International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 3 Issue: 2

ISSN: 2321 - 8169

815 - 819

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Home Automation using Android Application & Bluetooth

Home Automation System (HAS)

Prashant R. Chandre
P.G. Student, Electronics and Telecommunication
Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College
Aurangabad, (M.S.) 431003 INDIA.
E-mail: [email protected]

Aarti R. Salunke
Assistant Professor, Electronics and Telecommunication
Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College,
Aurangabad, (M.S.) 431003 INDIA.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract Smart Home System is the term that describes the intelligent control and monitoring of different home appliances to manage the
home environment in an intelligent, safe and comfortable way. Home automation allows us to control home appliances like TV, Refrigerator,
AC, fan, etc. Home automation not only refers to reduce human efforts but also plays vital role to save energy and time. The main objective of
home automation is to help handicapped and old aged people it will facilitate them to control home appliances. In the present era smart phone
market has been dominated by the Android operating system. Smart phones features made to communicate to any other devices using Bluetooth
technology. Bluetooth wireless technology is built into billions of products, from cars and mobile phones to medical devices and computer s and
even forks and toothbrushes. Bluetooth technology allows you to share voice, data, music, photos, videos and other information wirelessly
between paired devices. It is an essential element for bringing everyday objects into the connected world. Home Automation System (HAS) has
been designed for mobile phones having Android platform to automate an Bluetooth interfaced 8 bit AVR Microcontroller which controls a
number of home appliances like lights, fans, bulbs and many more using relays. In houses, lamp switches normally located at a high location and
it is hard to reach for the switches without help for kids and disable person including people who unable to move a lot due to accident cases.
These problems can be overcome by using the home Automation System Using Android Application & Bluetooth at home which is user friendly
and cost efficient.
Keywords - Home Automation System, Bluetooth Controller , Bluetooth Module HC-05, Microcontroller ATMEGA 32, Smart Phone.

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I.
INTRODUCTION
Everyone in this competitive world prefers to make the
things easy and simple to handle, this project sets an example
to some extent for controlling home Systems. Smart phones
have revolutionized the area of home automation with respect
to an increased level of affordability and simplicity through the
integration of home appliances with wireless connectivity.
Smart phones are built in features and can be made to
communicate to any other devices in an ad hoc network with a
connectivity options like Bluetooth [1].
Bluetooth for a communication medium and a Mobile
phone as the control terminal have been chosen in the proposed
system. Bluetooth is a low cost short range wireless technology
works without the need for an infrastructure [2]. Bluetooth can
connect the home appliances and the Mobile phone without
wire and we believe it will become a standard feature for
cellular phones in the near future. Bluetooth works over 2.4
GHz ISM band frequency range up to the range of 10 m with 1
Mbps speed, providing a safe and efficient solution for
controlling home automation [7]. Android provides the
platform for the development of the mobile applications for the
communication of different Android devices [3]. Bluetooth
Controller version 1.0 is a mobile application developed using
Android targeting its vast market which will be beneficial for
the many Android users [4]. According to the International
Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone
Tracker, Android maintained its leadership position in global
market share.

II.
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
This Project put forward the design of home automation
system using Bluetooth Controller Android application. The
Bluetooth controller freeware Android based application is
developed for smart phone users. The home appliances are
connected to the input/output ports of the embedded system
board and Microcontroller is interfaced with Android
application via HC-05 Bluetooth Module. Bluetooth
technology designed to operate in a noisy radio frequency
environment such as a home, the Bluetooth technology uses a
fast acknowledgement and frequency-hopping scheme to make
the link robust. Bluetooth technology would replace the
cumbersome cables used today to connect the Printers, PCs to
any other digital device which is part of the Bluetooth
network.
The controlling device of the whole system is ATMEGA
32 an 8 Bit Microcontroller, Bluetooth Module and Relay
Driver and Relay Board. The system is based on serial data
transmission using Bluetooth wireless communication in order
to facilitate the appliances control in a HAS. A user interface
on the Android enabled mobile phone offers system
connection and control utilities. The data received by
Bluetooth module from Android application is fed as an input
to Microcontroller. In achieving this control the
Microcontroller is loaded with a C program written using
Embedded C Language. The controller acts accordingly on the
relays to switch connected electrical appliances. ULN 2003
relay driver, HC-05 Bluetooth module, AVR Studio 4 (IDE) for
compiling C Language Code and USB AVR Programmer for
burning the HEX file into Microcontroller.
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IJRITCC | February 2015, Available @ http://www.ijritcc.org

