Waveshare ESP32-S3-Relay-6CH is a 6-channel WiFi and Bluetooth relay module based on Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller that also supports RS485 control and comes with headers taking Raspberry Pi Pico HATs adding RTC, CAN Bus, RS232, LoRa, sensors, or other features. The relays are rated 250VAC/30VDC up to 10A, the system take 7V to 36V DC input through a terminal block, and can be programmed with Arduino or MicroPython though a USB-C port. It also features a a built-in buzzer, an RGB LED, and is housed in a DIN Rail-mountable ABS case. Waveshare ESP32-S3-Relay-6CH specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1U-N8 by default MCU – ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM Storage – 8MB Quad SPI flash Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 u.FL connector for external antenna 6x relays via terminal blocks Rating – Up to 10A 250V AC / 30V DC [...]
There’s a lot to love about the fall season, and when it comes to home automation there’s a ton of opportunity here for smart makers to start playing around with new ideas and creations.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some ways you can use home automation to enhance your autumn experience, and we’ll share a few inspiring ideas from the Arduino community.
Automated garden care
If you have a lawn — or any outdoor space — you probably know the never-ending struggle of keeping it in good condition.
On top of your regular tasks of cutting the grass and caring for its quality, you’ll also have to contend with the yearly influx of beautiful but dead leaves cascading down from the trees and forming a crisp blanket over your grass.
This can keep the autumnal gardener much busier than usual, but the good news is that home automation can make things much easier in this department. Let’s find out how!
Smart leaf blowers
Clearing the fallen leaves out of your yard can be a tedious task, but with the power of home automation it gets a lot easier.
Remote-controlled leaf blowers like this one can take care of the laborious work of getting rid of dead leaves while you relax on the porch with a nice cup of coffee. Right now this kind of tech is still mostly in the prototype DIY stage, but the future could see more commercially available models.
Robot lawn mowers
The Roomba revolutionized the world of home maintenance. No longer did you have to devote chunks of your day to walking around the house with a vacuum cleaner — now a neat little robot could take care of it all for you.
Robot lawn mowers are now bringing the same game-changing concept to the world of gardening, automatically whizzing around your lawn and getting it to just the right condition while you hang out and enjoy the cool autumn breeze.
If you’re feeling creative, why not build your own robot lawn mower?
Arduino user ReP_AL decided to do that with this project — an Arduino-controlled lawn mowing robot. Now you can sit inside with a pumpkin spice latte and watch in comfort as your robot leaves your lawn in perfect condition. You can check out a full guide for this project here.
Temperature control and energy efficiency
While it’s not quite winter yet, fall is the period where temperatures start to drop, and some days can get pretty chilly.
This is the perfect opportunity to get on top of your temperature control systems and get prepared for the colder months on the way. Once again, home automation can play a major role here, helping you maintain just the right conditions in your home without wasting any energy.
Smart thermostats
Until recently, controlling the heat in your home required you to actually be at home.
Today, thanks to smart thermostats, that’s no longer the case. These gadgets allow you to check the temperature of your house and make adjustments from wherever you are, by connecting your thermostat to a mobile app.
Smart thermostats can also automatically change the temperature based on when you enter or leave your home, the occupancy of a room at any given time, and your energy usage over time.
You can even make your own smart thermostat with Arduino. That’s exactly what Hwhardsoft did with this project, combining an Arduino MKR board with a wall mounting enclosure and color TFT touchscreen to create a professional-looking and easy-to-use thermostat for the chilly winter months.
Energy conservation
As the days get shorter and colder in the fall months, it’s tempting to crank up the heating and flood your house with light.
The downside to this is that it takes its toll on your energy bills, especially during a time when costs are high. Home automation can help mitigate this, with the use of monitors that track energy usage, show alerts, and even automatically switch off or turn down lighting, heat, and electrical appliances when they’re not needed.
Lighting and decorations for fall
Fall isn’t all about dark nights and frosty mornings. It’s also a time for celebration, with quite a few big holidays taking place around this time.
Halloween is the most famous, but even if you aren’t a big fan of spooky decorations, adding some light and color to your home can help warm things up as the days get colder.
Smart lighting is a great example here. On top of keeping your living areas cozy and ambient, smart lighting can also help create a more seasonal mood, and can even be used to set up lighting displays for parties and holiday celebrations.
It’s not just indoor lighting, either, you can also set up smart illumination displays on the outside of your home. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you can even rig up entire lighting displays to celebrate an occasion of your choice.
Home security
One of the downsides of the darker months is an increase in certain types of crime — specifically burglary.
Criminals like to operate under cover of darkness, and home break-ins are easier to carry out when the world is plunged into night from the afternoon onwards. Fortunately, burglars are fairly easy to deter, and home automation can be a powerful tool here. For instance:
Motion sensors and smart camera systems that can detect any unusual activity and quickly report it to you, wherever you are, via a mobile app. This can also trigger alarms and even notify the police if needed.
Smart locks and security systems that can be controlled remotely from your devices. This way you can ensure your home is secure at all times, giving you peace of mind, and grant trusted people access from afar.
Automated lighting systems that make your home seem occupied even when nobody is around, deterring opportunistic criminals.
Entertainment
The fall season is home to a number of festivals and holidays. Halloween, the Day of the Dead, and Thanksgiving are just a few well-known examples.
Due to the chilly weather, most autumnal festivals tend to take place indoors, which is a great opportunity for you to tap into home automation to host a party nobody will ever forget.
Home automation can give you a ton of the tools to achieve this. With automated lighting to create the perfect ambience, smart speaker systems connected to voice assistants and shared apps, and unique, novel costumes and light displays, you can host the perfect party.
You don’t need to throw a huge celebration to make the most of smart entertainment, however. With the right combination of smart lighting, sound, and interactive entertainment systems you can have a great night in all by yourself.
