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GSM Based Electrical Control System for Smart Home Application.

Article in Journal of Convergence Information Technology · February 2010

DOI: 10.4156/jcit.vol5.issue1.4 · Source: DBLP

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 Journal of Convergence Information Technology
Volume 5, Number 1, February 2010

GSM Based Electrical Control System for Smart Home Application

Mohd Helmy Abd Wahab, Norzilawati Abdullah, Ayob Johari, Herdawatie Abdul Kadir
Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor Malaysia
doi: 10.4156/jcit.vol5.issue1.4

Abstract home from long distance and low in maintenance and

independent from any physical geographical boundary.
This paper presents the development of GSM-based At the present time, people use electrical energy as
control home appliances for smart home system. The one of the main source of power of energy to operate
main aim of the prototype development is to reduce any electrical device or appliance. Most of the people
electricity wastage. GSM module was used for turn on the light for 24 hours per day when they are
receiving short message service (SMS) from user’s away from home. Leaving the light turned on
mobile phone that automatically enable the controller continuously, lead to energy waste. Thus this project is
to take any further action such as to switch ON and proposed to develop a system is to facilitate the home
OFF the home appliances such as light, air- owner to optimize usage of electricity remotely using
conditioner etc. The system was integrated with SMS.
microcontroller and GSM network interface using Light turned on continuously and it lead to energy
assembly language. MPLAB software was utilized to waste. Thus this research is carried out to provide a
accomplish the integration. The system is activated mechanism through the development of a prototype to
when user sends the SMS to controller at home. Upon provide a service to the home owner to optimize the
receiving the SMS command, the microcontroller unit usage of electricity through remote control using SMS
then automatically controls the electrical home services.
appliances by switching ON or OFF the device The followings are the objectives of the research
according to the user order. In other word, it read project to ensure it meets the aim.
message from the mobile phone and response to • To design a lamp and extension control
control the devices according to the received message. system for smart home application using GSM
The prototype has been successfully developed and it network.
could provide an effective mechanism in utilizing the • To design a circuit that can automatically
energy source efficiently. switch ON and OFF the home appliance using
PCB Wizard
Keywords • To write a program that can send the SMS
GSM, Control, Smart Home using assembly language in MPLAB software.

1. Introduction 2. Related Work

The development of digital information has led the This section provides a previous study of related
rapid change in human lifestyle. The use of electricity work regarding the application of SMS services in a
is very important as one of the main source of energy various fields. Some previous researches have been
that is vital in today modern life. Some kinds of studied to gain more information about current existing
mechanism using available technology could be used GSM control system that was previously implemented.
to reduce wastage in electricity usage. Thus a prototype It is necessary to know and understand how the
based on a microcontroller device using SMS is software and hardware were used in the SMS
developed. It can automatically control any electrical controlled system development. This is to ensure that
equipment at home remotely using mobile phone. the study that currently being conducted contribute at
Hence the electrical energy saving in daily life can be certain level of application thus it become more
made more efficient and effective. efficient and practical.
As the technology grows, SMS technology has been Several smart home projects such as Home Security
widely accepted as a part of medium of communication with
[1]. The purpose of using SMS is to provide widest Messaging System [2], Security & Control System
coverage at minimal cost. Therefore the use of SMS [3], and Remote and Security Control via SMS [5]
would facilitate in controlling the electrical device at were the three alarm system that were designed using

33
 GSM Based Electrical Control System for Smart Home Application
Mohd Helmy Abd Wahab, Norzilawati Abdullah, Ayob Johari, Herdawatie Abdul Kadir

