IoT

318 Articles

Fight Mold And Mildew With An IoT Bathroom Fan

September 2, 2017 by 24 Comments

Delicious sheets of wallboard coated with yummy latex paints, all kept warm and moist by a daily deluge of showers and habitually forgetting to turn on the bathroom exhaust fan. You want mildew? Because that’s how you get mildew.

Fed up with the fuzzy little black spots on the ceiling, [Innovative Tom] decided to make bathroom ventilation a bit easier with this humidity-sensing IoT control for his bathroom exhaust fan. Truthfully, his build accomplishes little more than a $15 timer switch for the fan would, with one critical difference — it turns the fan on automatically when the DHT11 sensor tells the WeMos board that the relative humidity has gone over 60%. A relay shield kicks the fan on until the humidity falls below a set point. A Blynk app lets him monitor conditions in the bathroom and override the automatic fan, which is handy for when you need it for white noise generation more than exhaust. The best part of the project is the ample documentation and complete BOM in the description of the video below, making this an excellent beginner’s project.

No bathroom fan? Not a problem — this standalone humidity-sensing fan can help. Or perhaps you have other bathroom ventilation needs that this methane-sensing fan could help with?

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ESP8266 Based Internet Radio Receiver Is Packed With Features

August 22, 2017 by 36 Comments

Have a beautiful antique radio that’s beyond repair? This ESP8266 based Internet radio by [Edzelf] would be an excellent starting point to get it running again, as an alternative to a Raspberry-Pi based design. The basic premise is straightforward: an ESP8266 handles the connection to an Internet radio station of your choice, and a VS1053 codec module decodes the stream to produce an audio signal (which will require some form of amplification afterwards).

Besides the excellent documentation (PDF warning), where this firmware really shines is the sheer number of features that have been added. It includes a web interface that allows you to select an arbitrary station as well as cycle through presets, adjust volume, bass, and treble.

 

If you prefer physical controls, it supports buttons and dials. If you’re in the mood for something more Internet of Things, it can be controlled by the MQTT protocol as well. It even supports a color TFT screen by default, although this reduces the number of pins that can be used for button input.

The firmware also supports playing arbitrary .mp3 files hosted on a server. Given the low parts count and the wealth of options for controlling the device, we could see this device making its way into doorbells, practical jokes, and small museum exhibits.

To see it in action, check out the video below:

[Thanks JeeCee]

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Hackaday Prize Entry: Minimalist HTTP

July 23, 2017 by 27 Comments

For his Hackaday Prize entry, [Yann] is building something that isn’t hardware, but it’s still fascinating. He’s come up with a minimalist HTTP compliant server written in C. It’s small, it’s portable, and in some cases, it will be a bunch better solution than throwing a full Linux stack into a single sensor.

This micro HTTP server has two core modules, each with a specific purpose. The file server does exactly what it says on the tin, but the HTTaP is a bit more interesting. HTTaP is a protocol first published in 2014 that is designed to be a simpler alternative to WebSockets.

[Yann] has been experimenting with HTTaP, and the benefits are obvious. You don’t need Apache to make use of it, HTTaP can work directly with an HTML/JavaScript page, and using only GET and POST messages, you can control hardware and logic circuits.

As this is a minimalist HTTP server, the security is dubious at best. That’s not the point, though. This is just a tool designed for use in a lab or controlled environments with an air gap. Safety, scheduling, encryption, and authentication are not part of HTTaP or this micro HTTP server.

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Talking To A Lamp

July 22, 2017 by 10 Comments

Barking commands at furniture seems a bit odd but with voice controlled home automation platforms becoming the norm, you may be spending more time talking to your light fixtures than your kids. In one such project, [Becky Stern] used an Alexa Dot and an ESP8266 respond to voice commands.

The design uses the Alexa Dot to interpret voice commands such as ‘Alexa turn the light ON’. The ESP8266 with a relay feather wing is used to switch the actual lamp ON and OFF. The glue between the two is the fauxmoESP library that allows the ESP8266 to receive commands from the Alexa API.

The best part of the project is the lamp itself which has a wooden base and is perfect for such experiments. [Becky Stern] does a wonderful job at carving out enough space and filling it with the electronics. The additional sanding and wood staining make the project more impressive and worthy of a living room. The idea could be easily extended to other own household items. Check out the video of the project below and for more inspiration, take a look at Theia IoT Light-Switch. Continue reading “Talking To A Lamp” →

Best Product Entry: Open Source Internet Of Dosimeter

July 8, 2017 by 24 Comments

[Radu Motisan] Has entered a cool project into the Best Product portion of this year’s Hackaday Prize. It’s called an Open Source IoT Dosimeter. It has a Geiger tube for detecting radiation levels along with Internet connectivity and a host of other goodies.

Dubbed the KIT1, this IoT dosimeter can be used as a portable radiation detector with its Nokia 5110 LCD as an output or a monitoring station with Ethernet. With its inbuilt speaker, it alerts users to areas with excessive radiation. KIT1 is a fully functioning system with no need for a computer to get readouts, making it very handy and easy to use. It also has room for expansion for extra sensors allowing a fully customized system. The project includes all the Gerbers and a BOM so you can send it off to a PCB fab lab of your choice, solder on a few components, and have a fully functioning IoT Dosimeter. you don’t even need the LCD or the Ethernet; you can choose which output you prefer from the two and just use that allowing for some penny-pinching.

This is a great project and who doesn’t need an IOT Dosimeter these days?

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Ikea Tradfri Hacking

June 14, 2017 by 17 Comments

Smart lighting is all the rage right now. Sure, Phillips Hue is the giant player in the market, but there are plenty of ZigBee, Bluetooth, and WiFi light bulbs out there. Ikea–known for cheap furniture, meatballs, and waffles–is a recent addition to the field with their Tradfri system. Like most things from Ikea, they are effective and inexpensive. [Andreas] takes a Dremel to the controller and shows how to hack the system to use MQTT. You can check out the video below.

Once he had the device opened, the used the German Make magazine article we talked about earlier, to help understand what he had. Armed with the pinout, he was able to solder a wiring harness to the controller. He then connected a WeMos board. A little Arduino code later, and he was controlling the light with MQTT.

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