Sunday, July 21, 2013

Getting started with the BeagleBone Black

Arduino is the most ubiquitous development platform, period. Anyone who has entered the world of DIY electronics most probably started off with an Arduino. The reasons for this are it's ease, the enormous amount of documentation in the form of wikis, code samples, video tutorials, etc.
But there comes a point when the Arduino just isn't enough for your needs. You need more muscle.

Enter BeagleBone Black.
A 1Ghz, 512MB RAM "mini-computer" with 2 GB of onboard memory.
At $45, its in the competitive price range of the RaspberryPi (35$), pcDuino(59$), etc.

It comes from one of the oldest players in the Embedded Linux worlds, Beagleboard.org. It's their 4th ARM dev board, and the 1st in this price range (previous boards were Beagleboard, Beageboard xM and the Beaglebone white).

Pros as compared to the Pi:
Since the Pi has gained a lot of popularity, it's easier to compare it with that.

  • More processing power(1Ghz as compared to 700Mhz)
  • No need for SD card( has 2 GB of onboard flash, which is more than enough to run your fav Linux distro. Of course it has uSD card slot, just in case you think you need more space)
  • No need for external power supply( directly plugs in to your laptop/PC and runs like the Arduino)
  • Has a LOT more interfaces as compared to the Pi( more GPIOs. Has onboard PWM, ADC too unlike the Pi)
    Full list here http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack
  • Has many many capes available.
    http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBone_Capes
    Capes are analogous to shields for Arduino.
    It's not always possible to give all kinds of interfaces on the board. So based on your project needs, you can use one of the available capes to add even more functionality.

    You can of course find a lot more comparisons if you ask Google ;) 
Getting started:
Since the BBB rocks Linux on board, you don't really have any restriction on the kind of programming language you choose. 
Any kind of input/output is done by using 

Links to get started:
  1. SRM (System Reference Manual. Read through this once to get familiar with all the features and interfaces.)
  2. Wiki
  3. Mailing list (this should be your first stop for any issues once you get your Black. It's very active and very helpful. Remember to search previous posts before posting your doubt, someone might have had the same doubt)
  4. IRC - #beagle on Freenode
  5. Derek Molloy's blogs ( has some really cool tutorials, videos, etc to get started)
  6. Userspace Arduino project
Get it:
Some of the Indian shops which will ship you a Black are
  1. http://tenettech.com/product/2912/beaglebone-blackhttp://tenettech.com/product/2912/beaglebone-black
  2. http://shop.sumeetinstruments.com/index.php?route=product/product&keyword=beaglebone+black&category_id=0&product_id=965
  3. http://www.crazypi.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=79&search=beagle

    Note: these guys don't really have permanent links to their products. So if above links don't work, try searching for them from the Homepage.
DigiKey, Adafruit, element14, etc are the official distributors for the BBB. More info about them here http://beagleboard.org/Products

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Open Source Home Automation Project using Arduino UNO + Ethernet Shield



This is Open Source Home Automation Project based on Arduino Uno and Arduino Wiznet based Ethernet shield.





How Does it Work

The main brain for this project is Arduino UNO Board along with Arduino Ethernet Shield to give it a wireless connectivity.Arduino runs a code to control a Relay board according to the input and also serves a web page through which respective output to the relay board can be controlled.Through relay controller board we can control lamps, tubes or any AC power sockets.
You will be able to control all of your AC Appliances wirelessly with the help of any WIFI Enabled device.

STEP 1:


Relay Controller Board Build Tutorial:

Quantity of the components depends upon how many channels you want e.g. if you want to control more than one light then you will have to add that much number of relays on your controller board.
Here is the material list which will be needed to build the board: (Quantity of the components given for making 1 channel relay controller)


Sr.NoComponent NamesQuantity
1Relay (I have used GOODSKY RWH-SH-105D Relay)1
2Transistor 2N39041
31K Resistor2
410K Resistor1
51N4148 Diode1
6Red Led 3mm1
73 Pin PCB Mount Connector1
81 Pin PCB Mount Connector1


Above components are for making of single controller board you can multiply number of the components depending on how many relay controller you want.







Here in the circuit diagram Pin no.2 will be connected to the arduino control output pin and other two will be connected to +5V and Gnd accordingly.
After soldering all of your components according to the above circuit diagram the board should look like this.




Front View




Rear View



This is single relay controller board. You can extend this to as many as you want. I have made 5 channel relay controller board as below.







Note:

All the usual warnings apply: Mains voltage (120VAC or 220VAC) can kill you. This project, if done incorrectly, could certainly burn down your house. Do not work on or solder to any part of a project while it is plugged into the wall socket - just unplug it before modifying anything!


STEP 2:

Getting IP Address Of Arduino Ethernet Shield:


 Mount your Arduino Ethernet shield on Arduino Uno as shown:





Now connect your Uno Board to PC with USB cable and open Arduino IDE. After Opening up you will find blank Arduino window. Now go to File--> Example --> Ethernet --> dhcp address printer sketch. Your Ethernet shields MAC address is printed on back of it as follow you will need this in DHCP ADDRESS PRINTER code to get the IP address of your Ethernet shield.



