a conventional manner without using the "smarter" ways, that option is also present.
Unfinished Mess

The project basically requires you to have basic electric networks knowledge on how AC supply works and is connected to appliances. For providing IoT ecosystem & app control, we use a microcontroller that controls a relay which controls the switching action of the sockets. The same microcontroller also controls the RGB multi color lamp.
The Finished Product
Another great feature of this project is that it's very inexpensive and you can easily extend it to a 3 or 4 socket power strip. Only additions would be the box ,sockets, switches and extra relays.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Microcontroller GPIO

-
Image
A general-purpose input/output (GPIO) is a digital signal pin on an integrated circuit or electronic circuit board(In our case, a microcontroller or arduino board) whose behavior—including whether it acts an input or output—is controllable by the user. GPIOs have no predefined purpose and are unused by default. If used, the purpose and behavior of a GPIO is defined by the user or the developer. These pins basically act as bridges to interface with the outside world. For instance, a LED can be connected to these pins as an output device or a sensor can be connected to GPIO for obtaining some input which can be processed by the microcontroller. However, these pins should be made available by the board manufacturer so that they can be used by developers and prototypers. Arduino also has many GPIO pins available for users to program and interface. The pin number and location can be found on multiple diagrams available on the internet. You can see the different pins as well as ...
Read more

Getting Started with Arduino & Arduino IDE

-
Now, that you have Arduino IDE downloaded and installed, fire it up by clicking the icon that must have appeared on your desktop. When you first open the IDE, a window will open up that shows something called as a sketch. Every program that we write in the IDE is called a sketch. On the toolbar, you can see a variety of options similar to every windows program. You can click File   to open a menu that gives variety of options like "New", "Open", "Open Recent" etc. There are several other options that can be explored as you get familiar with the tool. Go ahead, and click on the "New" option in the File menu. This will open a new sketch with some default codes present in your sketch. Also, you can notice some buttons below the toolbar. These are shortcut buttons for : Verifying the Sketch Uploading the Sketch Create a new Sketch (What we did just now) Open an existing Sketch Save the current sketch The above options are self explanatory...
Read more