An International Multi-Disciplinary Graduate Conference of Terengganu (GraCe 2016)

WEB CONTROLLED HOME AUTOMATION SYSTEM

Muhamad Nur Ismanto1

1

Department of Electrical Engineering, Nilai University, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

E-mail: mamad_mni@yahoo.co.id

Elias bin Abbas2

2

Department of Electrical Engineering, Nilai University, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

E-mail: elias@nilai.edu.my

Abstract: Web Controlled Home Automation System is a system that can be used to control home appliances such as
fan, air conditioner, heater, light, etc. through the internet. This system is used in this project to create a smart home.
In the smart home system, users can activate home appliances wherever and whenever they are by using internet on
PCs, Laptops, Smartphones, Tablets, and other internet connected devices. There are three (3) main functional blocks
in this system: (i) webpage to provide Graphical User Interface (GUI), (ii) Controller Bridge consists of Arduino UNO
and Arduino Ethernet Shield with, and (iii) Switching unit as a task executor. This project focus on building a simple
system to control home appliances using user-friendly website page. There is also a built in system error detection.
This project has two (2) main tasks. They are (i) Creating simple system for web controlled home automation system
with a system error feedback reporting, (ii) Developing the system programming and creating user-friendly website
page with interesting GUI. The main controller used an Arduino UNO board that is easy to program using Arduino
IDE software [2] and able to control many devices. The system is interfaced to the internet through the Arduino Ethernet
Shield using RJ45 cable. This Ethernet Shield is used to collect information from users and send it to the main
controller and supports up to four simultaneous socket connection [1].
Keywords: Home Automation system overview, system description and configuration, connection testing, website
controller page design.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Home automation also called smart home. It

is an automation of the home and housework
activity. Home automation may include
centralized control of lighting, electronics
devices, appliances, security system, and other
systems, to provide better accessibility,
comfort, energy saving, and security. Home
automation is also suitable for the elderly and
disabled, as it can provide a better quality of
life.
The popularity of home automation has been
increasing significantly in recent years due to
the increase in the number of internet user and
the ease of internet surfing through
smartphones and tablets. Introducing the
concept of the Internet of Things recently, is
also one of the major reason of increasing the
popularization of home automation.

Nowadays, there are a wide variety of home

automation system in the world. The system
ranges from cheap to very expensive system
with different features and functions. Several
companies that provide home automation
system are competing to provide features that
are useful to the society. However, the price,
features, and ethics become the limit of the
innovations of this system.
Most of the systems have many features that
make the price of the home automation system
expensive and non-affordable. However, if the
automation system consists of small feature
only, it makes home automation system less
attractive and not popular in the public. And
more importantly, innovation should be based
on ethics, the system must not give a lot of
negative impact on society and the
environment. Like using a lot of components
that are hard to recycle, and also the system

An International Multi-Disciplinary Graduate Conference of Terengganu (GraCe 2016)

must not reduce employment opportunities in

that area, with the reason that human resources
are no longer needed.
In this Web Controlled Home Automation
System project, there are (3) main components.
First component is the user interface controller
which is a website, and the middle device or we
can call it as a bridge device is the main
controller, and lastly the third main component
is the executing device which is switching unit
to control the lights, fan, and other home
appliances. The bridge device in this project
consists of the Arduino Uno, Arduino Ethernet
Shield and ACS712 current detector which are
cheap and easily available.
There are many project in home automation
that use Arduino and Ethernet shield boards, but
most of them do not use error detection and also
have non-user-friendly interface. Thus, this
project will provide solutions to the above
problems. This project is capable of controlling
many devices through internet using userfriendly website page.
This paper is organized as follows: section II
provides the system overview of the Web
Controlled Home Automation System
(WCHAS). Section III, discusses on system
description and configuration. In section IV, the
system connection testing is carried out. And
the website controller page design is discussed
in section V. Finally, section VI is the
conclusion.

II.

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

The projected system contains developing of

the following three (3) systems:
1. Hardware controller system (main
controller)
2. Error detection system
3. Website controller (user interface)
The hardware controller system involves the
configuration of the main controller which is
Arduino Uno R3 interfacing with the Arduino

Ethernet Shield with PoE module to connect the

main controller to the internet. The
programming of the interfacing devices could
be done using the Arduino IDE software. The
Error detection system or error monitoring
module, ACS712 works by detecting feedback
current from the home appliances and gives the
data measurement to the main controller to be
displayed in the website page. Website
controller system starts with setting up the IP
address by uploading program to the Ethernet
shield using the Arduino IDE software. The
system block diagram of the system is shown in
figure 1 below.

Figure 1. System block diagram

The Web Controlled Home Automation
System involves primary and secondary
controlling system. The primary controller is
the main controller unit, and the secondary
controller is the website controller. The error
monitoring or error detection is monitored by
the ACS712 from the current feedback from the
home appliances and forward it to the main
controller as an input signal and display it on
the website page to inform the user. Shown in
figure 2 below is the working flow details on
the controlling and monitoring processes of this
Web Controlled Home Automation System.

An International Multi-Disciplinary Graduate Conference of Terengganu (GraCe 2016)

Start

Web Controller

Main Controller

Relay module

control home appliances and simultaneously

monitor for an error in the system. The
monitoring of error use ACS712 through
current detection technique. ACS712 is an AC
or DC current sensor that allows for easy
implementation [3]. The data measured by
ACS712 is forwarded to the Arduino Uno R3 as
the main controller unit and a feedback report is
displayed on the controller website page.
With the ability of error monitoring and
ease of controlling through website, this system
could help the user to control and monitor the
house from any device that is connected to the
internet such as smartphone, computer, tablet,
etc. Figure 3 below shows the block diagram of
the system flow.

