Home automation over IP: the controller
Finally some progress in the home automation over IP project. The controller is put into it’s housing, there is some firmware written and there’s also some progress on the computer software.
To make it possible to mount the controller in a common electric cabinet it will be housed in a DIN Rail mountable enclosure.
DIN Rail housing
To bring the micro controller outputs to the exterior I made a PCB using the toner transfer method.
PCB for connectors
After soldering the connectors on the PCB and wiring the micro controller board to the connector board everything is mounted in the enclosure. At the moment the PCB’s are not yet fixed in the enclosure.
Controller mounted on rail
Currently the firmware supports the change of some basic settings like IP, MAC and IO port direction. 12 IO ports are available on the connectors. Four of them can be used as analog input, they can all be configured as digital input or output. To make flashing the firmware possible while the micro controller is in it’s housing the ISP port is also available on the connectors.
The current version of the computer software can be used to set digital outputs and read analog inputs.
Computer software screenshot
Because using a mouse or keyboard isn’t fancy enough for home automation a 7″ touch screen will be connected to the computer.
The next step will be attaching a relay board so the controller can be used to switch lights or other appliances.
on Oct 26th, 2009 at 3:04 am
I’ve never heard of the toner transfer method before but that’s very cool! Professional quality results with a printer hey…
on Feb 19th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Right now I’m creating something very similar with Arduino Mega(Atmega 1280 based board). The problem I have is I want to implement the X10 protocol, so I could use some of the already made interface on the market.