In DHCP address printer sketch put your MAC address as given on back of the Ethernet shield and upload it to the Arduino board.




After finished uploading connect Arduino Ethernet shield to internet with Ethernet cable once connected then open up you serial monitor of Arduino IDE the IP address allotted to your Ethernet shield will be displayed e.g. (xxx.xxx.x.xxx) note it down somewhere because you are going to need this in further codes.


STEP 3:


BuildingMainCircuitConnection :

Now we are ready with our Relay controller board. So, it’s time to move on to the Main Circuit Connections. Here I have given the pin configuration for the whole Autohome Project.

Arduino Digital Pin No.Pin Usage
4will be used for Infrared Receiver
5used as Output Pins to control Relays
6used as Output Pins to control Relays
7used as Output Pins to control Relays
8used as Output Pins to control Relays
9used as Output Pins to control Relays
10will be used by Arduino Ethernet Shield
11will be used by Arduino Ethernet Shield
12will be used by Arduino Ethernet Shield
13will be used by Arduino Ethernet Shield

Note: For relays it is recommended to power it from separate source not from Arduino (I have powered it from Arduino only but since here we are working with single board. As board number increases Arduino won’t be able to supply sufficient power to the boards.)
Here is the connection diagram:



In this way you can do necessary soldering work to make following connection.
You can also make your own protoshield which can easily fit on top Arduino like this:






Once you finish soldering stuff, now you are ready for your main code upload.


STEP 4:

Uploading Arduino AutoHome code to the Board:

Here is the Arduino AutoHome code just copy and paste it into your Arduino IDE sketch.

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//for use with IDE 1.0
//open serial monitor to see what the arduino receives
//use the \ slash to escape the " in the html
//for use with W5100 based ethernet shields
// this project is hosted at
// http://code.google.com/p/arduino-autohome/
#include <SPI.h>
#include <Ethernet.h>
byte mac[] = { 0x90, 0xA2, 0xDA, 0x0D, 0x78, 0xE0 }; // <------- PUT YOUR MAC Address Here
byte ip[] = { 192, 168, 1, 102 }; // <------- PUT YOUR IP Address Here
byte gateway[] = { 192, 168, 1, 254 }; // <------- PUT YOUR ROUTERS IP Address to which your shield is connected Here
byte subnet[] = { 255, 255, 255, 0 }; // <------- It will be as it is in most of the cases
EthernetServer server(80); // <------- It's Defaulf Server Port for Ethernet Shield
String readString;
//////////////////////
void setup()
{
  pinMode(6, OUTPUT); // Pin Assignment through which relay will be controlled
  pinMode(7, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(8, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT);
  
  
  //start Ethernet
  
  Ethernet.begin(mac, ip, gateway, subnet);
  server.begin();
  
  //enable serial data print
  
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("server LED test 1.0"); // so that we can know what is getting loaded
}
void loop()
{
   
  
  // Create a client connection
  EthernetClient client = server.available();
  if (client) {
    while (client.connected()) {
      if (client.available()) {
        char c = client.read();
        
        //read char by char HTTP request
        if (readString.length() < 100) {
          //store characters to string
          readString += c;
          //Serial.print(c);
        }
        //if HTTP request has ended
        if (c == '\n') {
          ///////////////
          Serial.println(readString); //print to serial monitor for debuging
          /* Start OF HTML Section. Here Keep everything as it is unless you understands its working */
          
          client.println("HTTP/1.1 200 OK"); //send new page
          client.println("Content-Type: text/html");
          client.println();
          //client.println("<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"5\">");
          client.println("<HTML>");
          client.println("<HEAD>");
          client.println("<meta name='apple-mobile-web-app-capable' content='yes' />");
          client.println("<meta name='apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style' content='black-translucent' />");
          client.println("<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"http://arduino-autohome.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/autohome.css\" />");
          
          
          client.println("</HEAD>");
          client.println("<body bgcolor=\"#D0D0D0\">");
          
          client.println("<hr/>");
          client.println("<hr/>");
          client.println("<h4><center><img border=\"2\" src=\"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C6BoJrRUFko/UEUFeCwkvdI/AAAAAAAAAOc/E7gcYvPV6r4/s960/Logo.jpg\" /></center></h4>");
          client.println("<hr/>");
          client.println("<hr/>");
          
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
         
         // Relay Control Code
          client.println("<a href=\"/?relay1on\"\">Turn On Light 1</a>");
          client.println("<a href=\"/?relay1off\"\">Turn Off Light 1</a><br />");
          
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          
          client.println("<a href=\"/?relay2on\"\">Turn On Light 2</a>");
          client.println("<a href=\"/?relay2off\"\">Turn Off Light 2</a><br />");
          