Preparing for the holidays
On top of the fearful festivities of Halloween, fall also marks the beginning of a long holiday season.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year are all just around the corner, and major events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday take place around this time, too. This makes fall the perfect season to start laying the foundations for a busy few months of holidays.
Once again, home automation can make life easier and more productive here. For example:
Smart kitchen appliances — like trash cans that sound alerts when they’re full and cupboards that add to your shopping list when ingredients are running low — can make life much easier during big eating and guest-hosting holidays.
Automated travel planning — Tools such as Wonderplan make it easier than ever to create rough starting itineraries, book accommodation and transport ahead of time, and start making preparations for your coming trip.
Automated gift shopping — Tools like ChatGPT can help generate thoughtful ideas for gifts, and you can easily place orders using voice automation software and list-making apps that can handle the entire process of ordering and shipping.
If you’re interested in getting started on your own home automation journey this fall, Arduino is the perfect place to start.
Our Project Hub is full of inspiration, and we have products and guides to help anyone get started, no matter their experience level or comfort with tech. Everyone has to start somewhere, and before long you’ll be putting together some seriously impressive creations.
In a previous video about controlling household appliances and lighting fixtures from the cloud, Sachin Soni of the techiesms YouTube channel designed a custom PCB that allows an Arduino Nano 33 IoT to toggle a series of relays. But since then, he realized that his project needed a faster and more permanent method of getting to the controls, which led him to build a complete home automation dashboard using solely Arduino hardware.
Soni opted for the new Arduino GIGA Display Shield since it contains a 3.97” RGB touchscreen with support for up to five simultaneous touch points and an array of sensors if the functionality were to ever be expanded. On the back, an Arduino GIGA R1 WiFi was attached to act as the display’s controller and leverage its Wi-Fi capabilities to communicate with the system’s Arduino Cloud variables.
The final step in this project involved creating a software-defined graphical user interface (GUI) complete with toggleable buttons for the lights, dials to indicate temperature/humidity levels, and a way to select the fan’s speed from an array of values. Soni was able to finish most of the groundwork by utilizing the LVGL library and its highly customizable GUI components.
After laying out the buttons and dials, synchronizing Arduino Cloud variables, and connecting their event handlers to value updates, Soni had a functional tablet that could wirelessly manage his appliances from anywhere.
Hospitality professionals are constantly looking for ways to offer guests an enhanced experience while improving operational efficiency and optimizing energy management. To achieve this, they require cost-effective solutions that are easy to install and maintain while also providing the scalability of future-ready systems – such as automating hotel rooms or B&B rentals to increase safety, comfort, and energy savings.
Indeed, automation can be integrated seamlessly in various aspects including climate control, lighting, security, and entertainment. Upgrading these functions allows guests to enjoy customization and convenience throughout their stay, and staff to efficiently manage room settings remotely. Moreover, hoteliers can achieve substantial energy savings through optimized control and scheduling, contributing to sustainability goals.
Long-term scalability and future-proofing of automation systems, however, can be an issue. As hotels and rental properties undergo renovations or expansions, the ideal solution should accommodate changes without requiring substantial modifications or replacements. Adopting open and standardized protocols, as well as selecting flexible and modular automation projects, can help mitigate these challenges and provide a foundation for future enhancements.
Our solution
A comprehensive IoT automation solution can address these challenges effectively by aggregating sensor and user data and then intelligently managing lighting, cooling/heating and more – for a smart, connected experience. The elements required to achieve this kind of outcome are environmental sensors, a programmable logic controller (PLC), a human-machine interface (HMI), and cloud connectivity.
Programmable logic controller (PLC)
PLC-based automation systems are widely used due to their reliability, flexibility, and ability to handle complex tasks. Arduino Pro’s Opta microPLC can serve as the central control unit for hotel room automation by connecting and monitoring various devices and subsystems such as HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), lighting and door locks. The microPLC receives data from sensors and users and processes them to trigger appropriate actions or adjustments in the room.
Human-machine interface (HMI)
A touchscreen panel through which guests and staff can control various room parameters – such as lighting status, fan status, and door lock status – provides a user-friendly and intuitive interface to interact with the automation system. This HMI also communicates data to the microPLC for execution.
The Modbus communication protocol
The HMI and Opta PLC communicate via Modbus RTU over RS-485. Modbus RTU communication protocol is widely adopted in industrial applications due to its reliability, provided by the physical layer strength and by the cyclic redundancy check included in the data packets. It allows for multiple devices to be connected to the same bus, forming a multidrop network where each device has a unique address, used to identify the recipient of the transmitted data. The Arduino Opta can communicate with other Modbus devices, such as sensors, actuators, or traditional PLCs, by addressing them individually.
IoT Cloud solution
Cloud connectivity enables seamless communication between the hotel room or rental property’s automation system and the central management system. The Opta and HMI connect to the cloud infrastructure, allowing remote access, monitoring, and control of multiple locations. The solution also enables data logging and analytics for better energy management, predictive maintenance, and guest experience personalization.
Solving it with Arduino Pro
Let’s get into the details of how this solution can be put into action, and identify the hardware and software resources needed for deployment. Arduino Opta is a great option for deploying building automation solutions, as it offers simple integration with current systems, real-time control capabilities, support for Over-The-Air (OTA) firmware updates, and Hardware-To-Cloud data security. The Arduino Pro ecosystem allows users to benefit from easy integration, along with a range of scalable, secure, and professionally supported services.
The Arduino IDE 2.0 can be used to program Opta using C/C++. Opta acts as the main controller, communicating with the HMI via the Modbus RTU protocol. The HMI gathers data from various sensors – including light, temperature and humidity, and PIR (movement sensor) – as well as user inputs from its interface buttons related to room climate, lights, and door lock status. It then forwards this data to Opta, which controls the relay outputs that will activate the lights, thermostat or door lock.
