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Design of An Embedded System For Monitoring and Controlling Temperature

and Light

Article · January 2009

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International Journal of Electronic Engineering Research
Volume 1 Number 1 (2009) pp. 27–36
© Research India Publications
http://www.ripublication.com/ijeer.htm

Design of An Embedded System For Monitoring and

Controlling Temperature and Light

A. Goswami1, T. Bezboruah2 and K.C. Sarma1

1
Department of Instrumentation Science and USIC, Gauhati University, Guwahati-
781014 Assam, INDIA
2
Department of Electronics Science, Gauhati University,
Guwahati-781014, Assam, India
E-mail:[email protected]

Abstract

Each and every part of our life is somehow linked with the embedded
products. Embedded systems are the product of hardware and software
codesign.Embedded system is becoming an integral part of Engineering design
process for efficient analysis and effective operation. From data analysis to
hardware work, every where embedded products are the main interest because
of its reliability and time bound perfection. There is not much time with
anyone now a day to give enough in all aspects, so demand of embedded
products which serve as we want is high on demand. The present paper
describes the design of an embedded system for the control of Temperature &
Light intensity with continuous monitoring in a single system using sensors,
microcontroller and LCD.It describes the controlling action incorporated in the
hardware to control any device connected when specific conditions are met.
Further set up is made such that data can be stored for future offline analysis.

Keyword: Embedded technology, Microcontroller, Sensor, Control and

measurement.

Introduction
It is very much essential in case of some industrial as well as experimental setup to
monitor as well as control temperature and light continuously. The efficient solution
for this problem is to develop a data logger. Earlier development of data logger was
done through manual measurements from analog instruments such as thermometers
and manometers. Unfortunately this type of data logger can’t fulfill the current
requirements in terms of time and accuracy. From 1990 a further development in data
28 A. Goswami, T. Bezboruah and K.C. Sarma

logging took place as people begin to create PC-based data logging systems [1]. In
later stage of development it has been found that microcontrollers (integration of
microprocessors and certain peripherals including memory on single chip) are more
reliable as well as efficient [2]. Use of microcontrollers in embedded design is not
only increased but brought a revolutionary change. At the same time competitive
pressures require manufacturers to expand their product functionality and provide
differentiation while maintaining or reducing the cost
Monitoring and controlling physical parameters like temperature, pressure,
humidity, light etc. by embedded systems using microcontrollers are very much
effective in industrial and research oriented requirements. Nature of parameter is ever-
changing. They are exposed to huge array of stimuli from its environment. Though
temperature can be monitored through variety of sensor, one should adhere to utmost
care in selecting sensors due to different levels of complexity associated with the
calibration process. If calibration is not implemented properly output of the embedded
system may vary from actual temperature measured through standard instruments.
Similarly in case of light LDR serves well but its calibration in Lumens is some what
difficult due to easy unavailability of Lux-meter. Hence in general reference voltage
of ADC can be taken with some precautions as intensity of light.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility to continuously monitor
temperature & light intensity. The display in LCD is programmed in such a fashion so
that temperature value and light intensity are displayed one by one at a fix interval of
time. System is also equipped with necessary hardware to initiate control action for
temperature & light intensity as soon as they reach higher than some particular set
values. The system developed also enables its users to set the value of temperature &
light as desired and set transfer rate of data through RS232 to pc. After every time
interval set by the user the momentary values of temperature and light intensity are
sent to the pc. Necessary Keypad in the form of push-buttons is provided for setting
desired temperature, light intensity and transfer time. For the purpose of storing and
some intelligent analysis of data system is connected to pc through RS-232. This
setup can be effectively used in industries for single control end. Concept is to
connect such hardware in different rooms where control over temperature and light
intensity is our main concern and view them from a single control end with the pc
connected to all.

Motivation
Main cause of doing this project is its low cost and industrial demand. Such a design
can effectively decrease the number of computers used in an industry such as food
processing, green house or a packing industry & thus in turn can save power which is
the main feature of this project.

Experimental Setup
The hardware and software description of the embedded system for monitoring and
controlling temperature described in the following section-
Design of An Embedded System For Monitoring 29

Figure 1: Block Diagram of The Experimental Setup.