_______________________________________________________________________________________

International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 3 Issue: 2

ISSN: 2321 - 8169

815 - 819

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Figure 1
System Architecture

III.

DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM

This section describes the technologies used for developing

the mobile phone application of the home Automation System.
The mobile phone application development presented in this
paper is based on the following technologies: Android [3],
Bluetooth [2]. Android is a platform to developing and
deploying android based applications on mobile devices
supporting it. Bluetooth has its own benchmark as wireless
communication technologies for short range communication
provide a facility to create Android based mobile applications.
A. Andriod Application
Android is an open-source operating system. The Bluetooth
controller Android Application shown in figure 2. The
Android application available on Google Store. The same has
been downloaded and installed on Samsung galaxy Pro mobile
which is having Android version 2.3 GINGERBREAD
The home appliances are interfaced to the
input/output ports of the embedded system board and
Microcontroller is interfaced with Bluetooth Controller
Android application wirelessly via HC-05 Bluetooth Module.

Bluetooth Controller application can carry out the following

functions:

I.
II.

III.

Click scan Button for connect to device Search the

Bluetooth devices present in the range.
After connected, Click Set Keys for setting Keys name
and data to be sent.
Exchange data to and from paired Bluetooth devices.

B. Bluetooth Module
Wireless networks for short range communications have a
wide spread usage of Bluetooth radio transmissions between
24002480 MHz by Telecom vendor Ericsson since 1994 [6]
Bluetooth technology forms small ad hoc networks termed as
Personal Area Networks (PANs) also provides a mechanism to
emulate the RS-232 data cables, supervised by the Bluetooth
Special Interest Group, since 1998. Modern mobile devices
embed small, low-powered and cheap integrated chips
functioning as short-range radio transceivers for Bluetooth
radio communications. Device pairing, authentication,
encryption and authorization techniques have given recognition
to Bluetooth technology due to its vital security mechanisms.
Different types of Bluetooth applications can be developed
using Android platform architecture using the Bluetooth
profiles. The device manufacturers provide the services using
the support of these profiles in their devices to maintain
compatibility for the Bluetooth technology.

Figure 3 HC-05 Bluetooth Module

Figure 2 Android App GUI

Figure 3 shows the HC-05 Bluetooth Module. This module

enables you to wireless transmit & receive serial data. It is a
drop in replacement for wired serial connections allowing
transparent two way data communication. You can simply use
it for serial port replacement to establish connection between
MCU or embedded project and PC for data transfer. The
Bluetooth profile used in Home Automation System (HAS)
Android mobile phone application is the Bluetooth Serial Port
Profile. Normally, before commencing communication,
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IJRITCC | February 2015, Available @ http://www.ijritcc.org

_______________________________________________________________________________________

International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 3 Issue: 2

ISSN: 2321 - 8169

815 - 819

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
devices can use two methods for initiating communication
with each other which can be done normally either by
discovering other nearby devices to detect the address and
services that are provided by other devices or by knowing the
device address beforehand and directly using that address for
further communication process. In Home Appliance Control,
the later method is used. Bluetooth devices have a 12 digit
hexadecimal MAC address which is to be known beforehand
for pairing with the device.
C. AVR Studio 4(IDE)
AVR Studio 4 will be used to develop programming for the
microcontroller in this home automation system because it
provides enormous features. Win AVR is a suite of executable,
open source software development tools for the Atmel AVR
series of RISC microprocessors hosted on the Windows
platform. It includes the GNU GCC compiler for C and C++.
Win AVR contains all the tools for developing on the AVR.
This includes AVR-gcc (compiler), AVR-gdb (debugger) etc.
D. USB ASP Programmer
USB ASP Programmer is USB device programmer software
with a user-friendly GUI framework available for
Windows95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP and Intel Linux.
IV.

HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION

Home automation hardware is work as client part in home

automation system. Home automation system block diagram
which is shown in figure 4 home Automation control board
comprises of microcontroller ATMEGA 32, Serial Bluetooth
Module, Relay driver IC ULN2003, 12V relays and regulator
IC7805 and a few discrete components.

microcontroller based on the AVR RISC architecture [5]. By

executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the
ATMEGA 32 achieves throughputs approaching 1 MIPS per
MHz, allowing the system designed to optimize power
consumption versus processing speed.
We can interface the Bluetooth module with directly
microcontroller pins since the level of module is at 5V level.
We just need to configure our microcontroller to communicate
at 9600 baud rate. The TXD pin of MCU will go to RX-IN pin
of Bluetooth module The RXD pin of MCU will go to TXOUT pin of Bluetooth module Ground & +5V Power Supply
between Bluetooth module and microcontroller should be
connected [6]. The main objective of using ATMEGA 32
Microcontroller is that maximum 30 appliances can be
controlled and with small modifications in the C program the
GSM can be interfaced for remote control of home appliances
by using the SMS service with minimum modifications.
B. Relay Driver and Switching Relays
ULN 2003A Driver IC is used for handling the Relay coil
current The ULN2001A, ULN2002A, ULN2003 and
ULN2004A are high voltage, high current Darlington arrays
each containing seven open collector Darlington pairs with
common emitters. Each channel rated at 500mA and can
withstand peak currents of 600mA. Suppression diodes are
included for inductive load driving and the inputs are pinned
opposite the outputs to simplify board layout. We have
specially used ULN 2003A as it is 5V TTL, CMOS IC. These
versatile devices are useful for driving a wide range of loads
including solenoids, relays DC motor, LED displays filament
lamps, thermal print heads and high power buffers [8].
In this project we have incorporated SC5-S-DC 12V for
handling the switching ON/OFF actions of electrical loads. It is
capable of handling 10A current through contacts. These relays
are widely used for UPS, Invertors, A/C Microwave, Vending
Machine, Timers, SMPS and Card Reader etc.
V.

SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION

Microcontroller, when it is used to operate as a wireless

network involves following steps:

Figure 4 Home Automation Block Diagram

A. Microcontroller
There is a wide range of microcontroller available in the
market. But this particular project is developed using AVR
series of microcontroller (ATMEGA 32) because of its various
advanced features such as inbuilt ADC, EEPROM etc. The
Atmel AVR ATMEGA 32 is a low-power CMOS 8-bit

Figure 5 Steps for Software Development

In software implementation, it will be mainly the

programming of ATMEGA 32 microcontroller. AVR Studio 4
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IJRITCC | February 2015, Available @ http://www.ijritcc.org