Opta also sends this data via Wi-Fi® to the Arduino IoT Cloud. After connecting it to the Arduino Cloud using the Arduino Create Agent, cloud variables corresponding to the sensor data being monitored can be defined.
Arduino Pro’s Opta microPLC offers an ideal solution for the automation of hotel rooms and B&Bs or rental properties. By leveraging standard communication protocols, easy integration, real-time control capabilities, secure hardware-to-cloud data exchange and remote access to multiple rooms from a centralized location, Opta provides the cornerstone of a comprehensive platform for smart hospitality.
If there’s one place in the world you want to feel safe, it’s inside your home.
And yet, the unfortunate reality is that our homes can sometimes be a source of danger. From burglaries to fires, it’s important to take precautions to make sure your house remains a sanctuary and not a deathtrap.
Home automation can be a huge help here. Today’s homeowners (and renters) have a ton of tools at their disposal to stay safe from a range of hazards and risks. Some of these tools you can even build yourself, with minimal cost and effort.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the main dangers people face at home, and how automation can minimize the risk.
5 common home security threats
What are the biggest dangers facing us at home? Apart from dropped Lego pieces and precariously-stacked crockery, here are some of the main dangers facing our homes and why they’re so serious.
Burglaries
Home burglaries are actually decreasing in frequency as time goes on, but they’re still a threat.
In the U.S., for example, over one million burglaries take place every year, and property crimes are the most common type of crime. Burglars use a range of techniques and methods to gain entry and steal your hard-earned possessions, and often leave behind a legacy of trauma and shock — even when you weren’t at home.
Fires
A house fire is a nightmare scenario, but this is also a very real concern.
Research shows that 24.2% of all fires worldwide occur in residential buildings. Some of the main causes include:
Unattended cooking (this is the most common cause of house fires)
Even when you manage to escape a house fire, the damage can still be enormous. On top of the financial cost, you have to deal with the loss of items that can never really be replaced. The best option when it comes to house fires is to do whatever it takes to prevent them.
Environmental dangers
Extreme weather events are on the rise around the world, and this is a problem for the safety of your home.
Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and wildfires can be devastating, and wherever you are in the world there’s almost certainly some kind of environmental risk facing your home. Repairing a damaged home can become extremely costly, and can cause massive disruptions to your life.
Cybersecurity threats
One of the biggest downsides to an increasingly tech-savvy world is the rise in cyber crime, which is much more widespread than it was in past decades.
The days of clumsy spam emails being the biggest threat to ordinary people are long gone — cyber attacks are now incredibly sophisticated and constantly evolving.
With the rise in smart home devices, typically as part of the Internet of Things, cyber criminals now have a new avenue to exploit. Many home automation systems aren’t properly protected, in fact one study found that many had major design flaws putting them at risk of cyber attacks like data leaks and break-ins.
Home automation as a solution
Although home automation can be a target for attackers, it can also function as a highly effective defence against many of the threats to your home.
The home automation market is growing fast, and is predicted to reach $163 billion by 2025. As this technology becomes more advanced, more possibilities for protecting your home keep emerging.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can harness the power of home automation to keep your home safe from multiple dangers.
Enhanced security features
The best place to start with smart home security is with the basics — the locks, keys, and alarms we’ve been using to keep our houses safe since time immemorial.
With home automation, you can take these security features to the next level, adding a new layer of safety and convenience to your home, such as:
Smart locks and keyless entry systems, for instance based on biometric data like your fingerprints, eliminate the need for keys (which are easily lost), and make it much harder for an unwanted visitor to gain entry to your home.
Surveillance cameras and video doorbells allow you to see who’s at the door without going to check, even when you’re not at home. Research suggests that homes with security cameras are 300% safer from burglaries than those without.
Motion sensors and alarms. While they might not be cutting-edge smart home tech, these time-tested devices have been in use for decades and are still very much around because they work so well.
Fire and environmental safety
House fires and environmental disasters are often treated as freak accidents — something we have no control over and that we should simply hope never happens to us.
However, we’re not powerless here, and home automation can actually offer some solid defences against the raging elements. Some examples include:
Smart smoke detectors. Like traditional smoke detectors, these pick up on unusual smoke in your home and issue an alert. But these smarter models can also send warnings to your smartphone, wherever you are. They can detect the difference between, for example, carbon monoxide and smoke, and some can tell you where the smoke is coming from.
Flood sensors and leak detectors can help you locate and identify water leakages while they’re still small and fixable, before they turn into destructive and expensive problems.
An uninterrupted power supply (UPS) can ensure the lights and power stay on even when the main grid has been disabled by a storm or other natural disaster, so you can keep your essential functions running.
Cybersecurity measures
While home automation tech is becoming more advanced all the time, there are also vulnerabilities here though, and some cyber criminals target IoT and smart home devices.
To keep your smart home as secure as possible, it pays to take security seriously here. Let’s take a look at some basic steps everyone can take to keep their devices safe from cyber attacks.
Make sure your WiFi network is secure, with a strong password and encryption. Try to find a router with a security protocol of WPA2 or ideally WPA3.
Regularly update the firmware that runs on your smart home devices — this will ensure they’re protected against any new threats and have the most up-to-date security features installed.
Replace any outdated technology including routers.
Change your passwords frequently, and don’t use common or easily guessed passwords.
DIY vs. professional installation
When it comes to smart home security, it’s common to wonder if you should pay for a professional to take care of your needs, or do it yourself.
Security is, of course, a serious matter. It’s not an area you want to leave to chance, or risk leaving your home with safety flaws because you did something wrong.
If you’re a beginner to building and maintaining your own home automation devices, it’s best to leave the important security jobs to a trusted professional. And even if you have some experience with these jobs, it might still be a good idea to use a specialist for the really important stuff — things like alarm systems and smart locks.
However, it’s possible to take the DIY approach to many smart home safety devices, with only a handful of easy-to-acquire components and some basic coding and design knowledge. The Arduino Project Hub has plenty of examples here. Let’s take a look at just a few.