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          
          client.println("<a href=\"/?relay3on\"\">Turn On Light 3</a>");
          client.println("<a href=\"/?relay3off\"\">Turn Off Light 3</a><br />");
          
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          
          client.println("<a href=\"/?relay4on\"\">Turn On Light 4</a>");
          client.println("<a href=\"/?relay4off\"\">Turn Off Light 4</a><br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          client.println("<br />");
          
          
          
         
            // control arduino pin via ethernet Start //
          
          
          if(readString.indexOf("?relay1on") >0)//checks for on
          {
            digitalWrite(6, HIGH); // set pin 4 high
            Serial.println("Led On");
            client.println("<link rel='apple-touch-icon' href='http://chriscosma.co.cc/on.png' />");
            //client.println("Light 1 Is On");
            client.println("<br />");
        }
          else{
          if(readString.indexOf("?relay1off") >0)//checks for off
          {
            digitalWrite(6, LOW); // set pin 4 low
            Serial.println("Led Off");
            client.println("<link rel='apple-touch-icon' href='http://chriscosma.co.cc/off.png' />");
            //client.println("Light 1 Is Off");
            client.println("<br />");
        }
          }
          
          if(readString.indexOf("?relay2on") >0)//checks for on
          {
            digitalWrite(7, HIGH); // set pin 4 high
            Serial.println("Led On");
            client.println("<link rel='apple-touch-icon' href='http://chriscosma.co.cc/on.png' />");
            //client.println("Light 2 Is On");
            client.println("<br />");
          }
          else{
          if(readString.indexOf("?relay2off") >0)//checks for off
          {
            digitalWrite(7, LOW); // set pin 4 low
            Serial.println("Led Off");
            client.println("<link rel='apple-touch-icon' href='http://chriscosma.co.cc/off.png' />");
            //client.println("Light 2 Is Off");
            client.println("<br />");
          }
          }
          
           if(readString.indexOf("?relay3on") >0)//checks for on
          {
            digitalWrite(8, HIGH); // set pin 4 high
            Serial.println("Led On");
            client.println("<link rel='apple-touch-icon' href='http://chriscosma.co.cc/on.png' />");
           // client.println("Light 3 Is On");
            client.println("<br />");
          }
          else{
          if(readString.indexOf("?relay3off") >0)//checks for off
          {
            digitalWrite(8, LOW); // set pin 4 low
            Serial.println("Led Off");
            client.println("<link rel='apple-touch-icon' href='http://chriscosma.co.cc/off.png' />");
            //client.println("Light 3 Is Off");
            client.println("<br />");
          }
          }
          
          
           if(readString.indexOf("?relay4on") >0)//checks for on
          {
            digitalWrite(9, HIGH); // set pin 4 high
            Serial.println("Led On");
            client.println("<link rel='apple-touch-icon' href='http://chriscosma.co.cc/on.png' />");
            //client.println("Light 4 Is On");
            client.println("<br />");
          }
          else{
          if(readString.indexOf("?relay4off") >0)//checks for off
          {
            digitalWrite(9, LOW); // set pin 4 low
            Serial.println("Led Off");
            client.println("<link rel='apple-touch-icon' href='http://chriscosma.co.cc/off.png' />");
            //client.println("Light 4 Is Off");
            client.println("<br />");
          }
          }
          
         // control arduino pin via ethernet End //
         
         
         
          // Relay Status Display
          client.println("<center>");
          client.println("<table border=\"5\">");
          client.println("<tr>");
          
          if (digitalRead(6))
          {
           client.print("<td>Light 1 is ON</td>");
           
          }
          else
          {
            client.print("<td>Light 1 is OFF</td>");
           
          }
          
          
          client.println("<br />");
          
          if (digitalRead(7))
          {
           client.print("<td>Light 2 is ON</td>");
           
          }
          else
          {
            client.print("<td>Light 2 is OFF</td>");
            
          }
          
          client.println("</tr>");
          client.println("<tr>");
          
          if (digitalRead(8))
          {
           client.print("<td>Light 3 is ON</td>");
           
          }
          else
          {
            client.print("<td>Light 3 is OFF</td>");
            
          }
          
         
        
         
          if (digitalRead(9))
          {
           client.print("<td>Light 4 is ON</td>");
          
          }
          else
          {
            client.print("<td>Light 4 is OFF</td>");
           
          }
          
          client.println("</tr>");
          client.println("</table>");
          
          client.println("</center>");
          
          
          
          //clearing string for next read
          
          readString="";
          client.println("</body>");
          client.println("</HTML>");
          delay(1);
          //stopping client
          client.stop();
        }
      }
    }
  }
}




Upload this code to your UNO board. Now you are ready to your your Automation Project, just plug your Ethernet shield to router and and you will be able to find the control page on the IP Address specified by in in the Arduino Code. So directly enter the  IP address in the web browser of the the device which is on the same network as that of your Arduino.

So you will have the control page as shown below:





As you understand the code you can modify to your need.
So enjoy controlling things wirelessly..