Arduino Boards

As I have now decided on a project I have decided to look into Arduino more and how it would be useful from my project and how I can apply it. I have found the Arduino site itself to be a very useful one for research. It provides a lot of code and what parts I will be needed for the code. It makes creating a board much easier as I can find most of the instructions that I need on the site. After researching I think that the most effective thing for me to use will be a temperature sensor. They will detect the ambient temperature of there surrounding and then produce the data. I could then also attach a display so users would also be able to see what the temperature is. the data that this board produces could them be sent to the thermostat within the home and it could then use this data.  

Temperature Sensor

Temperature sensor instructions 

The instructions mean that I already have most of the code needed to set up the board. Most of the research that I will need to so will be focused on how to get the data to inside the home. I would have to find out how to put my data created into a processing sketch. This would mean that the data could them be used to help out in the home and make it more efficient.


How to send data: 

lecture 7

Solid works

This week we were introduced to solid works, this followed on well with our induction to the workshop. We looked at how we would be able to create an object that would be ready to 3D printed. The software is definitely a practical one rather than a design one. I found the controls to be quite complicated and it took a while to be able to understand it. 

We started off by following along to theses instruction creating simple shapes but this was an effective activity as it taught me the importance of tools such as the dimension one. As this software is for real world application for things such as 3d printers you have to make sure that your creation is accurate and everything fits together correctly. 

We then took theses shapes and looked at creating something more practical. This exercise was very helpful as I now see that once I have a full products design I would be bale to create it in solid works and print my products out.   

Lecture 8

Arduino

Within this lecture we looked at Arduino boards, they are microcontrolers that allow you to sense and control objects while interacting with the digital and physical world. Within lecture we looked at different boards. This allowed us to see how they worked and the different parts that we would need to create full boards. We started with simple boards that would make a light come on. Although simple it was a nice way to start on the software and look at the different parts of code that were needed to program a board.






we then looked at making the boards do more functional things such working with timers and sensors. This was able to highlight the potential of the boards and how they were able to to sense surroundings within the real world. The Arduino software is definitely one that I will consider using as it will allow me to apply my ideas to a physical working digitised object. we were able to create a board that could detect how close something was to it and when something came close a light would go on. Although this was on a small scale you can see how real life application could be applied .

Project Proposal

After researching and planning I have decided that I would like to create a smart feature that would attach on to a smart thermostat. It would sit on the side of someones home and keep track of the temperature. when the temperature drops bellow a point it would send a message to the thermostat to turn the heating on. The main purpose of my product would be to help home owners save energy and make there homes more soft efficient. I think that they best way to achieve this would be to create an Arduino board with a thermometer on it and then have it send the message to the thermostat. I have looked at boards and i would need to create something similar to the image bellow. This would mean in my design process that i would need to create a casing for my board that would allow it to function but also be sealed away and look appropriate,  on the outside of a home. The boards main function would be to detect changes in temperature, so I would need to attach a thermometer that would send the temperature to the thermostat within the home.

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With my product I hope to create a cycle similar to this so that it would save energy within the home. It will allow people to live in more efficient homes, but also save them money on heating bills. By adding my feature to a thermostat it will help to improve by acknowledging when heating is actually needed to be on. For example most are on timers but this may not be efficient as the heat may not be needed at this point.

Smart thermostats research- existing products

After brainstorming my ideas I felt that the one I liked the most was the idea looking at saving energy within the home through collecting data from outside. I wanted to make sure that the product was not already existing and take inspiration from similar products. I did some research into smart thermostats to see what features they had.

Tado smart thermostat

This thermostat is based around tracking the owners location. It is able to detect when you leave the home and when you are retiring home. This allows for the home to be warm for when you return. this device does try to help save some energy as it allows for energy to be saved when no one is home, which i think is an effective tool. However it does not gather environmental data, what if when you are retiring the home is already at a good temperature and energy could be saved by not putting the heating on.

Hive active heating multi zone smart thermostat

This smart thermostat is very similar to the last. It is able to track when people and in the home or not  and control the heating that way. This one can also connect to water tanks to help heat the home which makes it different slightly from the last. Again is doesn't consider external environments when heating the home it only looked at people within the home.