RFID card door lock
Arduino user mehmetefepekerr created this project — a radio frequency identification (RFID) card designed to add an extra layer of security to their home. The card enables you to unlock your door by tapping the card on your way in. RFID key cards are typically safer than magnetic cards since they’re more resistant to the elements, and unlike traditional locks they can’t be picked by thieves.
Ultrasonic security system
This system by theridgeguy is meant to keep your home safe by detecting the presence of intruders and sounding an alarm.It employs an ultrasonic distance sensor to detect how far someone is from the doorway, and then uses flashing lights and noises to deter them from getting any closer. Trusted guests and family members can enter a four-digit code to disarm the alarm.
Smoke detector using gas sensor
When it comes to preventing house fires, time is always of the essence. This smoke detector, developed by srajandikshit147, picks up on any unexpected smoke in the environment and then warns the user by sounding a buzzer and flashing a red LED if the smoke density is higher than the safe limit.
These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using Arduino to make your own smart home devices, including ones that protect you from various risks and dangers in your home.
By tapping into the power of home automation, you can build your own devices to do all kinds of things. You don’t need to be a coding mastermind or have access to expensive gear — pretty much anyone can get started with their own basic projects today.
Get in touch with us to learn more about what’s possible with home automation and get started on your own journey.
The Internet of Things has the power to transform your home into a futuristic web of cutting-edge gadgets, working together to make life easier, safer, and more entertaining.
And while the IoT has a bunch of day-to-day applications like watering your plants and keeping your cupboards stocked, you can also use it to throw a killer party.
Done right, you can build a smart home that leaves your guests gobsmacked, talking for months about their experience and frantically searching for ways to recreate it in their own homes.
In this article, we’ll look at a few of the ways you can use the IoT to enhance your guests’ experiences and become the talk of the town (in a good way).
What exactly is the Internet of Things?
The IoT is a way of connecting multiple everyday devices to the internet and each other, enabling them to perform smarter tasks such as collecting, processing, and exchanging data of different kinds.
For example, while an ordinary kettle is only good for boiling water, a smart kettle connected to the IoT can be controlled from your smartphone, set to automatically start boiling at a specific time, and be asked to do different things like keep the water at a certain temperature.
When it comes to throwing a party that will go down in legend, the IoT can be a big asset.
Impress your guests with the Internet of Things
1. Smart home ambiance
The first step to throwing a great party is setting the mood, and that applies to small gatherings, dinner parties, and even just hangouts.
The IoT can be a big help here, allowing you to tap into smart lighting with the help of color-changing bulbs and synchronized effects. At the tap of a button or your smartphone, you can produce customized lighting patterns and hues, engineering exactly the right environment to fit the vibe.
You can also integrate your lighting systems with voice control assistants, so you and your guests can change the ambience with simple commands.
2. Interactive entertainment systems
With the IoT, you can take entertainment to the next level.
Use smart speakers to create fully immersive music and sound, perfectly adapted to the mood of the room and the desired noise level. Switch from soft background music to a lively dance floor with a simple voice command.
If you have a home theater or a gaming room, you can integrate these with the IoT to build a more customizable and personalized setup for guests.
3. Smart food and beverage management
If you really want to impress your guests, fill them up with delicious food and get them tipsy.
This is yet another place where technology can help — an IoT-connected kitchen can revolutionize the catering process, allowing you to host truly unforgettable cookouts and dinner parties.
Smart refrigerators with inventory tracking and recipe suggestions work alongside automated cocktail mixers and cupboards that send an alert to your phone whenever you’re running low on a certain ingredient.
You’ll go from being a stressed, overwhelmed amateur chef to the master of your kitchen, effortlessly commanding your army of tech tools to run the show confidently.
4. Intelligent climate control
The only thing worse than a party where everyone is sweltering hot, is one where they’re all too cold to even peel off their winter coats.
The good news for any aspiring host is that home automation can solve this age-old problem once and for all. Smart thermostats and HVAC systems are designed to keep your home in the perfect state of equilibrium — using automated adjustments to make a Goldilocks zone where all your guests feel just right, all the time.
The best smart homes can do this in an energy-efficient way, too, ensuring you don’t waste fuel and money keeping a room warmer than it needs to be for everyone’s optimal comfort. And you can easily adjust the temperature from your smartphone, a remote control, or voice commands.
5. Personalized guest experiences
The best parties are the ones where everyone feels welcome, and there’s no better way to create that vibe than with personalization.
The IoT can come in very useful here, helping you install things like smart mirrors which greet your guests personally and share information about the party like important times to remember and directions to specific places.
How well do you know your guests? If you can create a small profile on each one, your smart home can even put together tailored entertainment recommendations, ensuring the mood of the party fits the mood of the guests, and that there’s a bit of something for everyone on the playlist and the menu.
6. Automated home security
Parties can be a ton of fun, but they come with a few risks as well. When everyone is distracted and occupied, it’s sometimes easy for unwanted visitors to sneak in under cover of the crowd.
With IoT-driven security cameras and automated monitoring systems, you can keep your guests and property safe at all times, not just when the party is in full swing. You can program your smart security system to provide real-time alerts when something isn’t right, and even gain remote access.
If security is a key concern for you, you can give trusted guests their own digital keys and temporary access, gaining more control over who leaves and enters your event.
7. Smart party planning
If you aren’t much of a planner, putting a first-rate shindig together can be a stressful experience.
With the right tech solutions though, even the most disorganized among us can become expert event coordinators, piecing together seamless itineraries and dazzling guests by taking every tiny detail into consideration.
Some examples here include:
Automated guest invitations and RSVP tracking
Integrated calendars, to-do-lists and reminders
AI-powered suggestions for how to plan and organize your event
8. Entertain your guests with AR and VR
Virtual reality and augmented reality are two emerging technologies that have the power to keep your guests engaged for hours.
