Introduction 

Statement of Purpose

Our project is called sWitch. It is an add-on device for traditional room light switch that suitable for dorm room environment. The sWitch will have two separate component. The first component is the motor and control unit, it will be attached to a light switch, use BLEND Micro, together with a mini stepper motor, and motor control circuit, it can turn on/off the light switch when necessary. The second component will be sensor unit. Use BLE Nano and Adafruit Digital Luminosity and Light Sensor, we can create a small, compact, low energy consumption sensor module. We may use multiple sensor component to measure the luminosity and movement of different place in the room, i.e. desk, bed, entrance, window. Both BLEND Micro and BLE Nano features a Bluetooth Low Energy chip, so different component may transfer data via Bluetooth. These two chips also support a mobile phone application, so we can also control the light switch via smart phone when we go to bed.

Base on our idea, sWitch should have the following features:

1. Easy to install
This switch will be able to attach to current traditional light switches, no need to make change to the room.

2. Automatic control
With multiple sensors and the logical control by BLEND, our switch can determine when to turn on and when to turn off. Also, such kind of control will be optimized for the dorm room condition.

3. Remote control
You will never want to get off the bed and go turn off the light when you are already lay on your bed. So we will find a way to remotely turn off the light, probably by mobile app.

Background Research

There are many intelligent goods in our life now, like the cleaning robot controlled by pressure sensor, distance detector. However, there are many flaws. We have searched for related information and find that many intelligent goods can only help people to finish certain chores, but cannot aid people to be more convenient. We hope that we can make some little devices that can be more useful and helpful for people's daily life, like a user-friendly switch that can help people to control the light. We take the reference of other similar devices and find that nearly all of them are controlled by a single sensor. For example, in some buildings in our university, when people step into the room, the lights will automatically turn on. However, most of this kind of product are not suitable for the dorm room, as people would work, rest, and sleep in the dorm room while only work in the class room.

Lutron is another world famous controller manufacturer and Smart Home leader. However, when we look through their product, we noticed that most of those devices need to be pre-installed, and the whole system is extremely expensive. These features decided that the Smart Home concept cannot be widely accepted. People are not very willing to invest a lot to refurnish their home just for a smarter home, and they need to change almost every electrical component - from lightbulb to wires to switches - to enjoy the benefit of a smart home.^[1]

However, we believe smart home should not be a concept anymore - we need to find a way to integrate smart devices into our daily life. We came up with the idea of the sWitch.

Design Details

Block Diagram / Flow Chart

System Overview

TBW

Parts

Motor and Control Unit

BLEND Micro - BLEND Micro support Bluetooth Low Energy, can be used with Arduino Library, support a mobile smart phone application.

Stepper Motor Driver Carrier - Another PCB board that can adjust the stepper motor.

Stepper Motor with lead and other mechanical component - Physically turn on/off the light switch.

Wires, Breadboard, 9V Battery

3D Printed Case

Sensor Units

BLE Nano - Similar to the BLEND Micro, it support Bluetooth Low Energy, can be used with Arduino Library, support a mobile smart phone application, super tiny.

Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity / Light Sensor - Can detect IR and Visible light at the same time, very precise, super tiny.

Wires, Breadboard, 3V Button Battery

3D Printed Case

Possible Challenges

Motor control and mechanical adjustment

Circuit logic: turn on/off the light base on multiple sensors and/or sensors at different location

Wireless master control / Mobile phone app

Power supply and energy saving

Bluetooth communication

Reference

[1] Lutron Homeworks® QS System Overview". Lutron.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 11 Feb. 2017. http://www.lutron.com/en-US/Products/Pages/WholeHomeSystems/Homeworksqs/Overview.aspx.