COOLRF: Project News Digest # 2

In the summer we began to publish much less frequently on Habré. More precisely, they stopped publishing at all. Gardens began, the load on the main job increased. Our VKontakte community , which has already gathered more than 2,800 participants, has become quite suitable for publishing short notes on the project, which we have enjoyed all this time.

What happened during the two months of “silence”? In today's “release”: a project presentation, two new system modules (thermostat NB1 and leak sensor WS1), a cloud compiler for the NRF24LE1, and a smart home control interface.

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COOLRF: “Smart Home” for resourceful

We changed the slogan. Synonyms of the word "resourceful" - shrewd, farsighted, shrewd, inventive, dexterous, intelligent, shrewd, insightful, calculating, quick-witted, intelligent, quick-witted. In general - just you, our dear reader.

JetStyle drew us a new logo, already appreciated by members of our VKontakte community “oh, well, this one is much better.”

A presentation was written, the purpose of which is a brief story about the essence of our project. For those who "seem interesting, but not everything is clear." We hope that the presentation dot the i's. If not, welcome to the PM and comments with suggestions for improvement and outstanding issues.

Thermostat NB1

Our thermostat is installed in the widespread NOBO electric convectors. Without any refinement of the latter. Allows you to remotely control the convector. Makes available such scenarios as “turned on the heat at the dacha before leaving the city, arrived in the winter in an already warm country house” or “warm the air up to 25 degrees during the day and 15 degrees at night”, etc. Contains "on board" local controls, allowing you to change the target temperature. Supports feedback function. At any time you can find out the current state of the convector and the temperature of its sensors.

The thermostat contains one mandatory temperature sensor, on the testimony of which the convector control algorithm is based. Allows connection to the chain of several temperature sensors, the data from which will simply be transmitted to the central device of the smart home. This property can be used to measure the temperature at different points of the structure and outside it without installing additional actuators.

It will be possible to buy both fully assembled and as a designer. The composition of the designer (the title photo post): a printed circuit board, three parts of the case, three knife contacts (not unsoldered), the necessary fasteners. Work on the thermostat is nearing completion. We bring to perfection the performance of knife contacts and body parts. The software part of the firmware is written and workable.

WS1 leakage sensor

Placed in places of possible leakage: under the bath, behind the cistern of the toilet, under the kitchen sink. Powered by CR2032 battery. Estimated battery life is about 2-3 years. When the charge drops below the signal level, it tells the central device to replace the batteries. Designed under the finished case, put, relying on two speakers of the output in the lower part.



The sensor will work in conjunction with the water pipeline monitoring module, which has not yet been developed.

Cloud Compiler for NRF24LE1

One of the reasons for the great popularity of Arduino is a convenient and simple development environment. Download the installation package, install and program. You do not need to configure anything, connect third-party libraries, understand the complex interface. The goal of the COOLRF project is not only to create interesting hardware solutions. We want to program our modules was no more difficult than programming Arduino.

The cloud compiler prototype (not yet published, but) already allows you to: log in using social networks, edit the firmware code on a web page with syntax highlighting, get the compiled firmware file with one click on the on-screen button. Nothing needs to be set up, everything is done by the server. The file change history is saved. Users see each other’s builds and can easily start writing their code based on someone else’s (some kind of github).

Smart home control interface COOLRF.ATHOME

The central device of the smart home COOLRF is a computer connected to the home radio network on one side and to WiFi on the other. A web server is spinning on the computer, allowing you to monitor and manage the current status of all smart home systems. We can download the management interface on a tablet or smartphone, we can in a browser on a computer. We can do this inside the apartment, or (if port forwarding is configured) from outside anywhere in the world.

The first draft of the interface can be seen in the photo above. As is clear from the screenshot, this interface is not at all universal. It contains a well-defined grouping (by device type) of well-defined controls. Someone might want to group their devices not by type, but by building. Someone seems a little graphics in the design. But everyone will be happy. Because we do not make a universal interface for all occasions. We make a framework that allows minimal efforts to create personal interfaces for managing smart homes for the specific wishes of specific users.

To personalize the interface, you will need to understand HTML, CSS, JavaScript, KnockoutJS and be able to read the proposed examples.

What's next?

We continue to work on the project in the evenings and nights. Our speed is not very high, but we do not stand still. A small touch control panel with four buttons and a module for connecting the NRF24LE1 to a computer via USB (for network management and programming) are currently in development. Join our VKontakte community and keep up with our news.

PS In the first half of August (from 3 to 11) I will be on holiday with my family in St. Petersburg. If there are people willing to meet and talk about the project, I will be happy to set aside one of the evenings. By the way, if one of the readers has interesting (by price and location) options for renting a 1-2-room apartment for a specified period of time - please write me in PM here or in VK.