Gone are the days when a two-dimensional console was the only source of gaming-based fun — now your guests can strap on a headset and immerse themselves in a detailed and incredibly entertaining fictional world, even competing with other guests.
It’s not just about gaming, either — AR and VR can be used to create beautiful cyber experiences for your guests, from interactive works of art to guided tours of faraway places.
9. Smart furniture and layouts
Equipping your seating areas with charging ports and built-in displays will delight your guests and create a much more comfortable and convenient place to chill out.
As time goes on, furniture will likely get even smarter. For instance, smart furniture could soon detect the number of guests and available space and automatically adjust, folding away or expanding certain sections as needed.
10. Eco-friendly hosting
Parties — especially the big ones — can pack quite the environmental footprint if you aren’t careful.
If you’re concerned about the impact of your party, there are several home automation tools that can help reduce your energy expenditure and help you plan a greener and more eco-friendly event.
For example, you can use smart energy management tools to track your usage over time and make adjustments to avoid wastage, like turning down the lights and heat in a room that hasn’t been occupied in a while.
Many up-to-date IoT devices will have these kinds of features built in, and will already automatically monitor and adjust their activity to use energy more optimally.
(Bonus tip) Preparing for hiccups
One of the risks of relying too heavily on tech for your party is that tech can sometimes go wrong.
Things like glitching devices, network issues, and features that are difficult to use can all get in the way of your guests having the best time possible. It’s important to be prepared for the possibility of things going wrong and have plans in place.
It’s always a good idea, for example, to have backup entertainment options in place. Is your VR system playing up? If so, having a more traditional console on hand can work as a great alternative while you get things back up and running.
Ultimately, you don’t want your party to be too tech-centric. It’s always smart to balance your high-tech features with more traditional hosting and entertainment activities — not just because tech can sometimes go wrong but because guests will always appreciate a human touch.
Host a party from the future
Home automation, driven by technologies like the IoT, can transform your next party into something your guests will never forget.
From big, show-stopping features like augmented reality works of art, to small but no less revolutionary tools like a smart dishwasher — home automation is the perfect party assistant.
With Arduino, you can even start building your very own automated party tools, using just a handful of easy-to-find components and a bit of coding knowledge. Check out a few projects below!
Bluetooth lighting system
Arduino user akk47 made this project allowing users to build a lighting system that can be controlled with nothing more than taps from your phone, wherever you are in the building.
It uses Bluetooth® and can be put together with just a handful of components. Projects like this are the first step towards your very own smart lighting system, making your home the envy of any guests.
Multi-zone heating controller
This project was built by Arduino user erkr because his rooms were either too hot or too cold when using a single thermostat.
It allows you to split your home into zones and control the temperature for each zone separately. It’s not only a great way to save on energy bills and create a more comfortable living environment, but it’s also a fantastic tool when hosting parties where rooms have different temperature needs.
PCB gyro gaming wheel
A good gaming setup can turn a good party into an unforgettable one. Arduino user ashraf_minhaj built this project — a gaming steering wheel that can add a new dimension to racing games.
This shouldn’t be too difficult to replicate for anyone with some background in making their own smart projects, and is a cheaper (and more fun) alternative to highly advanced gaming gadgets.
These are just a few ideas to give you some inspiration — with Arduino the sky really is the limit when it comes to creating fun and original new gadgets for your smart home. Get in touch with us to learn more and get started.
In 2021, the average household had 25 connected devices, a massive increase on previous years, driven in no small part by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. And in 2023, the number of smart homes worldwide looks set to hit 195.8 million.
We’re living through a fascinating time for technology in general, with new breakthroughs hitting the headlines all the time, and the home automation industry is especially exciting.
In this article, we’ll dive into some of the main ways home automation is changing in 2023, some of the biggest current trends, and what’s on the horizon.
Emerging trends in home automation in 2023
2023 so far has been a big year for home automation, and there looks to be more to come. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting emerging trends this year.
On top of that, the tech behind these gadgets is also developing fast, with new features emerging all the time. Today’s voice assistants are already a far cry from the first few generations of Amazon Alexa gadgets, and are capable of integrating with multiple devices and recognizing a range of different voices.
Edge computing and local processing
“Edge computing” refers to when data processing and analysis take place closer to the source of data generation (locally) rather than on centralized cloud servers somewhere else.
In the context of home automation, this means IoT devices can process the data they generate right there and then. This has a number of advantages, such as:
Low latency, because the data doesn’t have to travel all the way to a data center and back. This means tasks can be performed much quicker, and even in real-time.
Better bandwidth efficiency and reduced costs because only relevant information is shared over the network.
Better scalability, making it easier to add more devices to your smart home network.
Let’s check out a few examples of edge computing at work in smart homes.
Voice assistants like Amazon Echos with built-in processing capabilities are capable of handling voice commands locally, making them much more responsive and able to function smoothly even with the internet connection is unstable.
Security cameras can analyze video footage locally instead of sending that data to the cloud for analysis. This makes it easier to detect and report suspicious activity with much faster response times.
Managing things like lighting and temperature even when offline, keeping your working and living spaces in the most comfortable state at all times.
AI and machine learning
AI is a hot topic right now, and at times it can be hard to separate the truly exciting developments from the hype.
When it comes to home automation, though, AI holds a ton of promise.
Energy efficiency: AI can track the energy usage in your smart home appliances and make adjustments to ensure nothing is being wasted. It can also detect problems and unusual activity and take steps to correct any issues.
AI can add a touch of personalization to your smart home by learning your preferences and making automatic adjustments to things like temperature, lighting, and music.
Predictive maintenance: AI can monitor your smart home devices and predict when faults and issues are about to occur, helping you avoid outages and make repairs before they’re needed.
