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An Arduino Micro-controller Operated Automobile Air Conditioning System

Chapter · January 2019

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-6577-5_26

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An Arduino Micro-controller Operated
Automobile Air Conditioning System

Hiren Shah , Aftab Maniar , Kushal Tailor , Dhruv Patel

and Harsh Patel

Abstract This paper describes the operation of the air conditioning system of Maruti
Suzuki Wagon-R car which comprises a condenser, compressor, evaporator, receiver,
drier, and expansion valve. It works on VCR system with refrigerant R600A +
R290. As automation is becoming the pioneer in technology, it is important to step
in its vicinity. The air conditioning model is connected to the computer system
through Arduino UNO circuit. Arduino is a single board micro-controller that can
sense and control physical parameters. The purpose of establishing this connection
is to perform the automatic turning on/off the system and to obtain the temperature
readings from the sensors attached to the components of the model. These readings
are then transferred to MS Excel software with the help of PLX-DAQ software, where
various thermodynamic calculations are performed. From the obtained results, it is
found that the theoretical value of cop is twice that of actual values of COP. Also
originate that, the theoretical second law efficiency is about 36% more than its actual
value.

Keywords Arduino · Relay · 18B20 temperature sensor · MS Excel · PLX-DAQ

Nomenclature

VCR Vapor Compression Refrigeration

SMPS Switch Mode Power Supply
A.C Alternating Current
D.C Direct Current
COP Coefficient of Performance
COPrev COP of Reverse Carnot Cycle
COPth Theoretical COP
COPact Actual COP

H. Shah (B) · A. Maniar · K. Tailor · D. Patel · H. Patel

Chhotubhai Gopalbhai Patel Institute of Technology, Uka Tarsadia University,
Gopal-Vidyanagar, Maliba Campus, Surat Gujarat 394350, India
e-mail: hiren.shah@utu.ac.in

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 263

M. Kumar et al. (eds.), Advances in Interdisciplinary Engineering, Lecture Notes in
Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6577-5_26
264 H. Shah et al.

Te Evaporator outlet temperature in °C

Tc Compressor outlet temperature in °C
Td Condenser outlet temperature in °C
H1 Enthalpy of after evaporator (kJ/kg)
H2 Enthalpy of after compressor (kJ/kg)
H4 Enthalpy of after expansion (kJ/kg)

Greek Symbols

ηm Mechanical Efficiency of the system

ηad Actual Efficiency of the system
ηII Second Law Efficiency

1 Introduction

The world is drastically changing in terms of technology. Researches and innovations

have already set a new trend of substituting manual operations with automation. This
is driving the world at a much greater pace. Manpower and time are being immensely
conserved. Majorly computer and electronics technologies together have brought
this revolution. In the midst of such growth, optimization is playing a key role in
developing efficient systems. This paper describes the application of automation to
an automobile air conditioning system and obtaining its performance characteristics
using software. For automation, Arduino UNO microcontroller and relay are used
[1]. Digital temperature sensors 18B20 are used to fetch the temperature readings
from the system components [2–4]. Arduino microcontroller acts as a medium for
the connectivity of the relay and the temperature sensors with the computer system
[5]. The programming of Arduino UNO is done in Arduino IDE software with C++
as a coding language. Relay is used as a switch for automatic turning on/off the
system. The system is programmed for automatic starting and stopping the system
in prescribed sets of time intervals. This is done to obtain the temperatures for
different weather conditions throughout the day. Graphs are generated in MS Excel
for the performance characteristics that provide clear visibility to the variations
according to the different input parameters. Thus comparing the various results, the
performance characteristics of the system is obtained.