SMS application to securely monitor the home exceeds the speed limit permitted by Department of
condition when the owner are away or at night. A Transportation (JPJ), thus, SMS text notification is sent
system as suggested by [2] triggered by SMS to the to JPJ for record.
home owner to notify the owner of any incident Moreover, the projects for Acquiring Water Level
happened around the house such as robbery or fire. and
The security system uses mobile phone with a Temperature Status via SMS [7] also has similarity
combination of microcontroller circuit PIC16F877A with this project. This project utilized PIC 16F877 and
which interfaced with the computer. The system work MPLAB IDE software for programming. The project
accordingly when the sensor actively triggered by any was designed to detect level and temperature of the
abnormal activity, then the PIC circuit also water in a pool. The system functions when the level
automatically activate the computer to send SMS to the of water and the temperature in pool exceed the desired
owner using mobile phone modem. limits. At the same time the PIC circuit will
Meanwhile, the system developed by [3] is automatically interface to the mobile phone and send
automating the power reading meter to send the energy the alert message to the user.
consumed to e-billing system at authorized office. The A very similar project also have been implemented
system works by integrating the GSM modem that was by Serasidis Vasilis [8], who has developed and
embedded with digital kWh power meter. It utilizes the designed a device that can control variety of electrical
GSM network to send power usage reading using SMS home appliance using SMS. The system works based
to the authorized office. The authorized office collect on the order message from user through mobile phone
and manage the received SMS message contains the which is ON or OFF. This system also utilized mobile
meter reading to generate the billing cost and send phone as a receiver which connected to the
back the cost to the respective consumer through SMS. microcontroller. The circuit can control 8 electrical
The work presented by [4] is about the development of home appliances at any one time. It is used AT
Integrated Water Billing System with SMS capability. 9052313 microcontroller and Ericsson T10s mobile
The system is designed to facilitate the Water phone as a receiver at home. The software for
authorized to manage the monthly billing system programming that was used is MPLAB IDE.
without the use of human services. The system receives Besides that, Noraini [9] presented the used of
SMS from the meter to central databases. Then the RS232 devices computer and controlling system as
information received is processed to generate current hardware and RS232 interface with Visual Basic 6.0 as
billing. The system again sends a SMS notification to software to control lamp and fan. The system activates
the user regarding the total amount that has been billed. when microcontroller send ON or OFF to the devices
The system was implemented using Visual Basic and via computer.
database in order to perform the prototype and the
system works successfully in sending SMS to user for
notification.
Furthermore, the system developed by [5] is to
control the switch for lamp, door and alarm system
using Visual Basic 6.0 software. Visual Basic was
chosen because it can easily communicate between
computer and mobile phone. The system used
computer and mobile phone to send and receive the
text messages.
Vehicle Speed Detection using SMS [6], presented
the design of the black box for warning system to
control the exceeding speed of express bus via SMS.
The system consists of three main parts which is
microcontroller circuit, relay driving circuit and also
mobile phone. This project used PIC 16F873A, Nokia
3310 mobile phone and using JAL (Just another
Language) software for the programming. The purpose
of this project is to prevent the express bus driver from
driving over the permitted speed limit as well as to
educate the drive to obey the regulation; therefore the
accident can be prevented as well. The system is
activated when the speedometer in the black box

34
 Journal of Convergence Information Technology
Volume 5, Number 1, February 2010

and unit test is performed to ensure its error free then

Research and Study
final testing to indicate the integration is free from
error. Troubleshooting activity executes if error is
encountered.
Planning

Hardware development Interfacing programming using

3.1 Block Diagram
using Proteus 7.0 assembly language. Used
Professional software. MPLAB IDE software.
Output
Microcontroller
Mobile Phone - Extension
Hardware Testing Compile PIC16F873A
- Lamp
Troubleshoot Figure 2: Block diagram of the project
Error Error
YES
YES

NO
NO Figure 2 illustrates the block diagram of the home
Simulate appliance control system using SMS. The Mobile
Phone is integrated with the microcontroller
Error
YES PIC16F873A, which receives SMS message from user
NO Mobile Phone and sends a command to PIC to control
whether to turn ON or OFF the output. The Mobile
Combination of Hardware and Software
Phone also sends status reporting to the user regarding
the electrical appliance. The system utilizes a low cost
Test
Modify programming
and Troubleshoot the
microcontroller that is currently available in the
Hardware market. The development of this device involves with
OK

NO
both hardware and software to provide a preferable
YES
results.
Finalize and Complete

3.2 Hardware Development

Figure 1: Project development flow chart
Previous works presented above discussed some There were four important components used in the
related work using SMS text notifications on several project.
field of application including smart home, The hardware consists of power supply circuit,
transportation and meter reading. Thus this project was PIC16F873A circuit MAX232 circuit and relay 9Vdc.
developed utilizes the SMS text notification sent to the
device without using any computer interface. There is 3.2.1 Power Supply Circuit
still little of application that provides feedback from
the system once interaction has been made to the Power supply circuit is built to supply the power or
system. voltage to the circuit. For this project, the circuit needs
only 5V voltage supply. Input supply for this circuit
3. Project Work consists of 9V battery. Therefore Voltage regulator is
used to provide 5V DC regulated voltage from the
This section describes the methodology used to unregulated 9V input voltage. LM7805 is used as the
perform the development. The flow of the development voltage regulator for the circuit. The LM7805 is chosen
is depicted in Fig. 1 to filter the 5V voltage for the circuits. A voltage
Figure 1 illustrates the flowchart for overall project regulator is an electrical regulator designed to
development. The initial process in flowchart involves automatically maintain a constant voltage level. Hence,
in a research regarding the project background and two capacitors are used to stabilize the voltage supply
literature review. Based on research, the problem is and to reduce the ripples of the voltage source. The
formulated as well as objective and scope of the project power supply circuit is shown in Figure 3.
has been defined. The next process is to plan how the
project or problem formulated be organized and
possible solution are arranged systematically. The U1