Sustainable and eco-friendly automation
We already briefly talked about how technologies like AI can help your smart home devices function more efficiently. In fact, smart heating and cooling systems, used correctly, can save users 50% of their energy consumption in some cases.
But that’s not the only way home automation can help you live more sustainably. For example, you can integrate your smart home with green energy sources like solar — something that’s becoming more common around the world.
What’s in store for the near future?
Now we’ve explored a few of the exciting things happening in home automation right now, let’s turn our gaze to the near future.
What can smart home owners look forward to over the next few years? This is where things get really interesting, as the rapid development of smart technologies mean things are changing fast.
Continued growth of 5G
5G technology looks set to grow in both popularity and sophistication throughout the next decade.
According to Ericsson’s 2022 Mobility Report, 5G subscriptions will reach 4.4 billion globally by the end of 2027, and account for around 48% of total mobile subscriptions.
For smart home owners, this means even faster connectivity, lower latency, and support for increasingly powerful and sophisticated IoT devices that aren’t possible just yet, as well as the opportunity to build more complex and connected smart home networks.
Augmented reality and virtual reality in smart homes
The AR and VR market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 13.72% between 2023 and 2027, which has a ton of exciting implications for home automation.
One example here is smart home maintenance. Augmented reality apps can make it much easier to repair faulty devices by providing real-time, 3D instructions that are far clearer than any manual or YouTube tutorial. AR can also be used to improve home design by helping you visualize how new furniture, decorations, and layouts will look before committing to them.
Even better security and privacy features
Keeping our families, homes, and possessions safe is always going to be a primary concern, and smart technology here is developing in some really interesting ways.
One example is the use of biometric tech to improve home security. The global biometrics market is projected to hit $83 billion by 2027, with voice recognition alone expected to reach $27 billion.
What does this mean for smart homes? Biometrics can be used to identify people with extremely accurate levels of precision, allowing you to enter your home with just your fingerprint, a scan of your iris, or even a voice command — while keeping everyone else out.
Other promising trends in smart home security include advances in data encryption and privacy controls to keep your IoT devices secure.
AI-powered home health monitoring
Keeping track of your vital signs and health metrics is more than just a hobby for fitness enthusiasts — for older people and those with health issues it can literally be life-saving.
Wearable devices like smart watches can track key health data, issue reminders to take medication, and alert emergency services when things go wrong. These devices can even be used to monitor individuals’ movement patterns and predict falls and other accidents.
We’re still some way off fully automated health care, but this is a step in the right direction.
Entire smart cities
Cities around the world are getting bigger, and that means they need to get smarter.
Home automation isn’t just for houses and apartments — it can be scaled up to the size of a city, a trend which is well underway. The global smart cities market is expected to grow at an annual compound rate of 13.13% until at least 2028.
Smart cities use technology like 5G, the Internet of Things, and AI to build more efficient, safe, and pleasant environments for millions of people to share. These technologies drive features such as:
Better connectivity for everyone, like accessible WiFi anywhere in the city including on transport.
More efficient and better-connected public transport systems, including more intelligent traffic management based on constant monitoring using sensors.
More efficient usage of energy, based on tracking usage and minimizing wastage.
Better waste management, using sensors to measure how full waste bins are and issuing alerts when it’s time to empty them.
Staying ahead of the smart home curve
With so much happening so fast, with no signs of slowing down, staying up-to-date with home automation tech can feel like an impossible task.
However, there’s a lot you can do to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and access these incredible benefits as they roll onto the market. Let’s check out a few ideas.
Keep your network current
Your home automation devices are only as good as the network they run on. That means a robust and up-to-date home network is one of the best investments you can make in your smart home.
Consider upgrading to a Wi-Fi 6 router, or the even more advanced 6E router. This will open up new possibilities when it comes to 5G and bring a new level of speed and slickness to your IoT network.
Another option is to set up a mesh network — a collection of connectivity sources around your home instead of a single router — to provide better coverage.
Keep your devices maintained
With the rate at which home automation technology is advancing, devices that were brand new just a few years ago are quickly becoming outdated.
This is especially true for firmware — it’s essential to keep your devices updated at all times to ensure they’re optimally secure and can take advantage of new features and capabilities.
Remember that your devices won’t last forever, and have some kind of plan in place to review and replace any older technology.
Stay informed
One of the best ways to keep pace with the rapidly changing world of home automation is to join online communities and attend events.
Of course, it’s not always feasible to travel huge distances to attend conferences and expos just to learn more about your smart home devices, but you can learn a lot from joining the right forums and online groups. These can help you get quick answers to questions, gain inspiration for future projects, and stay up to date with all the latest news and advice.
Here are some ideas:
r/HomeAutomation on Reddit, a subreddit dedicated to home automation with tips, questions, and shared projects.
Arduino’s community and forum: a place for Arduino users to gather and talk about their own projects, share guides, and discuss challenges they have encountered.
There’s also an extensive list of Facebook groups, YouTube channels, and blogs to explore, and specific technologies and devices often have their own dedicated support groups and online spaces.
Get into DIY
What better way to access the next generation of home automation technology than to build it yourself?
Today it’s easier than ever for total amateurs to build their own IoT devices and home automation projects, with nothing more than some simple components and a bit of basic coding knowledge.
At Arduino, we help people get started with their own home automation journey. Our products are built to help everyone from complete beginners to advanced makers create their own smart home technology and share it with the world.
Contact us to learn more about this and how to get started.
In today’s modern world, smart technology is revolutionizing the way we interact with our surroundings. From managing our home’s energy consumption to controlling appliances remotely — such as washing machines, fans, coffee makers, and even air conditioners. Smart devices offer us a level of convenience and control that was once unimaginable. However, dealing with multiple apps for various systems can be cumbersome and inefficient. This is where an integrated platform like the Arduino Cloud comes into play, offering a unified dashboard to control all your smart devices. Moreover, if you’re an Arduino enthusiast, you’ll be excited to learn how Node-RED can bridge the gap between commercial products and the Arduino Cloud. Last, but not least, you can integrate this project with the rest of your Arduino Cloud projects automating your appliance control using other devices’ data.
