Introduction of an Intelligent Home Automation using Raspberry Pi

Introduction

Ever since its inception, Raspberry Pi created lots of ripples in the market due to its affordability, easy to handle, easy to program and availability across the globe. This is one of the reasons people prefer to choose a raspberry pi while giving a start to their programming skills and making their projects.

It is now very much possible to carry out different projects with raspberry pi . Be it making a GSM module on pi or doing home automation with raspberry Pi or making Media Server or learning robotics with it . In-fact makers community on raspberry pi across the globe is one of the largest and working on various projects/domains and making it more versatile for use.

Intelligent Home Automation on Raspberry Pi is one of the popular DIY Projects that hobbyists and electronics enthusiasts love to work on. If you are thinking to make things smart and intelligent then one of the way to start is doing home automation with Raspberry pi as it is easy to program using different languages like python,C, PHP etc and also comes with Inbuilt wifi to make things IOT based. Although home automation devices are already there but Doing home automation with raspberry pi gives you more accessibility in experimenting with things & modularity to add or remove modules as per your choice.

The technical part of such home automation projects is to control an electrical load like a light bulb or a ceiling fan or any other home appliances using your mobile application or a web interface.

Instead of installing a different mobile app every time for every smart home device you buy, you can manage all your devices through a single interface. A relay is a small device that along with a Raspberry Pi automates your home and the appliances connected.

Description

What is a Relay?

In simple terms, a relay is a switch. In technical language, a relay is an electromagnetic switch where a small control signal (usually from a microcontroller) at the input of the Relay will control a high voltage supply (usually AC mains). A Relay Module is a simple circuit board that consists of the relay itself and all the necessary components that are required to drive a relay and also the required connectors to connect the load.

If you want to control your electrical loads using a Raspberry Pi for turning on/off the AC or fan before you reach home, you cannot interface them directly as the electrical loads work on AC Mains supply and Raspberry Pi works on DC supply.

So here comes the PiRelay. A PiRelay is a Raspberry Pi based relay module, or simply a relay that consists of a coil and few electrical contacts. When the coil is energized, it acts as an electromagnet and closes a switch. If the coil is de-energized, the coil loses its magnetic nature and releases the switch.

So, by controlling the coil, you can control a switch, which in turn will control an electrical load. You can control the coil of the relay with the help of Raspberry Pi (although not directly, but with additional circuit) as all you need is a small current to energize the coil.

There are multiple access channels that one can use PiRelay with. For example, you can use the web interface, a mobile application or a simple SMS or call through your phone etc, that will simply put the devices to action.

Web Interface: In this mechanism, a user need to follow few steps. Firstly, the user must open a local IP address of the Raspberry Pi along with the Port number on a server programmed. There an interface of the control for the devices shall be given according to the GUI. Simply access the GPIO pins connected with the PiRelay from the different buttons given and manage your device through that web page.
Mobile application: Using the Telegram app, or PiRelay app, SMS, call or a web GPIO, the limit leis nowhere. Now you can automate your home from any corner of the world by using the multiple services provided by your mobile phone. For SMS and calling, you can connect the PiTalk with your PiRelay. PiTalk is a 3G enabled modular smartphone based on Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi Architecture:

The Raspberry Pi is a single board computer that can perform the actions of a fully capable computer. It is an open source hardware technology combined with a programming language and an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The Raspberry Pi has four distinct power modes,

The run mode: The central processing unit (CPU) and all functionality of the ARM11 core is available at this mode and will power up.
The standby mode: The main course clocks are shut down i.e. the parts of the CPU that process instructions are no longer running in this mode, but the power circuits on the core will be still active. The core can quickly wake up by a process generating a special call to the CPU called an interrupt.
The shutdown mode: The RPi board will be completely shutdown with no power.
The dormant mode: The core will be powered down and all the caches are left ON.

Relay Driver (PiRelay):

PiRelay is based on Raspberry Pi that can be used to control home appliances. It has the following characteristics:

4 - High quality Relay and loads up to 7A/240VAC
LED’s for indicating status of each relay
Standardized shield shape and design
LED working status indicators for each relay

Technologies can be learnt by working on Home Automation using Raspberry Pi:

Home Automation
IOT
Programming
Sensor Interfacing

Source to Buy:

We, SB Components, A UK based company is one of the best companies to buy different Raspberry Pi Shields like PiRelay, PiCube(LED Cube on Pi), PiTraffic-Traffic light shield, PiTalk(GSM module for Raspberry Pi) , Motor shield for raspberry pi, Media Pi etc. These projects on Raspberry Pi are basically made to give the first hand experience to the users towards learning programming and making things intelligent. The company is also renowned for Quality Raspberry Pi Cases and other single board computer cases i.e. baeglebone cases & arduino cases and even provides customized solutions for all these. Place your order today.