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WiFi light bulb controller
Wifi controlled smart light bulbs can now be purchased from less than USD 10. However, those can often only be used by a specific application provided by the vendor and can involve exchanging data with a third party server. I wanted a solution to use my own software while benefiting from the cheap hardware so I replaced the wifi module of a a cheap Wifi light bulb my own electronics.
Unlocking my apartment with my face
As part of a previous project, I installed an IoT lock on my front door, which allowed me to control it using my smartphone. However, having to take out my smartphone every time I want to unlock the door quickly becomes annoying. To improve on the situation, I installed an RFID reader on the lock, which I used in combination with an RFID ring which now serves as my key. To follow up on this trend of finding new ways to unlock my door, I decided to explore face recognition technologies.
Solar power setup
I got my hands on a 600W 12V inverter so I decided to experiment with generating my own electricity.
Smart outlet setup
When used for the first time, the device will have no knowledge of what WiFi to connect to. Consequently, the smart outlet will generate its own, prefixed with the name <em>socket.</em>
Smart home control panel (SHCP)
I've been using <a href="https://www.home-assistant.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Home Assistant</a> to control my home IoT devices for a while. Although it fulfills all my needs, I wanted to make my own system so as to get a fully customized smart home control panel and learn how to build such an application in the process.
SONOFF S20 firmware
The SONOFF S20 is a cheap Wifi smart socket that enables the remote control of appliances for less than USD 10. Although the hardware is more than decent, its usage requires a proprietary app which most likely involves a third party server between the user and the device. Since the socket uses an ESP8266 at its core, I decided to write my own firmware for it.
SONOFF Firmware
<a href="https://www.itead.cc/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ITEAD</a>'s <a href="https://sonoff.itead.cc/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">SONOFF</a>s are Wi-Fi enabled relays that can be used to turn applicances on and off remotely.
Mosquitto
Mosquitto is an open source message broker that implements the MQTT protocol. It is lightweight and is suitable for use on all devices from low power single board computers to full servers.
MQTThree
A simple framework using Three.js and MQTT to easily create digital twins
Light controller with PIR sensor
This is an IoT ceiling light controller which includes an HC-SR501 PIR motion sensor. It is built around a Wemos D1 mini (ESP8266 breakout board), which controls a homemade TRIAC breakout board. TRIACs provide the advantage of switching devices on and off silently, as opposed to a mechanical relay.