In this blog post, we’ll delve into a fascinating project that demonstrates how you can harness the power of Arduino Cloud and Node-RED to control TP-Link smart plugs, giving you the ability to manage and monitor your appliances from a centralized hub.
TP-Link smart plugs and Kasa
TP-Link smart Wi-Fi plugs are intelligent devices that transform everyday appliances into smart ones, enabling remote control via your Wi-Fi network. These plugs are part of TP-Link’s smart home ecosystem, designed to offer enhanced convenience and control over your home appliances. To manage and control these smart devices, TP-Link has developed the Kasa Smart platform. Through the Kasa Smart app, you can easily schedule, automate, and control your connected devices, making your home even smarter. Importantly, Kasa Smart provides an API that facilitates seamless integration with other platforms.
Arduino Cloud: Simplifying IoT development
The Arduino Cloud is a versatile platform that simplifies the creation, deployment, and management of IoT devices. It supports a range of hardware, including Arduino boards, ESP32/ESP8266-based boards and devices programmed with Python, JavaScript or Node-RED. This platform is a boon for makers, IoT enthusiasts, and professionals, as it enables them to build connected projects without needing extensive coding skills. Arduino Cloud lets you manage and monitor connected devices through customizable dashboards, offering real-time visualizations of device data. These dashboards can be accessed remotely using your favourite browser or via the Arduino IoT Cloud Remote mobile app, available for both Android and iOS devices, ensuring that you’re in control no matter where you are.
Node-RED: Bridging the gap
Node-RED is an open-source visual programming tool designed to facilitate the connection and automation of devices, services, and APIs. Its browser-based flow editor enables users to effortlessly create workflows by dragging and dropping nodes onto a canvas and connecting them. Each node represents a specific functionality or service, such as data input/output, data transformation, or communication with external systems. Popular in the Internet of Things (IoT) realm, Node-RED simplifies the integration of sensors, devices, and cloud services, empowering users to craft sophisticated IoT applications and automation systems without traditional coding. In this blog post we will see how Node-RED can act as a middleware between TP-Link smart plugs and the Arduino Cloud.
Project setup: Getting started
To embark on this exciting journey of controlling TP-Link smart plugs with the Arduino Cloud and Node-RED, you’ll need a few prerequisites:
An instance of Node-RED (running locally or in the cloud)
No Arduino, ESP32, or ESP8266 devices are required for this project.
Step-by-step implementation
Here’s a concise overview of the steps you’ll undertake to bring your project to life:
Configure your TP-Link smart plug: Begin by adding your TP-Link smart plug to the Kasa app on your mobile device. This process connects your plug to both your Wi-Fi network and the internet, enabling remote control.
Create the device in the Arduino Cloud: In the Devices section of Arduino IoT Cloud, create a new device. This process involves selecting “Any Device” and following the instructions in the wizard. Don’t forget to save your Device ID and Secret Key.
Create the Node-RED flow: Access your Node-RED instance and import the provided code. This code configures the integration between the TP-Link smart plug, Arduino Cloud, and Node-RED.
Configure the Kasa and Arduino Cloud nodes: Within Node-RED, you’ll need to input the IP address of your TP-Link smart switch and configure the connection to Arduino Cloud using the API key you generated.
Create the Arduino Cloud dashboard: Navigate to the Dashboards section of the Arduino Cloud and create your dashboard. Customize it to your liking for easy monitoring and control.
Test the System: With everything set up, it’s time to test your creation. Access your Arduino Cloud dashboard to observe the status of your smart plug and control it using the provided button.
Try it now!
Experience the future of home control now. Discover how Arduino Cloud and Node-RED combine to command TP-Link smart plugs. Create your Arduino Cloud account and dive in at the Project Hub project page and transform your home today!
What’s the most important substance in the world? After the air we breathe, the answer is almost certainly water. We need it to live, we can’t go more than a few days without it, and it makes up about 60% of our bodies.
All this just makes it even more worrying that in many parts of the world, running out of water is a very real problem. As time goes on, the global population grows, and the effects of climate change continue, water shortages around the world will become even more of a challenge.
What can we do? One of the tools in our toolbox here is automation. Used right, it can help us manage our water supplies better and ensure as many people as possible have access to plentiful safe water. It’s even possible to employ automation in our own homes, using tools like Arduino and the Arduino Cloud and to better manage our water consumption, eliminate any wastage, and save on bills.
Why is water conservation so important?
Even though the planet is 70% water, less than 2% of that is freshwater, and even less is clean and drinkable.
One in six people globally has no access to clean water, which puts them at enormous risk for all kinds of waterborne diseases. And the problem is getting worse — the UN has predicted that water shortages will affect almost 20% of the human population by 2025.
As a result, it’s incredibly important to conserve the clean water we do have and ensure it stretches as far as possible. Here’s why:
Saving water ensures communities are prepared in the event of droughts and other water shortages. Managing our water usage and conserving an appropriate amount when times are good gives us a valuable buffer when times are hard.
Conserving water helps avoid the political unrest and even conflict that can arise when people have to compete for the same inadequate amount of water.
In developed countries, conserving water more efficiently helps protect against rising costs.
Transporting and cleaning water requires a lot of energy. By reducing our usage, we limit the environmental cost of all this work.
How can automation help save water?
The concept of using automation to save water is not new. In fact, there are many innovative projects already in place around the world, and as time goes on they look set to continue. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting ways automation is being used to save our water.
Irrigation sensors
Irrigation — the process of artificially adding water to soil — is a critical part of modern-day farming. It enables us to keep crops watered on a consistent basis, ensuring large-scale farms that can feed entire populations.