_______________________________________________________________________________________

International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 3 Issue: 2

ISSN: 2321 - 8169

815 - 819

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
will be used to develop programming for the microcontroller
in this home automation system because it provides enormous
features. The microcontroller, as the brain of the system, is
responsible of processing the data. Besides, the
microcontroller will also do the job of receiving users inputs
and executing commands, such as turn on/off the device etc.
Coding / Debugging- Coding or debugging is one in a highlevel language (such as c). Compiler for a high level language
helps to reduce production time. To program the
microcontrollers Win AVR was used using C language. The
source code has been commented to facilitate any occasional
future improvement and maintenance.
Win AVR is a suite of executable, open source
software development tools for the Atmel AVR series of RISC
microprocessors hosted on the Windows platform. It includes
the GNU GCC compiler for C and C++. Win AVR contains all
the tools for developing on the AVR. This includes AVR-gcc
(compiler), AVR-gdb (debugger) etc. Compiling- After
compiling the program, it is converted to machine level
language in the form of 0s ans1s.
This file is called as the Hex file and is saved with the
extension (.Hex). The compiler also generates errors in the
program this should be removed for proper execution of the
program. Flashing - Flashing the machine language (hex) file
into the microcontrollers program memory is achieved with a
dedicated programmer, which attaches to a PCs USB port for
this purpose USB ASP Programmer, was used to burn the
machine language file into the microcontrollers program
memory.
USB ASP Programmer is USB device programmer
software with a user-friendly GUI framework available for
Windows95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP and Intel Linux. The
program memory, which is of Flash type, has, just like the
EEPROM, a limited lifespan. On AVR microcontroller family
it may be reprogrammed up to a thousand times without any
risk of data corruption ATMEGA 32 Programmer (ISP) which
is used to burn the program into AVR microcontrollers.
A. Microcontroller Program
The program (Bluetooth.c) for the microcontroller is
written in C and compiled using AVR Studio 4 to generate hex
code. The generated hex code is burnt into the microcontroller
using USB ASP Programmer. The program coding starts with
# include <avr/io.h> header files. The microcontroller port
pins are defined using define function for interfacing with
the surrounding peripherals. By Pressing Key from GUI of
home Automation Application program which is developed
using Android installed on mobile device, will transmit ASCII
characters serially through Bluetooth and on the receiving side
Microcontroller receives data serially on RxD Port Pin of
ATMEGA 32. UDR register will store this ASCII characters
as equivalent HEX value and Microcontroller takes action
according to the C program and data received from Bluetooth
module. The Port A is used as output port to control the relay
switching which in turn switch the appliances ON/OFF.
Microcontroller C program flow chart for home
automation system is shown in figure 6.

Figure 6 Program flow chart

VI.

TESTING & RESULTS

Real implementation of HAS is shown in figure 7 and 7a. the

steps for operating the Automation system listed as follows:
I.

On powering up the hardware HC-05 Bluetooth

Module make the Green LED flicker quickly. It
indicates the HC-05 module is power up and this can
be paired.
II. Open the Android application on mobile phone after
that you will be asked for turning on the Bluetooth,
Press YES to continue further.
III. Using scan key you can connect to HC-05 Module.
IV. On pairing with HC-05 Bluetooth Module the
application appears with message Connected to
HC-05 as shown in figure 7.

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IJRITCC | February 2015, Available @ http://www.ijritcc.org

_______________________________________________________________________________________

International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 3 Issue: 2

ISSN: 2321 - 8169

815 - 819

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
V.

Now pressing the keys you can control the home

appliances as per your requirement. On pressing TV
ON key (here for sake of feasibility lamp is
connected) Lamp (Load) turned ON and feedback
from controller is received i.e. TV ON.

REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]

J. Haartsen, "BLUETOOTHThe universal radio interface for ad hoc,

wireless connectivity", Ericsson Review No. 3, pp. 110-117, 1998.
Mobile Communications by Jochen H. Schiller second Edition
Why Android ?, http://www.android.com/about/, last seen on October
2013.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details.
http://www.atmel.com
http://www.sunrom.com
http://www.bluetooth.com
http://www.st.com

Figure 7 Actual Testing of HAS

VI. On pressing TV OFF key (here for sake of

feasibility lamp is connected) Lamp (Load) turned
OFF and feedback from controller is received i.e. TV
OFF.

Figure 7a Actual Testing of HAS

VII.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this low cost system is designed to improve the

remote control function by smart phone provides help and
assistance especially to disabled and elderly. The proposed
HAS is designed for Bluetooth based wireless monitoring and
controlling of different electric home appliances. The HAS is
tested with 2.3 GINGERBREAD on Samsung galaxy Pro
mobile.
This study has its limitations, it is hoped that it will
serve as a basis for further study of home automation.

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