1.1 System Layout

The refrigerant R600 + R290 is used. Its properties are described in Table 1. Tem-
perature sensors are attached at the inlet and outlet of the respective components.
An Arduino Micro-controller Operated Automobile Air … 265

Table 1 The properties of the refrigerant R600A + R290 [10]

Molecular weight (kg/Kmol) 44.10 Critical density (kg/m3 ) 459
Melting point (°C) −187.7 GWP 3
Boiling point (1 atm) (K) 231 Power consumption(W) 1355
Liquid density (kg/m3 ) 1040 COP (Cooling) 5.8
Vapor pressure (bar) (at 21°C) 7.7 Mass flow rate (kg/s) 0.0658
Critical pressure (Mpa) 4.90 Pressure ratio 3.39

The compressor is driven by a motor instead of an automobile engine [6]. The motor
is A.C power supply driven and condenser fan is used to blow atmospheric air to the
condenser to remove the heat from the flowing high-temperature refrigerant. SMPS
converts A.C supply to D.C and also reduces the voltage for the condenser fan [7, 8]. It
also operates blower [9]. For the automatic turning on and off of the system, a relay is
connected in the power supply line to the motor. This relay is connected to the Arduino
UNO board. Also, the temperature sensors are connected to other Arduino UNO
board. Further, these two boards are connected to the computer system. A schematic
diagram for this is shown in Fig. 1, where T 1 –T 7 is the positions of temperature sen-
sors placed at inlet and outlet of concerned system components as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1 Layout of Arduino microcontroller automobile air conditioning system

266 H. Shah et al.

Fig. 2 Experimental setup

2 Automation Hardware Equipage

2.1 Arduino UNO

Arduino is an open-source prototyping platform based on easy-to-use hardware and

software. Arduino board designs use a variety of microprocessors and controllers.
The boards are equipped with sets of digital and analog input and output pins that
may be interfaced to various expansion boards (shields) and other circuits. The board
features serial communications interfaces, including Universal Serial Bus (USB),
Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, which are also used for loading programs from computers
[11]. The actual Arduino board’s specifications are listed in Table 2.

Table 2 Specifications of Arduino UNO [12, 13]

Microcontroller ATmega328P PWM digital I/O pins 6
Operating voltage in V 5 Analog input pins 6
Digital I/O pins 14 SRAM in kb 2
DC current per I/O pin in mA 20 EEPROM in kb 1
DC current for 3.3 V pin in mA 50 Clock speed in MHz 16
Flash memory in kb 32 of which 0.5 Input voltage (Limit) in V 6–20
issued by Input voltage in V 7–12
boot loader (Recommended)
An Arduino Micro-controller Operated Automobile Air … 267

2.2 Relay and Digital Sensors 18B20

The relay is an electrically operated switch that allows turning on and off the cir-
cuit using voltage and/or current much higher than the criteria the microcontroller
could. There is no connection between the low voltage circuit operated by the micro-
controller and the high power circuit [14, 15]. In the experimental setup, the relay
is connected in the midst of power supply line to the motor. An Arduino board is
connected to the relay. This is done for the automatic starting and stopping of the
system.
The circuit diagram for relay and Arduino board connection is shown in Fig. 3.
The DS18B20 digital sensor provides 9–12-bit Celsius temperature measurements.
The DS18B20 can communicate over a 1-Wire bus. That means it requires only
one data line (and ground) for communication with a central microprocessor. Each
DS18B20 has a unique 64-bit serial code, which allows multiple sensors to function
on the same 1-Wire bus. Thus, one microprocessor can control many DS18B20s [16,
17]. Using this advantage of DS18B20, all the sensors are connected to the input of
the Arduino board. Absolute maximum ratings for the sensor are shown in Fig. 4:
• Voltage range on any pin relative to Ground is from −0.5 to +6.0 V.
• Operating temperature range is from −55 to +125°C.
• Storage temperature range is from −55 to +125°C.