Nest learning thermostat

This thermostat does different slightly from the ones before into that is claims to have a few more features. This one comes with an app allowing you to control your heating from anywhere and gives you information on how to save energy. The thermostat claim to learn your schedule and how you like the heating through the day, yet who can really say that they follow the same schedule everyday. I feel that this feature would actually not save you much energy at all and could mean that you are using energy when you do not want to be.

Initial brainstorm

 My first idea was for a water bottle that would collect data. It would monitor every time it was used. This data could then be used to calculate how many plastic bottles they have not used, then in turn how much plastic they are preventing going into the ocean. It would differ from other smart bottle as the purpose of the bottle would not be to remind people to drink, or monitor hydration, but to help the environment. I believe the the bottle would encourage people to cut down on there plastic use and this will help the environment. If the bottle is telling people after every drink how much of the ocean that they had saved then I think it will encourage people to use the product.

This idea takes the input of weather and the outside environment, converts the data to help your home. Smart meters allow people to easily control there homes, but this device would make it easier for people. It would collect data from the outside environment such as the temperature and weather. this would then be sent the the home smart system and it can control the heat based on this data. This will allow people to save energy within there homes. For example many people now have there heating on timers yet this may not be the most efficient. For example is there was a particularly hot day then there would be no need to have the heating on or it could be on a lower temperature.  

This would be an app that collects data based arounds peoples usage of transport, be it public, car or walking. This data created would then be used to help provide people with the best modes of transport for there journey, that would have them save money and the environment.

Lecture 6

Data inputs and outputs

This week within the lecture we looked at different ways that data can be produced and ways that we can gather it. We began with inputs, we came up with Body/Biometrics, Home, Civic / Social space, Recreation space, Workspaces, Education, Economic, Travel and Agriculture. We then took all of these sources and considered what could go within each category. We then followed with the outputs of this. we found that it was a lot easier to come up with inputs or possibly that there simply is more inputs. This was an helpful expertise as it allowed for me to begin thinking about the amount of data that is produced around me or even how much data i personally produce. It highlighted that this data has lots of potential and that we should be considering what we do with that data and how is can be used. we were then able to move on to think about products that could be made with this data. This made me realised that is may be easier for this module to begin with a data source then the products. 

After this task I then began to think about all of the data sources from the brainstorm that I was interested in. That way I could begin to brainstorm ideas for my project. After looking over the brainstorm from the class I picked out some of my favourite ones: 

Biometric

• consumption- food& water  
• Waste 

Home

• electricity 
• waste
• heating  

Travel 

• Fule 
• Cost 
• Footfall

Environment 

• weather 
• climate change 
• temperature 

overall I think that I would like to produce a products that helps the environment, either helping people reduce there waste to monitor it. This brainstorm has been very useful in helping me begin brainstorming. It highlighted the importance of not always thinking of an end products first. It will help me when it comes to brainstorming to bringing with inputs and how i can use that data.   

Lecture 5

Workshop Induction

This week we were taken down into the workshop and given an induction. The main area that we looked at was the 3D printers. This allowed us to begin thinking about how we could turn our ideas into physical objects. I then started to think about what I could build for this assignment, and if i could build parts within the workshop. I have not yet come up with a concept of what I want to do but I do know that I would like it to be recyclable. Being  in the workshop made me begin thinking about how i could make my product better for the environment and what materials would be best for it.

Lecture 4

Sketch up

This week we looked at sketch up, this software allows you to build objects and we started buy building houses. This exercise allowed me to experiment with the application and learn all of the tools. I made sure that I was using the extended tools menu so that I would be able to learn more of the tools available to me. Just by experimenting on this site it became clear how I could use it within my project, once I have finalised my ideas I could begin to build it in sketch up. It would allow me to experiment with ideas and then build and accurate scale of my final idea.

Lecture 3

Cpanel FTP & Node Red


At the start of this weeks session we created websites so that we could explore Cpanel. We looked at web hosting and how we could upload content to our own server space. Then, through dreamweaver we were able to manage our files and change what we had on our site. We then looked at Node Red, this site allows you to connect APIS, physical IO and cloud based data bases. We started by simply connecting developer twitter accounts to emails so that they could communicate with each other. Using flows I was able to make my twitter send tweets with a certain hashtag to my email, emails communicate with each other and tweet from my email. By creating these simply flows I was able to see how I could apply it to my final project and how digitised objects communicate with each other. It demonstrated to me how the internet of things makes objects communicate with each other.

                         

lecture 2

The Third Industrial Revolution