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Home Automation using ESP8266 Test Project

Table of Contents
Abstract..........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction....................................................................................................................................4
Controlling Lights or Fan through Home Automation..............................................................6
Components Description...............................................................................................................7
Software and Hardware Compatibility.......................................................................................9
Future advancement in Project..................................................................................................11
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................14
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Abstract
This project aims to implement the IoT and Home Automation system in practical life. The test
project is to control the installed electrical devices with an IoT system making them IoT devices
and controlling them smartly through a phone using the phone. Home Wi-Fi is used for
connectivity to control the devices making the home a smart home.
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Chapter # 1
Introduction
Home Automation

Home automation is the automatic control of electronic devices in your home. These devices are
connected to the Internet, which allows them to be controlled remotely. With home automation,
devices can trigger one another so you don’t have to control them manually via an app or voice
assistant. For example, you can put your lights on schedules so that they turn off when you
normally go to sleep, or you can have your thermostat turn the A/C up about an hour before you
return to work so you don’t have to return to a stuffy house. Home automation makes life more
convenient and can even save you money on heating, cooling, and electricity bills. Home
automation can also lead to greater safety with the Internet of Things devices like security
cameras and systems.

IoT Cloud

The Internet of things describes physical objects with sensors, processing ability, software, and
other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the
Internet or other communications networks.

Blynk IoT cloud

Blynk is the most popular IoT platform for connecting devices to the cloud, designing apps to
remotely control and monitor them, and managing thousands of deployed products. It's a PaaS
(Platform-as-a-Service) that helps individuals and organizations seamlessly progress from a
prototype of a connected product to its commercial launch. With over 400 hardware models
support, customers can connect any device to the Internet and use a suite of software products to
launch commercial projects.

 At the Blynk IoT web portal, you signed up.

 Switching to developer mode.
 Select the Dashboard option.
 Select New Data Stream.
 Select the Data Stream.
 Select New Data Stream.
 Design the switches according to your project requirement.
 Save the designed Data Stream
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 Download the Blynk app on your smartphone

 Sign in with the same login account you register at the Blynk web portal.

Blynk iOS/Android mobile app

Blynk provides a remote mobile app for both iOS and Android users to control their devices
smartly through your mobile app. You can manually design the switches on your mobile devices
that you have already allotted and designed manually in the Blynk web portal. Then by using
these switches you can control your devices through the internet anytime and anywhere.

Sign in to your Blynk account on your mobile app.

 Login with the same account you register at the Blynk.

 Connect your device with your Wi-Fi.
 ESP8266 is powered and the code is burned.
 Connect ESP8266 with your Wi-Fi___33 and connect your ESP8266 through the
Blynk app.
 Design the switches that you designed at the web portal.
 Control your devices smartly.
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Chapter # 2
Controlling Lights or Fan through Home Automation
This is a test project we designed a prototype in which we controlled the home lights and fan
through ESP8266 Home Automation.

Components Required
A list of the equipment is mentioned below:

1. NodeMCU ESP8266 board.

2. 4 Channel Relay.
3. Light Bulb.
4. Bulb holder.
5. Breadboard.
6. Jumper wire.
7. AC plug.

Project Description

ESP8266 is the Arduino-based Wi-Fi microcontroller you burn the code into the ESP8266 using
Arduino IDE software. Connect the mechanical relays with the ESP8266. Connect the
mechanical appliances with the mechanical relay. Control them with your mobile.

Circuit Diagram
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Fig: Test project Circuit Diagram

Chapter # 3
Components Description
ESP8266:
The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi microchip, with built-in TCP/IP networking software,
and microcontroller capability, produced by Express in Shanghai, China.

The chip was popularized in the English-speaking maker community in August 2014 via

the ESP-01 module, made by a third-party manufacturer Ai-Thinker. This small module allows
microcontrollers to connect to a Wi-Fi network and make simple TCP/IP connections
using Hayes-style commands. However, at first, there was almost no English-language
documentation on the chip and the commands it accepted. The very low price and the fact that
there were very few external components on the module, which suggested that it could
eventually be very inexpensive in volume, attracted many hackers to explore the module, the
chip, and the software on it, as well as to translate the Chinese documentation.

