COOLRF: Project News Digest # 2

In the summer we began to publish much less often on Habré. More precisely, they ceased to be published at all. Gardens began, the load on the main work increased. Our VKontakte community , which has already gathered more than 2,800 participants, has become quite suitable for publishing short notes on the progress of the project, which we have been using all this time.

What happened in two months of "silence"? In today's “issue”: presentation of the project, two new system modules (thermostat NB1 and leak detector WS1), a cloud compiler for NRF24LE1 and a smart home control interface.

COOLRF: “Smart home” for resourceful

We changed the tagline. Synonyms of the word “resourceful” - ingenious, visionary, dodgy, inventive, dexterous, understanding, perspicacious, insightful, prudent, quick-witted, smart, quick-witted. In general - just you, our dear reader.

JetStyle drew us a new logo, already appreciated by the members of our VKontakte community "oh, well, this one is much better."

A presentation was written , the purpose of which is a short story about the essence of our project. For those who are "kind of interested, but not everything is clear." We hope that the presentation puts all the dots on the "i". If not - welcome to the PM and comments with suggestions for refinement and unsolved issues.

Thermostat NB1

Our thermostat is installed in the widespread NOBO electric convectors. Without any modification of the latter. Allows you to remotely control the convector. It makes available such work scenarios as “turning on the heat in the country before leaving the city, arrived in the already warm summer house in winter” or “during the day we warm the air up to 25 degrees, and at night - up to 15”, etc. It contains on-board local controls that allow you to change the target temperature. Supports feedback function. At any time, you can find out the current state of the convector and the temperature of its sensors.

The thermostat contains one required temperature sensor, on the readings of which the convector control algorithm is based. It allows connection to a chain of several temperature sensors, the data from which will simply be transmitted to the central device of a smart home. This property can be used to measure temperature at different points in the building and outside it without installing additional actuators.

It will be possible to buy both fully assembled and as a designer. The composition of the designer (title photo of the post): a printed circuit board, three parts of the case, three knife contacts (not soldered), the necessary fasteners. Work on the thermostat is nearing completion. We bring to perfection the performance of knife contacts and body parts. The software part of the firmware is written and functional.

Leak Sensor WS1

It is located in places of probable leaks: under the bath, behind the toilet bowl, under the kitchen sink. Powered by a CR2032 battery. Estimated battery life is about 2-3 years. When the charge drops below the signal level, it informs the central device about the need to replace the batteries. Designed for a finished housing, it is placed based on two protruding terminals in the lower part.



The sensor will work in conjunction with a water control module that has not yet been developed.

Cloud Compiler for NRF24LE1

One of the reasons for the great popularity of Arduino is its convenient and simple development environment. Download the installation package, install and program. No need to configure anything, connect third-party libraries, understand the complex interface. The goal of the COOLRF project is not only to create interesting hardware solutions. We want to program our modules was no more difficult than programming Arduino.

The prototype of the cloud compiler (not yet published, but) already allows you to: log in using social networks, edit the firmware code on a web page with syntax highlighting, receive a compiled firmware file with one click on the on-screen button. You do not need to configure anything; the server does everything. File change history is saved. Users see each other’s assemblies and can easily start writing their code based on someone else’s code (a kind of github).

Smart Home Management Interface COOLRF.ATHOME

The central device of the smart home COOLRF is a computer connected to the home radio network on one side and to WiFi on the other. A web server is spinning on the computer, allowing you to monitor the current state of all smart home systems and manage them. We can load the control interface on a tablet or smartphone, we can in a browser on a computer. We can do this inside the apartment, or (if port forwarding is configured) outside from anywhere in the world.

The first draft of the interface can be seen in the photo above. As you can see from the screenshot, this interface is far from universal. It contains a well-defined grouping (by device type) of well-defined controls. Someone may want to group their devices not by type, but by structure. Someone will find little graphics in the design. But everyone will be happy. Because we do not make a universal interface for all occasions. We are creating a framework that will allow with minimal effort to create personal smart home management interfaces for the specific wishes of specific users.

To personalize the interface, you will need to understand HTML, CSS, JavaScript, KnockoutJS and be able to read the proposed examples.

What's next?

We continue to work on the project in the evenings and nights. Our speed is not very high, but we do not stand still. Now in development are a small four-button touch control panel and a module for connecting the NRF24LE1 to a computer via USB (for network management and programming). Join our VKontakte community and keep abreast of our news.

PS In the first half of August (from 3 to 11) I will be on vacation with my family in St. Petersburg. If there are people who want to meet and talk about the project, I will be glad to single out one of the evenings for this. By the way, if any of the readers have interesting (cost and location) options for renting a 1-2-room apartment for a specified period of time - please write me in a personal here or in VK.