project is then divided into two parts; hardware design

D1 7805
1 3
VI VO

and interfacing. The Proteus 7.0 software has been

GND

1N4007
R1
B1 2.2k +88.8

chosen in the circuit design, while the MPLAB IDE is

2

12V Volts
C1 C2
100uF 47uF

to program the PIC using assembly language. The final D2

LED-RED

circuit design then finally be printed on the PCB board

35
 GSM Based Electrical Control System for Smart Home Application
Mohd Helmy Abd Wahab, Norzilawati Abdullah, Ayob Johari, Herdawatie Abdul Kadir

contacts when it detect signal from the PIC circuit.

Figure 5 shows the relay that has been used for this
Figure 3: Power Supply circuit project. This relay needs 9 Vdc supply for the coil
voltage.
3.2.2 PIC16F877A Circuit

The PIC16F873A circuit is the main circuit that

consist the extension and lamp as the output. This
circuit is connected to the MAX232 circuit for serial
communication. The PIC16F873A circuit is used as a
controller that control the input and output signal and
used to convert the analog signal to a digital signal. Figure 5: Relay for switching.

3.3 Software Development

MPLAB software is computer program used to

program the microcontroller. Assembly language is
used to program the microcontroller of the
PIC16F873A type. This microcontroller is divided into
several main parts which are RA0-RA1 as the input
pins, RB2-RB3 as the output pins. RC6 and RC7 pins
are used as transmit and receive.

Figure 4: PIC16F873A circuit

3.2.3 MAX232 Circuit

START
This MAX232 chip was used in the circuit for
interface between the Receiver module (RX module)
Initialized all peripherals (Ports, UART and
and the computer. This is only to display the AT
Variables)
command. Utilizing MAX232 enables communication
between the computer and the receiver module (RX
module) via serial port. The Max232 also acts as a Receiving and Reading
SMS messages
buffer driver, converting the digital logic 0 to 5 V
receiver signal into the RS232 standard –12 to +12 V
signal. The MAX232 requires five external 1uF Delete Previous SMS
capacitors, which are used to generate the +12 and –12 Message
V swing.
INVALID
3.2.4 Relay Compare Passwords

Relay is used in the circuit because it is an electrical VALID

operated switch that connected to the output. A relay
in this system is an electrical switch that opens and Send the signal to output circuits
closes under the control of PIC16F873A
microcontroller. The relay switch connections are
END
usually labeled as Common (COM), Normally
Closed (NC) and Normally Open (NO). The circuit
Figure 6: System Flowchart
is connected to COM and NO if it is switched to ON
when relay coil in ON while to switch OFF the circuit 3.4 System Flowchart
connect the COM and NC together and then the relay
coil is in OFF state. Therefore, the output was Figure 6 shows the flowchart to implement the
connected to COM and NO. As a result the relay programs using MPLAB IDE. All the peripherals used

36
 Journal of Convergence Information Technology
Volume 5, Number 1, February 2010

in the program were initialized. In the coding, ASCII

code was used in declaring the coding for received and
read SMS message. A declare delete SMS coding is
used to avoid the SMS interrupt with the previous
message. It occurs when there are no such codes that
valid to the password, the previous message deleted.
After that the coding was written for comparing the (b)
suitable password, if the password is invalid then the Figure 7: (a) Prototype System, (b) SMS received
PIC loop back to receiving and reading SMS for upon activating the system
searching the valid password that matches between the
two mobile phones. When the code for program Figure 7(a) – (b) show the system prototype and
validated, the signal is sent to the required output based SMS received when the system is activated. The
on the password. prototype is activated when the 9Vdc power is applied
to the circuit.
4. Results
4.2 Extension Switch ON Activated
This section describes the output of the
implemented system. Several testing has been
performed to ensure it’s executed and produce the
intended result. The prototype system is designed to
receive SMS from user mobile phone to the mobile
phone connected to the PIC16F873A circuit that acts
as a GSM modem. This can be performed by dialing
the mobile phone number which has been set in the
PIC16F873A. For security reason, the system is
protected with a user defined password. The incoming
message is deleted by the microcontroller upon
completing the requested process, and the message
does not longer exist in the connected mobile phone (a)
which acts as GSM modem. The system then replies a
message to user mobile phone reporting the status of
the devices (turned ON or turned OFF). The status
message is to remind the user regarding the current
state of the appliances.

4.1 Activate the System

(b)
Figure 8: Turn ON the extension

Figure 8 show the extension is ON when the user

sends a command 1stpegn to turn on the extension. The
system reply back to the user to report the extension
current states is ON.

