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SOLAR ASSISTED ADVANCE SMART HOME

AUTOMATION

Manoj Kumar Singh1, Samridhi Sajwan2, Nidhi Singh Pal3

1,2,3
Electrical Engineering Department
Gautam Buddha University
Greater Noida-201312, Uttar Pradesh, India
1
manojsingh.singh19@gmail.com, 2samridhi5869@gmail.com, 3nidhi@gbu.ac.in

Abstract—This paper proposes design and implementation of Frequency (DTMF) decoder has been used to control the
smart home automation using solar power. Solar Power has been communication between ATmega 16 and the mobile phone.
interfaced with microcontroller and other house hold appliances. DTMF signals are widely known for low power consumption,
All these appliances can be controlled by the user with only one strong anti-interference, less peripheral parts, large code
tap on mobile phone and wastage of energy can be curbed.
capacity and can be easily interfaced with all kind of sensors
Hence, an intelligent and smart control unit has been built with
low energy consumption. The novelty of this work is development [8]. The microcontroller reads the DTMF output through an
of a password oriented and a solar assisted smart home external interrupt because DTMF’s output is latched in its
automation system. PROTEUS software has been used for output pins. This system provides full security and can be
simulation. The proposed technique has been implemented on accessed with the correct password only. This means that all
hardware model and tested to control the loads with a wireless the appliances including the entrance door can only be
telephone. controlled when correct password is entered. The latched
output cannot be used for entering password and for
Keywords—MT8870 DTMF, ATmega16, Relay Module, controlling appliances.
Password Oriented, Solar Assisted, PROTEUS 8.
Solar interface home automation provide user to have
I. INTRODUCTION automatic control on space heating and space cooling as well
as lighting in home or offices. Solar power is nothing but
In today’s booming world, wireless technologies are also
conversion of sunlight into electricity. This can be done using
becoming advance. This rapid growth of wireless technologies
photovoltaic (PV), or by concentrated solar power (CSP).
influences one to use mobile phones. These days’ wireless
Here Solar Power has been used to feed Power to
telephones are used to control as well as to monitor the home
microcontroller and relay module as well as other auxiliary
appliances to provide ease to elderly and disabled people and
appliances. Hence this model provides an energy efficient,
reduces human labor [1, 2]. Different researchers conclude
password protected and cost effective method with one tap on
different type of ways for home automation techniques.
the phone.
Home automation refers to those homes in which every
appliance can be controlled via mobile phone. It includes II. PRINCIPLE OF WORK
control of lights, electrical outlets, heating and cooling
The proposed model is a password oriented system.
systems, entrance door by the means of remotely controllable
Correct password is the key to access the system as well as the
network. All devices can automatically be powered off during
entrance door for security purpose. If entered password
hours of the day when they're not needed. In other words, one
matches with the set password, system will start operating
can turn on appliances anytime from anywhere in the world. It
automatically. The home automation module consists of
is very beneficial with respect to energy savings if forgotten
DTMF decoder connected to a mobile phone along with
lights and appliances on and left for the day. This can be done
microcontroller ATmega16. The microcontroller gets its input
using communication technique with microcontrollers via
from the DTMF decoder and decodes it. Then load is chosen
Bluetooth [3, 4] or Wi-Fi [5] available in smart phones and
according to the decoded dial tone generated. Simultaneously,
also via ZigBee and PLC [6] or FPGA [7]. Using Bluetooth
output can be observed at the load side which is connected to
and GSM [3] implemented two schemes for speech based
the microcontroller via relay module. Load is turned ON or
home automation and control.
OFF according to the conditions matched by the
The proposed model for home automation adopts existing
microcontroller. In absence of interrupt signal from DTMF
common telephone network to realize remote control. It is not
decoder, microcontroller output becomes unstable. Std pin of
necessary to be only a smart phone rather appliances can be
MT8870D IC of DTMF decoder is used as interrupt signal. At
controlled by any cell phone. Here Dual Tone Multiple
most 16 different loads can be controlled by the user via a
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mobile and monitoring can be easily done with android
application [9-11].
In the module, microcontroller acts as the brain of the system.
It decodes the user input given via an automatic call handling
phone and generates its corresponding signal. Then depending
on that the system communicates.
The Flowchart in Fig. 1. defines the working of the home
automation model.
Fig.1. Flowchart of Automation System
III. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION WITH BLOCK DIAGRAM:
The system mainly consists of two modules- Solar module
and home automation module. In solar module a solar panel of
required specifications is mounted on the roof. This module is
attached with the home automation module and it supply
power wherever needed.
Block diagram of the solar module is given in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Block diagram of solar module
In solar module, PV array is connected to boost converter of
55% duty cycle. A dc-dc converter is connected to the battery
through battery charge controller. The battery charge
controller regulates the charge flowing from solar panel to
battery. It prevents battery from overcharging and over
discharging by load.
Fig. 3. Block diagram of home automation module
Connection diagram of home automation module is shown in
Fig. 3. Here, mobile has been connected to the DTMF decoder
through 3.5 mm male to male jack. DTMF decoder receives
the dial tone and sends its corresponding digital signals to the
microcontroller (ATmega 16). This microcontroller is further
attached to the electrical loads via relay. The relay has been
placed in the route to provide switching to the connected load.
Other loads such as gas leakage sensor, smoke detector can be
attached directly at PORT C of the microcontroller. A door
sensor has been connected to the microcontroller in this case.
This sensor is controlling the door as per the input given by
the user.
IV. SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION
PROTEUS 8 has been used for simulation purpose. Both
the modules; solar and home automation module are designed
on the software as well as implemented on hardware. Various
components required to make a solar assisted system are as
follows:
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A. Solar Panel: Output equation of the Converter is given as follows;

Vo = Vin/ (1-D) (1)

Where D stands for Duty Cycle, VO is the output voltage and

Vin stands for input voltage of the boost converter.
TABLE II. Observed response of Boost Converter

Serial Vin(volt) Duty Cycle Vo(volt)

No (%)
1 3.6658 55 7.40
2 3.6658 59 8.15
3 3.6658 63 9.12
4 3.6658 65 9.86
Fig. 4. Solar panel generating 5W 6V

Photovoltaic (PV) modules are also known as solar modules

which are used to convert sunlight to the electricity. Solar
modules are as same as integrated circuits and use silicon
crystal. Electricity is generated when photons strikes on the
silicon crystal plate. Solar panel used in this project is of
6volts and 5watts.

