International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics

Volume 119 No. 18 2018, 2095-2103

ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)
url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/
Special Issue
http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/

Implementation of Wireless Sensor Network with Low Cost

and Low Power using Arduino and nRF24L01
Aravinth Raj S 1*,Veeramuth Venkatesh 2
School of Computing,SASTRA Deemed to be University,Thanjavur-613401.
saravinth987@gmail.com1,thambivv@gmail.com2

Abstract

Temperature and humidity transmission technology plays vital roles like in the Production and manufacturing industries,
but the data transmission is not reliable and guaranteed due to complex wiring in industries. In order to overcome these
problems, this project proposes a wireless radio frequency node to node temperature and humidity transmission system
with RF module nRF24L01 with Arduino Uno platform that has ATmega328 microcontroller as the core of the system.
The nRF24L01 module is 2.4GHz band range. DHT11 sensor is used to collect the data on temperature and humidity. In
order to let it alarm when data above the threshold range, by using potentiometer the threshold value can be set low and
high as set point of temperature and humidity. The system module will show real-time temperature and humidity value,
wireless transmission system can be done with low cost, low complexity and low power consumption .The output are
realized in serial monitoring of the system.

Keywords: Arduino Uno, sensor, DHT11, nRF24L01.

1. Introduction

Due to development of the microcontroller technology and the high speed digital signal processing
technologies, wireless communication system provides people with a reliable, and convenient. It has been
used widely in industrial and real-time applications everywhere and it also used for data acquisition and

* Aravinth Raj S1 :9488300987, Veeramuth Venkatesh 2 :9894440815.

E-mail address: saravinth987@gmail.com,thambivv@gmail.com.

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transmission for complicated terrain conditions, environmental conditions and other places like
inconvenient for people to reach. In this project, we proposed a scheme of wireless transmission system that
it has a small in size, low cost and it can collect the data factors such as temperature and humidity in real-
time and wirelessly. This system control module Arduino Uno which has ATMEGA328 microcontroller
gives high performance single chip microcontroller with low power consumption with high integration and
portability. DHT11 is a digital signal sensor which acquisitions temperature and humidity. The sensor has
high integration, high anti-interference, high precision and also low power consumption, small in size and
low cost research and use.

2. System Design

The system module consist two circuit units one is transmission unit that consist of Arduino Uno
controls temperature and humidity sensor DHT11 and wireless transceiver module nRF24L01 Figure1
and the receiving unit that consist of Arduino and wireless transceiver module nRF24L01 shown figure
2 . The transmission unit collects the data from the sensor both temperature and humidity values from
the sensor and then the data is processed and transmitted via nRF24L01. The receiver unit will receive
the values through nRF24L01 module and then the values are processed then output is realized.

3. Implementation

The development and integration of hardware and software components are shown Figure 2 and Figure
3. the overall module structure of an temperature monitoring through wireless sensor network
system between two node that we have developed. Each node can be powered by 5v battery and the
communication between shown in Figure 1.

F
Figure 1: Communication between two nodes

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3.1. Circuit Design

.

Figure 2: Transmission Unit

Figure 3: Reception Unit

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3.2. Hardware Implementation

The nRF24l01 is a radio transceiver with 2.4 GHz frequency rate and maximum data rate of 2 Mbps and
the range is approximately 1km in open area and nearly 100 meter in closed areas. To get more range,
the data rate can be set to 256 kbps. The nRF24L01 is a ultra-low power consumption device which
runs on 3.3V and the SPI(Serial Peripheral Interface) pins on the device are works on 5V . During
transmission, the current peaks to 150ma which is three times the current supplied the Arduino Uno. To
overcome this, a 10uf capacitor is connected between supply voltage VCC and Ground of the transceiver
module. DHT11 sensor is a low cost, easy to handle, highly accurate and spot-on humidity and
temperature sensor and the pin description of DHT11 sensor is shown in figure 6. It also consumes low
power and gives highly reliable steady output. The sensing technology behind DHT11 sensor is that it
aggregates digital output. The sensor and microcontroller are connected accordingly to respective of pin
description.

Figure 4: DHT11 sensor

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Table 1. nRF24L01-Arduino Pin out

Module Pin Description Uno

1 GND GND
2 VCC 3.3V
3 CE 9
4 CSN 10
5 SCK 13
6 MOSI 11
7 MISO 12
8 IRQ

Figure 5: Implementation of Transmission unit

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Figure 6: Implementation of Reception unit

3.3 Software Implementation

After the connections are done, Arduino can be programmed by using the Arduino IDE software.
For communications between Arduino Uno and nRF24L01, RF24 library is used which is included from
manage library. The CE and CSN pins of the nRF24L01 can be connected to any digital I/O pin on the
Arduino but the pin number must be specified in the Arduino program. The RF Transceivers can used
as a transmitter and a receiver . The DHT11 sensor is connected to the Arduino and for DHT11, DHT
library is used. The program of the transmitting and reception terminal unit is by settings initialization of
the pin mode firstly, then wireless mode nRF24L01 configured and setting it to transmitting mode and
reception mode respectively.

4. Results
The reception unit will get data which is collected from the transmission unit and the output is realized
through serial monitoring in Arduino IDE software Figure 7. Later depend on purpose we can modify the
conditions.

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Figure 7: Output

5. Conclusion
The Arduino Uno system platform that based on the ATmega328 microcontroller and nRF24L01 are the
main devices for wireless data transmission. DHT11 sensor collects the temperature and humidity of the
surrounding environment with low power consumption. The results of wireless communication will be
realized on the serial monitor. By using an potentiometer to set the threshold value for the sensor. When
temperature and humidity of the place surrounding is above the threshold set point level, then the system
module will be able to alert the user through a blinking light or by using buzzer. This system module has
lots of advantages such as, small in size, low cost, low power consumption, high accuracy, and high
performance. This system module is more suitable for short distance wireless data acquisition and data
transmission.

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References
[1]. nRF24L01 Single Chip 2.4 GHz Transceiver Product Spcifi-cation. http://www.nordicsemi.com..

[2]. Ruiyan Cai. Principles and applications of Arduino [J] ˊ Electronic Design Engineering, 2012,20(16):155-157Holler, J. et al.,
2014. From Machine-to-Machine to the Internet of Things: Introduction to a New Age of Intelligence. Elsevier, Atlanta.

[3]. Zhen Wang,Qing Hu,Jie Huang. Design of Wireless Temperature Collection System Based on nRF24L01 Journal of Electronic
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[4]. Lei Zhu.Design of the low cost data acquisition device based onC8051F340. Journal of International Electronic Elements,
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[5]. Cong Fu,Hui-sheng Fu,Yi-qing Li.Design of Wireless Temperature Acquisition and Control System Based on nRF24L01 Journal
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[6]. S. S. Sonavane, V. Kumar and B. P. Patil, “Component Choice for Low Power Wireless Sensor Networks Node”, International
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[7]. S. S. Sonavane, V. Kumar and B. P. Patil, Design Factors, Requirements and Research issues for Wireless Sensor
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[8]. Sheikh Ferdoush, Xinrong Li, “Wireless sensor network system design using Raspberry Pi and Arduino for environmental
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