ACS712
(error detector)

Home
Appliances

Figure 2. Working flow

Current feedback from the home appliances,
is analysed by the ACS712 for error detection.
If there is no current feedback, it means that
there is an error from the home appliances. The
error feedback forwarded to the main controller
as a negative feedback to be displayed on the
web controller page.
But if there is a current feedback from the
home appliances, it means there is no error, and
the information will be displayed on the website
controller page as an ON or OFF system
feedback.
III.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION AND

CONFIGURATION

This Web Controlled Home Automation

System (WCHAS) is a system which is able to

Figure 3. System flow

The command starts from the website
controller page which has a user-friendlyinterface. The command is received by the main
controller through the internet connection using

An International Multi-Disciplinary Graduate Conference of Terengganu (GraCe 2016)

router. The main controller will give a

command to the relay that act as a switching
unit to the home appliances through the
ACS712 current sensor. The ACS712 will
detect for any current feedback from the home
appliances. The current sensor collects the data
by analysing feedback current and provides the
current feedback information to the main
controller as and input data. The data from
ACS712 will be displayed on the website by the
main controller.
In this Web Controlled Home Automation
System (WCHAS) project, there are four (4)
major components. (i) The main controller
board, (ii) The Ethernet Shield board, (iii) The
current sensor, (iv) The switching module.
The configuration of the system consists of
hardware configuration on controller, and
software configuration on the programming and
user interface design. The first configuration is
the hardware controller, which is to test the
connection from the router to the Arduino Uno
R3 through the Ethernet Shield. If the
connections are correct, the indicator on the
Arduino Uno board and the Arduino Ethernet
Shield will turn on. Figure 4 below shows the
connection testing on the controller board.

Figure 4. Controller connection test

The next configuration is the webserver
for the controller. Configuring the webserver
for the main controller is through the Arduino
IDE software. To create a web controller page,
the main controller hardware must be connected
to the webserver.

The first step of configuring the webserver is

determining the IP address of the Ethernet
Shield. Setting the IP address requires:
a. Arduino webserver programming code.
b. IP address from the router
c. MAC address from the Ethernet Shield
The IP address must be configures based on
the IPv4 address from the local network
connection details as shown in figure 5 below.

Figure 5. Configuring the IP address

For the system IP address: just change the
last digits of the local IP address that is unused
by other devices. For example in the figure
above, the local IP address is 192.168.0.101 and
the last two digits changed becomes
192.168.0.177 because the address is unused by
other devices in the local network.
MAC address is the address for the Ethernet
Shield to be known by the Arduino Uno. The
MAC address for the webserver programming
code, can be found on the back of the Ethernet
Shield board as shown in figure 6 below.

An International Multi-Disciplinary Graduate Conference of Terengganu (GraCe 2016)

1. Testing the controller input and output

port connection as shown in figure 8
below.

Figure 8. Testing the Output voltage

Figure 6. Configuring the IP address
After the programming code requirements
are completed, the next step is to verify and
upload the code to the Arduino Uno R3 using
the Arduino IDE software. This is followed by
testing of the IP address for the webserver
online in the browser. The webserver testing
code will show the input details of the main
controller online and keep will refreshing the
page every second to monitor the input. The
webserver page testing of this project is shown
in figure 7 below.

2. Testing the switching unit connection to

avoid the short circuit when controlling
the AC current on the relay ports as
shown in figure 9 below.

Figure 9. Testing the relay ports

V.

Figure 7. Webserver testing

IV.

SYSTEM CONNECTION
TESTING

The full connection testing will proceed

after the hardware configuration is completed.
The full connection testing consists of:

WEBSITE CONTROLLER PAGE

DESIGN

The previous webserver page only shows

the input details. To customize the webserver
page to be able to control the system and
showing the input information, the coding of
the HTML pages inside the webserver
programming code must be modified. To
modify the HTML code for this project, the
Macromedia Dreamweaver software can be
used to create a new design for user-friendly
website page to replace the original HTML

An International Multi-Disciplinary Graduate Conference of Terengganu (GraCe 2016)

code. Below is the original HTML code of the

webserver page shown in figure 10.

Figure 10. Original webserver HTML code

The modified controller website page
consists of controller panel and reporting area.
The website should display the controlling
indicator which is either ON or OFF, and
displaying the error report as detected by the
sensor. To design the website background, text,
and button, CorelDraw X7 the graphics design
software is used in this project. The objective in
customizing this website page is to provide a
user-friendly interface to control the home
appliances. The modified website page for this
project is shown in figure 11 below.

VI.

CONCLUSION

This paper presents design, configuration,

error detection, and website customization on
the Web Controlled Home Automation System
(WCHAS) in order to achieve a new and easy
way to implement a web controlled smart home
system using cheap and easily available
components that are easy to install for better
performance and features.
This system could detect the appliances
problems through current detection using
ACS712 current sensor and display it in the
website page to inform the user about the error.
It is envisaged in the near future to develop a
control panel for the website page to allow the
user to customize the website page himself.
REFERENCES
Arduino, (2016) Arduino Ethernet Shield. Retrieved
from
(https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoEther
netShield)
Arduino, (2016) Arduino Uno & Genuino Uno.
Retrieved from
(https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoar
dUno)
Spark fun Electronics, (2016) SparkFun Low Current
Sensor Breakout ACS712. Retrieved from
(https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8883)

Figure 11. Friendly Website User

Interface