The ESP8285 is a similar chip with a built-in 1 MiB flash memory, allowing the design of
single-chip devices capable of connecting via Wi-Fi.

Fig 1: ESP8266

4 Channel Mechanical Relay Module:

This is a 5V 4-Channel Relay interface board that can control various appliances and other
equipment with a large current. It can be controlled directly by a Micro-controller (Raspberry Pi,
Arduino, ESP8266, NodeMCU, WeMos, 8051, AVR, PIC, DSP, ARM, ARM, MSP430, TTL
logic).

 5V 4-Channel Relay interface board and each one needs 15-20mA Driver Current
 Equipped with high-current relay, AC250V 10A ; DC30V 10A
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 Standard interface that can be controlled directly by microcontroller (Arduino, 8051,

AVR, PIC, DSP, ARM, ARM, MSP430, TTL logic active low)
 Indication LED’s for Relay output status.

Fig 2: 4 Channel Mechanical Relay Module

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Chapter # 4
Software and Hardware Compatibility
For designing code, we use Arduino IDE software which also helps to make it compatible with
the hardware.

Arduino IDE

The Arduino Integrated Development Environment - or Arduino Software (IDE) - contains a text
editor for writing code, a message area, a text console, a toolbar with buttons for common
functions, and a series of menus. It connects to the Arduino hardware to upload programs and
communicate with them.

Writing Sketches

Programs written using Arduino Software (IDE) are called sketches. These sketches are written
in the text editor and are saved with the file extension .ino. The editor has features for
cutting/pasting and for searching/replacing text. The message area gives feedback while saving
and exporting and also displays errors. The console displays text output by the Arduino Software
(IDE), including complete error messages and other information. The bottom righthand corner of
the window displays the configured board and serial port. The toolbar buttons allow you to verify
and upload programs, create, open, and save sketches, and open the serial monitor.
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Fig 3: Arduino IDE

The Arduino IDE is used to write the program and directly upload it to the hardware
microcontroller component depending upon the project requirement.
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Chapter # 5
Future advancement in Project
We will control our home appliances using Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Home through
voice command control. Simply we just speak and the work is done smartly.

Alexa:
Alexa is Amazon’s voice assistant that’s built into Echo Show and Echo Dot devices. Alexa is
the voice assistant we see integrated into the highest number of smart home devices from
companies like SimpliSafe, Ring Alarm, and Cove.
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Fig 4: Amazon Alexa

Google-Assistant

Google Assistant, is, as you can imagine, Google’s voice assistant. Although Google Assistant
has fewer “skills” or “actions” than Alexa, it has been proven to be the most accurate voice
assistant in terms of understanding and answering queries correctly. To get Google Assistant,
you’ll need a smart speaker or a smart display; read our Nest Mini review or Nest Hub review to
get started.

Fig 5: Google Assistant (Nest Mini)

Apple Home (Siri)

Siri is Apple’s voice assistant that’s integrated into the iPhone. While Siri holds 35 percent of the
global market share for voice assistants, compared to nine percent and four percent with Google
Assistant and Alexa respectively, there aren’t too many IoT devices that work with Siri. Rather,
the voice assistant is used mainly on iPhones and iPads in contrast to home automation devices,
where Alexa and Google Assistant reign supreme.
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Fig 6: Apple Home(Siri)

These devices are connected to our home Wifi. We just give a command to any of these devices
and the task is done smartly.

These devices are connected with their AI smart cloud where you set the instructions on the
cloud, defining the commands depending upon the project requirement. These AI smart clouds
will then send information to the Haruko or Blynk cloud, which will decode the instruction and
send back information to the wifi router. The router then sends instructions accordingly to the
ESP8266 which controls the home devices according to the command.

Fig 7: IoT Home Automation control diagram

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Conclusion
The test design project is to control the devices through the Blynk IoT smart app. You have
controlled your home electrical devices smartly through your mobile by simply just switching
On/Off and tapping on your mobile screen and the devices are controlled accordingly using
Blynk cloud sending and receiving data to blynk cloud.
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