Bluetooth trigger module for use with a smartphone

[knakov]

Greetings guys,

I've started an interesting project for home automation based on tiny and cheap (thumb-sized) Bluetooth modules able to trigger almost any electric equipment (up to 2.5kW). My idea is to have lots of small and cheap modules that appear on the screen of a smartphone when they get in range and disappear afterwards. Once available on the screen, those modules can trigger almost anything by just sliding a switch on the smartphone's touchscreen. The main virtues of those devices are small size, low cost and easy setup. Those modules have 4 types of triggering for its relay (on/off, trigger, toggle, pulse toggle), and dry contact input for feedback of triggered equipment. I would use them for arming/disarming house alarms, car alarms and immobilizers, opening garage doors or turning lights.

I'm almost there, the manufacturing facility will deliver the first batch in a month or so, my Android application is ready. But I need some help. Help with an advice, help with support for the project, help with testing, or anything that would give me a notion if I am heading in the right direction or not. I am qurious of whether my device would be useful to people all over the world.

What do you think? Is this project worth supporting? This is not my first hardware project, I am doing different telemetry and telematics equipment for 3 years already, but I am mainly focused on software in the last 17 years. I am well backed up from technical point of view, but I am still qurious if I am on the right track with this project, especially its relevance and usability. I would be glad if you share your oppinion on my idea and its implementation.

Thanks in advance,
Kalin

 

[drozwood90]

Not sure what advantage this has over just putting a motion sensor in a room, and triggering lights based on that?

--Dan

 

[knakov]

Well, if you get in the room, the ligts turn on. But if you start reading a book and stay still the lamps will go off and you have to move a bit to trigger the motion sensor again. This would be annoying. And the opposite scenario - you have that in your sleeping room. In the night you make a move in your dream and the lights turn on - nasty surprise, they will wake you up.

For me it would be nice to arm the alarm in night mode from the bed and turn off the lights after I finished reading the book.

There are other scenarios for this device that I think fit even better, for example if you have 2 cars, a garage and alarm systems. You need to take several remote controls and keys with you when you go out. Those keys are heavy. If this device is installed, you would go out just with your smartphone. I mean the idea is to forget the keys and take care for only the smartphone - it is the universal key. I know people with half a kilo of keys and remote controls who would be really happy to get rid of them. This actually inspired my idea.

Bluetooth 2.1 is secure and is safer than the most remote controls in use nowadays and can be used to trigger sensitive equipment like alarms and locks. And with a OEM pricing going as low as $19.95 per trigger it is affordable to embed or connect with any type of electric equipment.

 

[tmbrown97]

eKeypad + My OnStar = everything you mentioned ;-) Not to discourage it though - it sounds like a fun project that people may adopt for smaller scale applications.

 

[knakov]

Thanks for the hint! You're completely right, my solution fits in small scale applications and hobby projects with small budget, because it is universal. It is designed to work with any equipment, but all it can do is just switch, trigger or toggle electricity chains which may be scattered far away from one another (house, villa, office, car). Security is handled just once with the Bluetooth pairing.

Being a completely software guy, this project is real fun for me, because I am kind of swimming in unknown waters. It is quite a challenge, because it involves a full lifecycle from design and implementation of both custom hardware and software to finding the proper markets for it. Currently it is financed mainly from my savings account. I have early preorders only from companies mounting alarm systems and garage doors. After the first boards are ready in some weeks I may post a video in youtube how this works and feels. Your opinion is really important for me to take the proper decision on how to move this project forward!

 

[drozwood90]

Ok, I understand where you are going with this.

Essentially, the two issues you bring up, this is a good way to overcome them. I think most of us have already overcome them by having a smart server with multiple sensors. For instance, my motion detectors in the bedrooom, do nothing after I hit the "go to bed" button. It is reset in the morning after the light sensor trips that lights are no longer needed. Well, it USED to do this in my last house, I still have to finish setting the sensors back up!

As for the movement scenario. I agree that this probably is one of the best ways to overcome this, except for kids. If I could tell WHAT room I was in, by merely walking into it, that would be great! The issue is, most of the time to do this, you need to do something drastic to your house.