TABLE I. Specifications of the solar panel used (Designing based on Andslite

5 Watt 6 Volt Solar Panel)

Pmax 5W
Vmax 8.67 V
Imax .57A
Vocc 11.12V
Iscc 2.26 A
Fig. 6.Output Wave form of boost converter at 55% of duty cycle
B. Boost Converter:

C. Charging Circuit:

Fig. 5. Boost converter used with solar module

Boost Converter is a converter whose output voltage is greater

than its input voltage. Such Converters are known as Step up Fig. 7. Charging unit used with solar module
converters. Here capacitor is used for smoothening of the
output waveform to keep it free from AC ripple.
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Charging Circuit prevents over charging and over discharging connected with the home automation module. This module
of the battery. It provides variable regulated output voltage to gets energized by the solar panel and also supply can be given
the battery. Once the battery gets fully charged, Zener wherever needed in the system.
connected in reverse biased starts conducting and the total
current gets grounded via NPN transistor.

Home automation module built in PROTEUS Software is

shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 9. Solar implemented home automation system

V. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION
The next step includes hardware designing of Solar
Assisted Home Automation System. This setup includes the
Fig. 8. Software simulation with home automation module
following components:
Following components has been used for simulation: 1. 4 channel Relay Module
1. ATMEGA 16 2. DTMF Decoder IC
2. LCD (16*2) 3. LCD (16*2)
3. Potmeter (Pot –HG: 1 k-ohm) 4. ATmega 16 development board
4. Relay Driver ULN2003A 5. Andslite(5 Watt 6 Volt) Solar Panel
5. LEDs (D1, D2, D3, D4). 6. 4 Bulbs (15 W, 220V AC)
6. Resistors 7. Variable resistor (5k)
7. Key Encoder (MM74C922) 8. LM317, LM7805
8. RELAY (12V) 9. MOSFET, Zener Diode, resistor, capacitor

In simulation, input from cell phone gets converted in digital

signal through DTMF decoder and output of DTMF has been
connected to PIN B of Microcontroller. Other type of sensors
such as gas leakage or smoke detector sensors can be placed at
PORT C of microcontroller. In this model a door sensor has
been connected at PORT C of microcontroller. After getting
the input, controller verifies each individual tone and
generates corresponding output. This ATmega 16 controller’s
output has been connected to the LCD and Relay module.
Here, Optocoupler based relay has been used instead of
electromagnetic relay. Output of relay gets controlled by
switching of light connected to SCR. These relays have much
faster response than others.
Fig. 8. shows the home automation module, but not solar
assisted. By implementing the above module with a solar
module makes it cost effective.
Fig. 9. shows the complete system software module of Solar Fig 10. Inside View of Control Box
Assisted Home Automation System. Solar module has been
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Fig. 10. shows the inside view of the control box. It consist of
microcontroller along with DTMF decoder and relay module.
LCD screen has been mounted at the top of the control box.
The DTMF has been connected to PB0,PB1, PB2 and PB3 of
the microcontroller. Interupt pin has been connected to PB4.
When 1 gets pressed, corresponding load gets turn on or off.
Fig. 11. Solar pannel connected to the battery
Output power from the battery has been connected with the
microcontroller. 6 Volts, 4.5 Ampere hour battery has been
used that get charged from the solar panel.Maximum charging
current for rechargeable battery is 1.35Ampere,while voltage
is 7.50Volts. The pannel shown in Fig. 11. has been connected
with the home automation module to energise the whole
system.
VI. OUTPUT RESPONSE OF THE SYSTEM
Fig. 12. Working diagram of the home automation module (indicating load 2
off)
Fig. 12. shows the hardware output response. In this figure
outside view of control box has been shown. LCD has been
placed at the top of the control box. Further, solar input and
DTMF input has been given to the system. Different loads are
connected to the relay module and relay module has been
connected at Pin C of microcontroller. This result indicates
that all loads are lighten up except load 2. As key 2 gets
pressed on the mobile phone, load 2 gets turn off. This Status
of loads are displayed on LCD screen.
VII. CONCLUSION
Different researches have been made in the past with
respect to home automation. Home automation is a modern
technique to control and monitor the home appliances via
wireless technology. The considerable methods for home
automation are via Bluetooth, WiFi, ZigBee etc. All these
methods can be used within a specified range and also these
are not cost effective. The proposed model of smart home
automation is solar assisted and also password oriented. Solar
power supply makes the system cost effective and password
protection gives it full security. All home appliances including
entrance door can only be controlled by the user on entering
the correct password. Thus chances of theft can be minimized
in case user forgotten door open and left for the day. This
module is featured along with a DTMF decoder for its wide
application. The system can be accessed or appliances can be
controlled from anywhere in the world with one tap on the
mobile phone. It does not have any prescribed range. The
work can be further extended by using sensors such as a
temperature sensor to automatically regulate the fan speed.
Moreover, with some advancement in the proposed system it
can be used against power theft.
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