SCADA IoT Home Automation
The world is all about IoT (Internet of Things) now. Basically technology developers are aiming for IoT approach for whatever products (if possible). While home automation is another big trend that carries great development potentials, it is now commonly wrapped with IoT technologies as a package to furnish automation to your home.
Why use IoT for home automation? Simple. Because one of the main reasons of building an automated home is to be able to control it outside of your home. Such purpose can be achieved by applying IoT technolgy, there it stores and syncs all your required home data in the cloud. From there, you can then access/control your home while sitting in office or when heading home from your workout sessions.
What do people normally use home automation for? Well, the answer will be depending on what are the main objectives of the owner’s intention to implement an automated home. But for current users’ demand, usually it breaks down to a few main categories,
– Home security
– Power consumption monitor
– Smart control
Those who opt for security clearly will include smart devices like CCTVs, alarms’ sensors, and lock systems. These devices shall be installed to guard the house, at the same time they shall be connected to the main server which allows IoT cloud access, and users can access using portable smart devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.).
There are users who concern alot about their power consumption, despite to watch out for the bills or for resource saving purpose, it is always good to monitor your own house’s consumption. For landlords who rented out their houses, implementing a system to the house which is smart enough to let them monitor all the power usage can be very helpful. There are different ways to achieve the monitoring part. You can trigger to store the running hour of the certain device(s) and perform a calculation for the power consumption based on the records. In addition, you can even set the limit on the maximum allowed consumption, and alert yourself when the limit is coming close, or even cut off the power for that device(s) if you want.
On the other hand, some users think home automation serves for the purpose of convenience. They would love to utilize automation to allow themselves to have full control of their home. Similarly, such system shall include smart sensors built-in for devices like lighting, fan, air cond, heaters, etc. Smart enough where users can control (on/off, adjust) using their phones or tablets, anywhere they want as long as it is connected to the network.
Ecava has also taken the approach and stepped into the IoT Home Automation world. We have even built our own little demo home, in Lego version (built from scratch, brick by brick) and live it up with automation! We may be going a little bit too far and had enough fun for the house building part (who doesn’t like an over-luxury house with pools and chopper?), but the home automation concept should be the focus here.
Our little dream home has automated lights for all rooms, automated car garage gate, automated barrier entrance gate, even an automated chopper! We plugged the home system via wire to workstation (laptop), go through an IoT gateway module, and wirelessly accessible via phones and tablets. Just simply tie the lights and motors to a PLC, create a SCADA project using IntegraXor with a minimalist HMI screen for home device controls/status, map the IO with the PLC, and we are ready to roll.
The demo house automation system was showcased in a developer’s housing property gallery exhibition.
Check out the video for demonstration on controlling lights, barrier gate, garage gate and helicopter using IGX SCADA via HMI screens on laptop, phone or tablet.