Fig. 3 Relay-Arduino UNO circuit

268 H. Shah et al.

Fig. 4 DS 18B20-Arduino UNO connection circuit

3 Utility Software: Arduino IDE and PLX-DAQ

In automation industry, software is something what a soul is to a living body. It

brings life to hardware. It plays an important role in both, pre-processing and post-
processing part while implementation and execution of automation to any system.
Arduino provides its own Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Here the
programming can be done using C/C++ coding language. The output of the program
is displayed in the serial monitor section of the IDE. The coding for the automatic
turning on and off the system in prescribed time interval (here for 10 min) and for
the transfer of temperature reading from sensors to MS Excel through Arduino board
(here for every 2 min interval) respectively, is as follows in Tables 3 and 4.
The temperature readings obtained on the serial monitor of Arduino IDE are trans-
ferred to the MS Excel sheet through PLX-DAQ software. PLX-DAQ is a Parallax
microcontroller data acquisition add-on tool for Microsoft Excel. With any micro-
controller connected with any sensor, the data can be directly transferred to Excel
through the serial port of a computer [18]. Also, graphs for the real-time data from
the Excel can be generated. 26 columns of data can be recorded with it.
An Arduino Micro-controller Operated Automobile Air … 269

Table 3 Coding for relay on and off

Program Description
int relay = 13; Integer for pin 13 slot in Arduino board
void setup() { Start serial port
Serial.begin(9600); Baud rate
pinMode(relay,OUTPUT); Initialise the Arduino data pin 13 for
} OUTPUT
void loop() { Start loop
while (Serial.available() == 0);
int val = Serial.read()-’0’;
Serial.println(val);
if(val ==1){ Turn on relay on press “1” in serial monitor
Serial.println("relay on");
digitalWrite(relay,HIGH);
delay(600000); Wait for 10 min
Serial.println("relay off"); Turn off relay
digitalWrite(relay,LOW);
}
else if(val ==0) Turn off relay on press “0” in between 10 min
{
Serial.println("relay off");
digitalWrite(relay,LOW);
}

4 Thermodynamic Equations

The mathematical calculations for obtaining the COP and Second Law Efficiency of
the system are programmed in the Excel sheet. The lists of equations are presented
below [19].
COP of Reversible Carnot cycle is given by,

COPre = Te /(Tc − Te ) (1)

Theoretical work done by compressor is given by,

Wc = H2 − H1 kJ/kg (2)

Theoretical refrigerating effect is given by,

Qe = H1 − H4 kJ/kg (3)

Theoretical COP of VCRS is given by,

COPth = Qe /Wc (4)

Table 4 Coding for obtaining temperatures of required components of the system
270

Program Description
#include < OneWire.h> Include the libraries
#include < DallasTemperature.h> Setup a oneWire instance to communicate with any OneWire devices
OneWire(5);
DallasTemperature sensors(&oneWire);
float COMPi; Variable for temperature of components
float COMPo;
float CONDi;
float CONDo;
float EXPi;
float EXPo;
float EVAPo;
float Tcool;
void setup() { Start serial port
Serial.begin(56000); Baud rate
Serial.println("CLEARDATA"); This string is defined as a command for the Excel VBA to clear all the rows and
column
Serial.println("LABEL,Computer LABEL command creates label for columns in the first row with bold font
time,COMPI,COMPo,CONDi,CONDo,EXPi,EXPo,EVAPo,Tcool");
sensors.begin(); Start up the library
}
void loop(){ Start loop
for(int a = 0;a < 5;a ++) Defines that 5 readings taken
sensors.requestTemperatures(); Send command to get temperature readings
(continued)
H. Shah et al.
Table 4 (continued)
Program Description
COMPi = sensors.getTempCByIndex(0); One can add more than one temperature sensors on the same bus. Here for 8
COMPo = sensors.getTempCByIndex(1); components, 8 temperature sensors are used.
CONDi = sensors.getTempCByIndex(2);
CONDo = sensors.getTempCByIndex(3);
EXPi = sensors.getTempCByIndex(4);
EXPo = sensors.getTempCByIndex(5);
EVAPo = sensors.getTempCByIndex(6);
Tcool = sensors.getTempCByIndex(7);
Serial.print("DATA,TIME,"); Print system time
Serial.print(COMPi); Take data from sensors and print
Serial.print(",");
Serial.print(COMPo);
Serial.print(",");
Serial.print(CONDi);
Serial.print(",");
Serial.print(CONDo);
Serial.print(",");
Serial.print(EXPi);
An Arduino Micro-controller Operated Automobile Air …