1. Posted on here, there is a person who embedded sensors INTO the door jam, he counts how many people are in each room, the rooms behave accordingly.
2. Use a LOT of cheapy sensors
3. use a CUSTOM sensor per room
4. Use highly sensitive sensors

Issues with the above:

1. you have to modify the doorjam, hard wire into the door jam - a LOT of work
2. a lot of sensors to coordinate, there is only so much bandwidth in the RF land to "house" all of the needed triggers; you need to think about the usecase behavior and put 1 sensor for each "mini" action (reading would need 2 sensors, one for someone is turning a page, one for watching feet...potentially at EACH chair!)
3. Lots of sensors to coordinate, potentially costly
4. Most of the time, higher cost and hardwired - I've been experimenting with one that costs $60 each, and it is hardwired.

Advantages:

1. highly accurate, unless people are going out through a hole in the wall where you did not put a "counting" sensor
2. one under a table by your feet, one directly above a chair, which does work well - my entertainment room used to be setup like that using X10 sensors
3. pressure pad under the rug in the bathroom, door/window type sensor on the leg support - so when flipped up, "someone is present" gives you a more "static" someone is here, so just keep the light on as long as the sensor is tripped
4. Compared to the motion sensors I currently use, I was able to change my scripted "turn the light off" time from 5 minutes to a little over 10 seconds due to how sensitive it is...normal standing still swaying was enough to trip it - that or I need to see a doctor!) I was able to wash dishes with that 10 second counter, without the lights going off, yet the lights in the kitchen were only on for ~10 seconds after I left the room

Places I think your design would be really useful: potentially a garage, unfinished basements (where it is hard to get a motion sensor in the right place), a workshop, where there is so much going on, it would be hard to get a sensor in the proper predictive location

Plus, I see an issue, unless you are going to have different units to cover different room sizes, what is to stop my phone from connecting to 2 or 3 sensors one from each room? In my house, if I stand in my master closet, I have been able to make a Bluetooth link to an BT A2DP to analog converter on my stereo. That is over 50' away. So, if I look at a 50' wide circle around the closet, I would potentially hit 5 rooms. A consideration you need to think about is how to handle that. Or heck, what is to stop the signal from picking up a sensor in the basement or 2nd floor, as I walk about the main floor?

I guess what I am saying, for ME, I do not think I would use it as much as you have described, but I feel that there is definitely a place for this technology in my house. This reason is the MAIN reason I went with Homeseer, or more specifically a PC based home automation system (CQC also quickly comes to mind due to their "driver" type interface). What I liked, is I can pretty much interface anything I wanted to the software, then do whatever I wanted to the inputs and outputs. So, why not use a bluetooth interface, or since your devices are SWITCHED on/off, why not connect a DS10A or something to it, to tell my Automation system "room occupied". It does not need a LOT of triggers, since it is a quasi-static signal.

--Dan

PS: I think most anything listed here: http://cocoontech.com/portal/lists/home-automation-software would do the same.

 

[knakov]

Thanks a lot for the precious advices! They are really helping me!

I will try to sort the devices on the screen of the smartphone according to their signal strength at least to decrease the confusion if many devices are simultaneously listed. Or I can even not list a device if the signal strength is low (device is far away), I will add this as a feature. I was thinking also of putting aluminimum foil behind the modules, pointing the signal in a single direction, but I have to experiment with that. I will add sensing feature to the trigger. This means, if the smartphone is in range, some equipment to be automatically triggered (such as the lights). As long as the phone is on, the lights will be on too. I hope the ideas to solve the problems of capturing the signal of the basement or a neighboring room and the presense detection for kids (carrying a phone, or a Bluetooth key fob on batteries). Although I can program a Bluetooth key fob to do something when it gets connected to a device, I need to be sure there is real need for it (e.g. demand) before spending time.

Once I finish this project using classic Bluetooth, and it is selling well, I will switch to BLE (Bluetooth 4.0 low energy). It supports GATT profile for Bluetooth, which is specially designed for sensor networks. BLE devices can operate on batteries for years. Maybe I will invent something really interesting with such modules!

My device just has a relay and dry contact input to check if it really switched something on. It can operate DS10A sensors easily.

 

[knakov]

BTW, Apple just released light bulbs switchable from the iPhone. The light bulbs are called Hue and are produced by Philips. This is similar to my product, but the difference is that I am targeting to a universal solution.

 

[knakov]

The project is almost ready, just final tests on car and house alarms, as well as the secure web interface. It's available at indiegogo.com/clicko

Upper side

Down side

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

What kind of range were you able to achieve with the Bluetooth?