Project Information

Technology is a key example of human evolution. As we progress, our technology improves to offer more support in daily life. The home is the focal point of human life. A given room is generally used fairly inefficiently. It is intuitive to apply technology to the home as it incorporates itself more thoroughly into our lives. A 'Smart Home' is created through a sensor network that connects to a base. Sensor networks are able to collect data and organize this data into an efficient system for the home owner to process. Internet monitoring allows for easy accessibility.

Every year, consumers become more and more dependent upon new electrical gadgets. Most of these gadgets have one thing in common: standby power. People find it much easier to keep their chargers constantly plugged in, regardless of whether they are actually charging. Electronic appliances that are plugged in, but turned off or in a standby mode, consume electric power known as standby power. Standby power is also known as vampire power or phantom load. Our technology will actually alleviate vampire power instead of increase it.

Our goal is to monitor power consumption and reduce this standby power. The more that we are aware of a problem, the more opportunity we have to alleviate it. With real-time monitoring, a user can better understand where their power goes. The PlayStation 3 has been reported to use as much as 35W when on idle. Further, a user can employ her power more efficiently. Standby power wastes energy, generates unnecessary heat, and increases fire risks. A single appliance does not draw that much power, but an American home has an average of forty products constantly drawing standby power. Less vampire power means less weight on power plants. Less weight on power plants is better for the environment. Efficient energy saves money, saves lives, and saves the environment.

Another use for our system is to turn off items in a home that have been left on and are consuming full power, not only the relatively smaller amount used by standby power consumption. For example a light sensor may be placed near a lamp which would enable the user to determine if a light has been left on and cut the power to it in order to save energy.

The goal of the Electrical Engineering Senior Design project was to create a fully functional prototype of a design which utilizes an Eagle-designed circuit board and programming of a specific microchip. Team Eroding Sines decided to create a wireless sensor network, such as one utilized in a 'smart home.' The main advantages of this network would be that it would provide otherwise un-utilized data regarding a room system and would also be able to cut back on energy waste. Our project was basically 'making every home a smart home.'

Eroding Sines is a team of four individuals with different specialties and interests. To accomplish this project within a limited timeline, it was necessary to divide up the work so that each member was in charge of a sub-task. The high-level topic division was decided last semester. Kat was in charge of the website/GUI interface. Scott was in charge of the microchip software and zigbee communication. Dan dealt with all of the hardware accessories, such as the power relay and different sensors. Mike handled all of the Eagle board design. We met weekly to update the group and Professor Schafer as to the project as a whole. Each member of the group rotated through positions in the weekly meetings. These weekly meetings rotate through the group with each member having the opportunity to be group leader and in charge of minutes.

Essentially our project was to make a wireless sensor network. This sensor network was made out of nodes. The nodes contained our board along with sensors to detect light, temperature, and motion. A node would be placed in a room and would gather information about the location via the three sensors. Then, the node would transmit this information via Zigbee to the central node. Zigbee is a wireless communication device that uses radio frequencies to send messages. The only hardware difference between the central node and the peripheral nodes is that the central node is plugged into an ethernet jack and has the Siteplayer attachment installed. Once the information has made it to the central node, the central node loads this data to a website via a Siteplayer. The Siteplayer is an embedded ethernet server. The Siteplayer displays the raw data it has gathered on the website, 'Serial.htm.' This information is then processed using perl. Perl is a scripting language that is particularly adept at handling text. If a device is plugged into one of our nodes, the user can turn the device on and off via the website's GUI. Anything can be controlled that draws less than 10 A. This is possible due to a power relay installed in every node. A heavier load can easily be accommodated with the installation of a different relay.

Last semester, our idea for the project was fairly similar. The only major difference is that we refined our sensor accessories to only 3 sensors for the prototype: light, temperature, and motion. We believe these sensors provided the most relevant data for the average user. In the future, it would be very easy to add additional sensors to gather more data. For example, a GPS would allow easier movement of a node so that the user no longer has to keep track of where each node is. We also switched from 'locking/unlocking a door' via the GUI to the more flexible turning something on or off. This switch allowed a more practical skill and better incorporated with our design theme of going green. Not only can you monitor how often the lights are left one, you can turn them off if you're not at home. Similarly, it is also very easy to program the node so that if there is no motion in the room, the accessory which is plugged into the node is turned off. A 100 watt lightbulb spends 750kWatt-hours per year if left on. A single node only draws 63-kWatt hours. If a node is used to continually turn off a wasted lightbulb, up to 687kWatt-hours could be saved. This way, the node not only provides information that allows a better understanding of waste, it actually eliminates waste.

The final design definitely met expectations. It fulfills all of our expected requirements. It would've been very helpful to get a second board design in, but we were able to correct all of the mistakes on the first version. The temperature node is not as accurate as we would like, but otherwise everything performs acceptably. It would also be useful to have a stronger power relay in the future, but for the average user, the power relay rating is completely acceptable. We hadn't thought of minimizing the board last semester, but having created a board it definitely seems feasible to cut off at least 30% of it. Although functional, it would also be helpful to choose a microchip which would be easier to solder. Our current microchip is much more powerful than what we need. By switching microchips, we could cut cost and make production easier.