Hardware Description
Whole circuit can be divided into following sections:-
(a) Power supply section: The regulated power supply section made with full
wave rectifier (with IN 4007 diodes) using voltage regulator IC 7805 and IC
7812 which provide a constant voltage of 5V to the circuit as well as
constant 12V to relays.
(b) Analog to digital conversion section: Since we have to sense analog
parameters i.e. temperature and light hence we have to use any analog to
digital converter. We have opted for ADC 0809 as it has 8 channels and is
microprocessor compatible ADC which is easily available [3]. It will
convert the analog signal of the transducer to digital value with respect to
the reference voltage which in our case is 2.5V. This reference voltage is
obtained using TL431, which is a programmable shunt voltage reference
with output voltage range of 2.5V to 36V and works like zener diode [4].
For the conversion ADC requires a reference frequency which is supplied
from 555 IC in the form of astable oscillator. The conversion frequency is
kept around 150 kHz.
Sensor used for temperature measurement is LM 35 and for light intensity is
LDR. LM 35 is calibrated in ºC and is linear in +10 mV/ ºC scale factor with
0.5ºC accuracy [5]. The calibration curve given here with will make the
scenario clear.
30 A. Goswami, T. Bezboruah and K.C. Sarma

Figure 2: Voltage vs. Temperature Calibration curve.

For light intensity we have considered the reference voltage of ADC as

standard. In that process 2.5V is considered as full light and 0V is
considered as darkness. The light intensity is hence displayed in LCD as the
reference voltage itself.
(c) Controller section: The analog value is converted to digital value by ADC
and is picked up by microcontroller AT89S52 which is a 40pin device. The
AT89S52 is a low-power, high-performance CMOS 8-bit microcomputer
with 8K bytes of Flash programmable and erasable read only memory
(EPROM) [6].
(d) Display section: Since we need to display the data we get from
microcontroller a liquid crystal display 44780 LCD is used which is a 2x16
line display [7] [8].
(e) Temperature control section: This section consists of a 12V relay to
control hardware to start cooling for maintaining temperature as set by the
user. [9] [10].
(f) Light control section: This section consists of another 12V relay to control
hardware such an LED to glow at a particular voltage indicating darkness as
set by the user.
(g) Hardware controlling: Simple push buttons are used to set temperature and
light intensity (in form of voltage) as well as to give the time of data transfer
to the pc.
(h) Data transfer: Displayed data of temperature and light intensity are
transferred to RS 232 which is interfaced with microcontroller through
MAX232 [11] [12].
Design of An Embedded System For Monitoring 31

Schematic diagram of the system is given below-

+5V +5V
+5V 10K
130K
10MF RS
40 31 5 4 321
9 (RST) D0 1CD (16 X 1) LINC
+5V 6 EN
10K
T0 6 D1
39 D2D3
(10K)NTC T1 38
Lm35 T2 11 12 13 14
37
1MF T3
36 35
D4
+5V 34
D5 +12V
26 33 D6
I/P1 A D7
28 25 21 32
LDR 24 B 22
2K2

I/P2 27 23 C 23
22 24
10k +5V 17 1K
1mf 1 16 RELAY
14 2
2k2 15 3 BC 547 (NPN)
+Vcc
Vref 8 4 10MF
16
25V 12 18 5 + 1
2
Tl431 19 6 _
3 M
+Vcc
5 DB
20 A 6
7 10 RXD 10MF
9 Pin
12 X
16 21 8 11 TXD
11 2 Co
EOC 13 2
+5V 7 12 + 4 3
11 OE _ 2
9 13 5 3
13 6 START 14 +12V
1k 14
8 4 10 2K2
7 18
555 3
1k 6
2 1
19 15
1K
22pf 20 RELAY

BC 547 (NPN)

Figure 3: Embedded Control Hardware Circuit --Schematic Diagram.

32 A. Goswami, T. Bezboruah and K.C. Sarma

Figure 4.1: Embedded Control Hardware Circuit (Light display).

Figure 4.2: Embedded Control Hardware Circuit (Temperature display).

Software description
Software development for the project consists of two main modules one being the
online monitoring and controlling and other offline analysis based on data stored in
computer .Presently this paper limits its work on first module keeping second module
for future development Software is developed in both C and Assembly language.
Algorithm for online monitoring and controlling of temperature:
1. First step is to initialize keys, Interrupt vectors panel and LCD
Design of An Embedded System For Monitoring 33

2. Define port P3 of microcontroller ATMEL 89S52 as output port

3. Get data through ADC0809 from two different channels of Temperature and
Light Intensity continuously after a fixed interval.
4. Value obtained from different channels converted to appropriate form of
display
5. Display the appropriate values of Temperature and Light Intensity in LCD
panel in Round Robin pattern
6. Start hardware devices for cooling if sensed temperature is higher than set
temperature
7. New value of Temperature can be set using four keys as follows
7.1 Press first key for once to display existing value of temperature set and
blink cursor at unit position
7.2 Press second key for increment in unit position
7.3 Press third key for shifting one position left at a time
7.4 Press fourth key for setting new temperature value replacing previous
one
8. Start hardware device to glow a light if sensed light intensity is higher than
the set value implying darkness.
9. New value of light intensity can be set using four keys as follows
9.1 Press first key twice to display existing value of light intensity set and
blink cursor at unit position
9.2 Press second key once for increment in unit position
9.3 Press third key once for shifting one position left at a time
9.4 Press fourth key once for setting new temperature value replacing
previous one
10. New value of transfer rate of data to RS232 is set using keypad as follows
10.1 Press first key thrice for display existing value of transfer rate set and
blink cursor at unit position
10.2 Press second key for increment in unit position
10.3 Press third key for shifting one position left at a time
10.4 Press fourth key for setting new transfer rate of data to RS232
11. Return to step 3