4.3 Extension Switch OFF Activated

(a)

37
 GSM Based Electrical Control System for Smart Home Application
Mohd Helmy Abd Wahab, Norzilawati Abdullah, Ayob Johari, Herdawatie Abdul Kadir

Figure 11: Lamp Switch OFF Activated

Figure 9: Extension Switch OFF Activated
5. Analysis
Figure 9 shows the extension is OFF when the user
sends a command 2runegn to turn off the extension. The prototype works accordingly to automatically
The system reply back to the user to report the switch ON and OFF the extension and lamp remotely
extension current states is OFF. by using SMS. In order to activate the system, power
supply 9Vdc is supplied to the PIC circuit. When the
4.4 Lamp Switch ON Activated system is activated, the user mobile phone receives the
status report that the system has been activated. The
system switches ON and OFF the extension and lamp
when the user sends password that matches with the
password created for both device. At the same time the
user mobile receives the status report as shown in the
result. The summary for the command is illustrated in
Table 1.

Table 1 List of Command

Password System Response
Status Report
Command From when the Mobile
to User
User Mobile Phone receives
Mobile Phone
Phone messages.
EXTENSION
Figure 10: Lamp Switch ON Activated 1stpegn The extension turn ON STATUS IS
ON
EXTENSION
Figure 10 shows the lamp is switched on when the The extension turn
2runegn STATUS IS
OFF
mobile phone receives message from the user. Figure OFF
10 shows the lamp is ON when the user sends a LAMP
3offbat The lamp turn ON STATUS IS
command 3offbat to turn on the lamp. The system ON
reply back to the user to report the extension current LAMP
states is ON. 4baton The lamp turn OFF STATUS IS
OFF
4.5 Lamp Switch OFF Activated
6. Conclusion
Figure 11 shows the lamp was switched OFF when
the mobile phone receives the message from user The prototype was successfully developed and met
mobile phone that order to switch OFF the lamp. The the three stated objectives. The system can
lamp is OFF when the user sends a command 4baton to automatically switch ON and OFF the extension and
turn off the lamp. The system reply back to the user to lamp remotely using SMS. The integration of software
report the extension current states is OFF. and hardware has performed a good task in producing
the SMS system. However, there are several
weaknesses had been identified which can be further
improved in the future such as the system could

38
 Journal of Convergence Information Technology
Volume 5, Number 1, February 2010

provide better performance by intelligently send

notification upon power failure, provide a flexible
function by supporting both manual and automatic
control as well as provide an option for the user to
control the appliance through web-based system. In
addition, the system is very practical when the user is
away from home due to it can control the electrical
home appliances remotely as long as the mobile phone
gets the coverage.

7. References
[1] Le Bodic, Gwenael, (2005), "Mobile Messaging: SMS,
EMS, and MMS", 2nd Ed. John Wiley.
[2] Mohd Shahir Mohamad Suhaimi (2008). “Home
Security with Messaging System” Universiti Tun
Hussein Onn Malaysia: Thesis Sarjana Muda.
[3] Tan, H.G.R. Lee, C.H.R. Mok, V.H. (2007).
“Automatic Power Meter Reading System using
GSM Network.” In Proceeding on Power Engineering
Conference 2007. 3-6 Dec 2007, Kuala Lumpur, pp.
465-469.
[4] Mohd Helmy Abd Wahab, Siti Zarina Mohd Muji,
Fazliza Md. Nazir.
Integrated Billing System through GSM Network. In
Proceeding of 3rd International Conference on Robotics,
Vision, Information and Signal Processing 2007
(ROVISP2007), Penang, Malaysia, 28 – 30 November
2007.
[5] Lock K.A (2004). “Remote and Security Control Via
SMS.” Kolej Universiti Tun Hussein Onn
Malaysia:Thesis Sarjana Muda.
[6] Elia Nadira Sabudin, Siti Zarina Mohd Muji, Mohd.
Helmy Abd Wahab, Ayob Johari, Norazman Bin Ghani.
GSM-based Notification Speed Detection for
Monitoring Purposes. Proceeding of IEEE International
Symposium of Information Technology, 26 – 28 August
2008, KLCC, Kuala Lumpur.
[7] Mohd Noor Bin Abdullah (2008). “Acquiring Water
Level and Temperature Status via SMS.” Universiti
Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia: Thesis Sarjana Muda.
[8] Serasidis Vasilis (2003). “SMS Remote Control, For
Ericsson T10 GSM Mobile Phone” Retrieved at
http://www.serasidis.gr .
[9] Noraini Binti Abdul Samat (2005). ”Kawalan lampu dan
kipas Menggunakan Komputer”, Kolej Universiti Tun
Hussein Onn Malaysia: Thesis Sarjana Muda.

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