However, despite its necessity, irrigation comes at a cost — it uses a huge amount of water. If we can find ways to manage our irrigation systems more efficiently, minimizing waste, we stand to save a lot of H2O.
Enter automated irrigation. This relies on using sensors in the soil to detect when water is needed and trigger irrigation systems only when the levels are low enough to warrant it. This ensures water is used only when needed, helping us conserve much more.
Manage water infrastructure more efficiently
Cities are incredibly complex beasts — huge networks of various different processes and systems to keep the lights on, the trains running… and the water flowing.
Ensuring everyone gets constant access to clean water is a monumental task, and often results in inefficiencies and wastage.
The St. George Water Services Department in Washington County, Utah, decided to introduce automation tools to manage their water systems more efficiently. They did this via a radio network that transmitted sensor data from across the entire district, giving them newfound visibility into their water systems and allowing them to minimize wastage and optimize the water cycle for more than 80,000 people in the city of St. George.
Home automation
Conserving water isn’t something you have to leave to governments and other big organizations. You can start using automation to optimize your water usage at home, saving money on energy bills and doing your bit for the environment.
One example is water sensors, which can detect the level of water in your tank and automatically alert you when they’re running low. They can also automatically turn off the water supply when it isn’t needed.
Another example is detecting leaks — you can install simple sensors that notify you when water is leaking, for example through damaged pipes. This can not only damage your home but also lead to large avoidable costs.
The Arduino Project Hub is filled with examples of home automation systems just like this one. Conserving water in your home is one of many incredibly useful ways to deploy automation, and can be done with only a few components and some basic knowledge.
Visit our Home Automation website to find out more about how Arduino works and how you can get started.
Who said robots had to be all work and no play? For many years, people have been designing and building robots not just to help with chores, but to help us win games. Possibly the most famous examples of this are the robots that play chess.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the history of chess-playing robots, how they’ve evolved over time, and share three famous examples.
And do not forget that with the right inspiration, Arduino, and the Arduino Cloud, creating a robot is not a dream anymore!
The history of robots in chess — Three famous robotic chess prodigies
Chess is an old game. Humans have been playing it for 1,400 years, and for the vast majority of that time, their only opponents were other humans.
As time went on and technology became more advanced, people started to turn their thoughts to ways of using tech to win at chess. One of the first (somewhat clumsy) attempts came in the 18th century.
The Turk
The Mechanical Turk, developed in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen, stunned audiences by repeatedly holding its own against human opponents. The world had changed forever — were machines finally beginning to outsmart their makers!?
Well… not exactly. The Turk actually turned out to be a case of fraud — and featured a human chess player hiding inside the machine and controlling its movements. False alarm.
The Mechanical Turk was destroyed by fire in 1854, after a perplexingly long career.
Boris Handroid
Throughout the 20th century, people worked furiously to build machines that could beat humans at chess. Progress slowly chugged along, and in 1980 the first commercially available chess robot came into being.
It was based on a chess computer called Boris and was extremely rare and limited, to the point where many people doubted it even existed. Due to its incredibly exclusive nature, it’s no surprise that the Handroid never became a household name.
The Milton Bradley Computers
Although the Handroid was not exactly a success story, it did show the world that there was at least an appetite for chess-playing robots, if they could be made effectively and at scale.
In the early 1980s, American board game giant Milton Bradley decided to take on the challenge. Working with computer scientists, they began to develop a robotic chess game that would move the pieces reliably enough to be sold at a mass scale.
The result was actually three different models: the Grandmaster that hit the US market, the Milton which was sold in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, and the Phantom which was built for the British market — although all three devices were extremely similar.
The Milton Bradley chessboard was able to detect where pieces were and used magnets attached to motor-driven belts to pull the pieces around the board. Unlike most of its predecessors, the Milton Bradley chess robot was a success and sold many copies in the US and Europe.
For chess aficionados, an important moment had arrived — you could now play chess at home without the need for a human opponent.
Deep Blue
Although it’s more of a computer program than a robot per se, no article about chess-playing robots would be complete without a mention of Deep Blue. Built on an IBM supercomputer, Deep Blue was the culmination of many years of grueling research and programming — a computer that could finally challenge a human chess champion.
In a series of games over the course of 1996 and 1997 — 10 years after development began on the project at Carnegie Mellon University — Deep Blue beat chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.
It was a groundbreaking moment not just for chess, but for humanity as a whole — a reminder that, as advanced and intelligent as we are, the machines might just be catching us up.
Build your own chess robots
Today, you don’t need to rely on astronomically expensive novelty gadgets to experience the wonders of chess-playing robots — you can easily make your own at home. With tools like Arduino, amateur tech enthusiasts can assemble chess-playing machines for relatively low cost and without the need for a highly specialized skillset.
The Arduino Project Hub is home to a ton of chess-related projects, including some robots. YouTuber RobotAvatar built this machine that uses 64 reed switches to direct an Arduino Uno where each chess piece is.
Meanwhile, a computer running a Python program takes care of the “thinking” and sends signals to the device to move pieces. It’s a pretty straightforward device that literally adds an extra dimension to the game of computerized chess — allowing you to play games against machines in a much more tangible way.
Another amazing project, created by Greg06 on Instructables, is the automated chessboard that can not only tell where specific pieces are moved but also play against an actual opponent while moving its own pieces.
Chess isn’t the only thing Arduino is capable of. Check out our homepage to learn more about how it all works, the kinds of projects you can build, and how you can get started.
Planet Arduino is, or at the moment is wishing to become, an aggregation of public weblogs from around the world written by people who develop, play, think on Arduino platform and his son. The opinions expressed in those weblogs and hence this aggregation are those of the original authors. Entries on this page are owned by their authors. We do not edit, endorse or vouch for the contents of individual posts. For more information about Arduino please visit www.arduino.cc
You are currently browsing the archives for the Home automation category.