Results and Conclusion

In this system, temperature measurement and light intensity from the ADC channels
are taken. The performances of the channels are distinguished on the basis of its
accuracy. The accuracy indicates how closely the sensor can measure the actual or
real world parameter value. The more accurate a sensor is, better it will perform. To
achieve this, calibration is done with a standard digital thermometer and since LM35
is a linear device so calibration process yields good result (for each degree rise, 10mV
is the rise). Then temperature displayed in LCD is compared with the standard
temperature from digital thermometer at an interval of 1hour and results are compared
& shown graphically below-
34 A. Goswami, T. Bezboruah and K.C. Sarma

Flowchart for monitoring and controlling temperature and light is given below:

Figure 5: Flow Chart.

Design of An Embedded System For Monitoring 35

TEMPERATURE VS TIME

25
TEMPERATURE 24
23
22
21
20
19
6:00

8:00

12:00

2:00

4:00

6:00
noon
10:00
AM

AM

PM

PM

PM
am
TIME [HH:MIN]

DISPLAYED TEMP (ºC) THERMOMETER TEMP(ºC)

Figure 5: Graphical representation of the experimental data achieved & its

comparison With Standard temperature values (digital thermometer).

For light intensity since we have considered the ADC reference voltage (2.5V)
as indicating quantity. Its tabulation on a shiny day will make the scenario clear.

LIGHT INTENSUTY VS DAYTIME

LIGHT INTENSITY [IN

2.5
2
VOLT]

1.5
1
0.5
0
6.00AM 8.00AM 1.00PM 2.30PM 4.00PM 7.00PM
TIME [HH:MIN]

LIGHT INTENSUTY

Figure 6: Graphical representation of the light intensity with daytime.

Due to single decimal calibration in the microcontroller the results are correct up
to one decimal only. Where two decimal accuracy is needed calibration has tobe made
accordingly.
The relays work properly at any set temperature as well as light intensity
value. The on/off condition of the relay is set at the same value instead of making a
loop of two values. Again set values are possible only up to single decimal in our
case. Same set condition can be achieved by creating a loop of as high limit and low
limit.
The rate of data transfer through RS232 is controlled through the keypad and
whatever the time is declared as the gap at which the data should be transferred to pc
 36 A. Goswami, T. Bezboruah and K.C. Sarma

is accurately achieved. For example we have set time for data transfer as 2hr, i.e at a
gap of 2hr the temperature value at that instant will be transferred to pc. With
different values of set value for transfer time, we have experimented and it works
properly.
The system can be further enhanced by developing necessary software for offline
anlysis.The data stored on PC will enable the system to make historical and intelligent
analysis to make efficient decision.

References
[1] Goswami, A., Bezboruah, T. and Sarma, K. C., Design of an embedded
system for monitoring and controlling temperature, Porc. Of International
conference on emerging technologies and applications in engineering,
technology and science during 13th -14th January, 2008, Rajkot, Gujarat, India,
Vol.1, pp.105-110.
[2] Goswami, A., Bezboruah, T. and Sarma, K. C., Design and implementation of
an embedded system for monitoring and controlling the intensity of light,
Porc. Of The 2008 International conference on embedded systems and
application during July 14-17, 2008 at Las Vegas Neveda, USA, Vol-ESA
2008, pp.117-123.
[3] www.ni.com/dataloggers - A Review of PC -Based Data Logging and
Recording Techniques
[4] Muhammad Ali Mazidi and Janice Gillispe Mazidi, “The 8051
microcontroller and embedded systems”, Pearson education ltd., India, 2007.
[5] National semiconductor corporation, ADC 0809 data sheet, 8-bit
Microprocessor compatible A/D converters with 8-channel multiplexer,
national Semiconductor data book, October 2002 updates.
[6] ST Microelectronics data book, March, 2002 publication. http://www.st.com
[7] National Semiconductor Corporation, LM35 datasheet, precision centigrade
temperature sensors, Atmel data book, November 2000 update.
[8] Atmel corporation, AT89S52 data sheet, 8-bit microcontroller with 8k bytes
flash, Atmel Data book, 2000 update
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display .
[10] Introduction to LCD programming tutorial by Craig Steiner Copyright 1997 -
2005 by Vault information services LLC (http://8052.com/tutlcd.phtml)
[11] H S kalsi, “Electronic instrumentation”, Tata McGraw-Hill Ltd., New Delhi,
1999
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/temperature-measurement

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