Development of a Lora based home automation system
Author: Mario Andrija Balug
Mentor: Matej Rojc
Degree: Level 2 study program Electrical Engineering, course Electronics
Date: Februar, 2021
DKUM: MARIO ANDRIJA BALUG
Abstract
This master thesis presents a development of a Lora-Based Home Automation System. Namely, the goal is to develop and to integrate a long-range communication system into a home automation system developed by Home Control AS company. This thesis describes a development process of the “Central Control Unit” device used as a “protocol” converter between Home Control’s gateway and end-devices based on Lora custom protocol. Furthermore, this thesis also describes a development of the Lora-based board. Namely, a Lora-based board is a development board, which has to be battery powered, host Lora custom protocol, and contain pin headers that can be used to connect sensors or other electronics. The results of the thesis show that the developed Lora devices are able to connect to Central Control Unit. Further, virtual devices, which represent Lora devices, can be dynamically created on the Central Control Unit, and can be connected to the Home Control’s gateway. In this way all commands sent from a mobile application to Lora devices via gateway and central control unit, can be received and successfully processed.
A home automation system requires quite a few things to make a home smarter, such as: an internet connection, a smartphone, a gateway that supports essential home automation protocols, and other smart devices that can be controlled by the gateway. The access to all these devices must be available anytime, and everywhere. This means that all data provided by the sensors must be visible in e.g. some mobile application, and all controllable devices must have the capability to be operated in real-time. A central control unit represents a gateway that connects everything together, e.g. a smartphone application, cameras, speakers, smart sensors, alarm systems, smart bulbs, etc. The gateway provides also more complex hardware and software, which can automate entire home without needed direct interaction with the user. Basic examples of home automation systems are e.g. automatic room temperature control, device state control according to some desired schedule, and device control according to sensor’s state.
A Smart Home is not just a building, but also its surroundings the building, where there are also many tasks that can be automated. All mentioned home automation communication technologies cover the interior of the building very well, but they perform worst in the surroundings. On the other hand, the Lora technology has long-range communication feature, therefore, can solve these problems much better, and allows the user to control in this way many devices internally, and outside the house via a single control unit, and by any smartphone application.
The development process of the Lora-based central control unit – Lora gateway, and Lora baseboard end-devices. Lora-based central control unit is a device that connects Lora based end-devices with “Home Control” gateway. This device is needed because “Home Control” gateway doesn’t have Lora chip, therefore, cannot communicate with Lora devices. Lora-based central control unit uses “Home Control” open source MQTT library to establish connection, and to communicate with the “Home Control” gateway. In order to connect Lora based end-devices, Lora-based central control unit uses “Lora Ra-02” radio module. The Lora-based end-device can be any device that has Lora radio module, and implements Lora custom protocol. Figure 5 1 presents a concept how devices can be connected, and which protocol they can use in order to communicate.
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Discussion and Results