Serial.print(",");
Serial.print(EXPo);
Serial.print(",");
Serial.print(EVAPo);
Serial.print(",");
Serial.println(Tcool);
delay(120000); Take readings after every 2 min
}
for(int b = 0;b >=0;b ++){
delay(1000);
}
}
271
272 H. Shah et al.

Theoretical Second Law Efficiency is given by,

ηIIth = COPth /COPrev (5)

Flow rate of refrigerant is given by,

Mr = TR/Qe kg/min (6)

Actual Power consumption is given by,

Wact = Mr ∗ Wc /ηm ∗ ηad (7)

Actual COP of VCRS is given by,

COPact = 3.517/Wact (8)

Actual Second Law Efficiency is given by,

ηIIact = COPact /COPrev (9)

5 Result

Figure 5 describes that by commanding “1” as input it will start the relay. It results in
starting of the project setup. Figure 6 describes the automatic transfer of temperature
reading for different component to excel sheet with the help of PLX-DAQ as shown
in Figs. 7 and 8.
Graphs for the obtained output data depicts the variations in the theoretical and
actual performance parameters with respect to the specific time interval for the spe-
cific temperature range. Here the system is programmed to operate for 10 min, where
temperature readings for every 2 min intervals are obtained. This process is repeated
after every successive hours for a total operation of 720 min (12 h).
At constant compressor temperature, the actual and theoretical values of COP
constantly increase with small variations with respect to increase in evaporator outlet
temperature and condenser outlet temperature. The actual value of COP is about
50% less than theoretical value. The theoretical and actual value of second law

Fig. 5 Serial monitor screen of on/off program

An Arduino Micro-controller Operated Automobile Air … 273

Fig. 6 Temperature readings appearing in 2 min interval

Te ( C)
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
7
6
5
4 COPth
COP

3 COPact
2
1
0
32 34 36 38 40 42 44
Td ( C)

Fig. 7 COP versus condenser and evaporator outlet temperature

Tc ( C)
50 51 52 53 54 55 56
6

0
32 34 36 38 40 42 44
Td ( C)

Fig. 8 COP versus condenser and compressor outlet temperature

274 H. Shah et al.

efficiency increases with the rise in evaporator outlet temperature and condenser
outlet temperature. The actual value of second law efficiency is about 36.84% less
than theoretical value.

6 Conclusion

This paper describes the methodology to introduce automation in a mechanical sys-

tem by considering a VCR system of automobile. The interconnection of hardware
and software to make a system automatic is explained by showing the role and impor-
tance of microcontroller. The flexibility and interlinking of software used, such as
Arduino IDE, MS Excel, and PLX-DAQ are emphasized here. Where the Arduino
IDE provides the flexibility to impart modifications to the program/code according
to the changes in input parameters from the system. MS Excel provides the flexibility
to modify the equations and variable parameters. PLX-DAQ provides the flexibility
to transfer data from Arduino IDE serial monitor to MS Excel automatically. The
significance of coding is presented here as the key factor in imparting automation.
Any possible desired output for the system can be obtained by modifying the relat-
able input parameters in the program. Pertaining to this experiment, the time interval
for starting and stopping the system and for the fetching of temperature readings
from the sensors can be adjusted by simply replacing the time in the programming.
The graphs obtained for the thermodynamic calculations show the variations in the
actual and theoretical COP and second law efficiency respectively, for a 720 min
of operation, by a set of 10 min for every successive hours. It is found that, for the
system, theoretical value of cop is twice that of actual values of COP and theoretical
Second Law Efficiency is about 36% more than its actual value.

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