Smart Home: A Solar Powered Automated Door-lock, Lighting, and Plant Watering System using Arduino Mega
- Justine V. Borja
- Arvin T. Castillo
- Allen B. Montoya
- Earl John A. Reyes
- Elgine, L. Salazar
- Jose C. Santos
- Jaypee B. Patdu
Abstract
Technology and solar energy usage have significantly improved over the years, a proof of that is the continuous advancement of technological devices invented that helped people in the daily living especially at home, appliances are being automated such as smart light devices using light level sensors and voice or sound activation. While the usage of solar energy gathered from the sun has also dramatically improved to the point that it can be used as a source of electrical supply to power up and operate all kinds of devices that requires electricity. By combining the concept of technological automation, solar energy, and use of microcontrollers, the researchers have come up with a study that aimed to develop a “Smart Home: A Solar Powered Automated Door-lock, Lighting, and Plant Watering System using Arduino Mega” that would benefit the users by providing a system that can help in preventing unwanted accidents like fire and burglary at home, while experiencing a convenient way of cost saving and managing the lighting, watering, and door locking system at home by automation, radio frequency remote controlling, manual tactile switches, and a mobile application to control all three (3) home devices. The use of prototyping methodology has greatly helped the researchers in gathering all the related studies and literatures that helped in identifying the required hardware components for the prototype and software applications for coding the programs installed into the microcontrollers and, in developing the mobile application of the study. By following the designed schematic diagram of the prototype, the researchers are able to build an actual prototype made of solar gathering components and microcontrollers with the help of connecting of electrical wires. While the storyboard helped the researchers in developing the mobile application using the MIT app inventor software and the arduino IDE software was the platform used in coding the programs that would then be installed to the arduino mega and nodemcu mini-Wi-Fi module. The researchers also created a series of test cases separately for the prototype and mobile application to ensure the functionalities of the two (2) are all working. Additional features on the mobile application are made during the refinement phase of the study before the integration of the prototype and mobile application, as well the installation of the prototype system into the wooden miniature model house. The researchers concluded that the “Smart Home: A Solar Powered Automated Door-lock, Lighting, and Plant Watering System using Arduino Mega” met all the requirements stated in the study’s objectives and scope. With the evidence made by the researchers, the research project was successfully achieved. With this, a certain recommendation includes the feature to use the mobile application to conveniently connect to a Wi-Fi connection without having to manually include the said and password into the Wi-Fi module’s program, as well including additional home devices to control and automate, such as an electric fan.
