Home Automation: Arduino controlled Geyser

A long-pending post. I had built this project way back in May 2014, during the summer (in India). In one aspect, it seems better to have delayed this post, as my project has gone through a few bug fixes and enhancements, both in hardware & software -- so I can talk about the most recent version.

I had done a few other home automation stuff earlier like this one : DIY: Raspberry Pi controlled Power Strip - Part 1. I was/am constantly on the look out for any opportunity to automate things at home. We have been wasting lots of energy, as our geyser almost runs till cut-off most of the times and we won't need so much hot water during summer. This was simply because we won't remember to turn it off on time. I wanted to fix this by building a timer controlled switch for the geyser using Arduino.

I had earlier used Raspberry Pi for home automation. This time, I wanted to use Arduino for a few reasons. Unlike the power strip, which is completely network-controlled, this is a low power project and doesn't necessarily be network-controlled (I could actually snap in a Ethernet Shield for Arduino and make this network-controllable -- remember, I have Ethernet running over my power lines anyway, so easy to get a network anywhere). I also wanted to explore Arduino as part of this, as Arduino is relatively low cost and very low power (< 1W). I buy Arduino/Raspberry Pi from Ebay India directly (though they could be cheaper by other channels).

Here is the circuit:

This circuit was drawn using some online tool (that isn't perfect). The tool had bugs, so some of it didn't come out the way I want. Still conveys the idea.

The project is primarily, a relay (Relay2) driving the high power geyser (ours is around 2500W). The original plan was to drive this relay by a signal from Arduino. The high power relay that I procured, required a signal voltage of around 9V without which it couldn't really turn on the load. Arduino GPIO pins operate only at 5V. So I had to introduce another relay (Relay1) to supply the required 9V (external source), but on signal from Arduino. This also ensures, not much current is drawn directly from Arduino. Arduino Uno has a built-in voltage regulator (safe up to 12V), but I decided to be safe and use a custom voltage regulator using LM7805 (I wouldn't want to heat up Arduino or burn it -- lot cheaper to build an external voltage regulator - around Rs.70). I also have a 16x2 LCD to display the status/timer (see photos). The LCD is driven using the standard Arduino LCD library.

Here is the voltage regulator (built separately and tested out):

It doesn't turn on the geyser instantly. It runs a 10 second timer before it turns it on. This is to ensure that any electricity interruptions don't turn on/off the geyser too quickly. Better for the geyser.

 

Showing the countdown to shutdown:

 

 

The project in action (for the last 6 months). The USB cable connects to the data port of Arduino via a hole in the case -- this is used for software upgrades in-place; just connect my Mac and click on a button to flash it instantly with new code. eg., Once the winter started, I had to patch it to increase the timer a bit to get it to the right temperature.

This board is in series with the geyser, so turning on the physical switch doesn't turn on the geyser (expected).

Fixing a bricked TP Link Ethernet-over-Power Adapter

Though I have Wifi coverage throughout my home, for better bandwidth and lower latency/packet loss, I also run a Ethernet over the electric line (230VAC) using the Ethernet-over-Power (EoP) adapters. I have been using this for few years for high-speed connectivity across different rooms without having to lay new Ethernet cables. (eg., my home theatre system connects to my NAS via EoP to play HD videos without jitter over network).

This is the exact model I use:

http://www.tp-link.com.au/products/details/?model=TL-PA211KIT

One of them went dead last year, so I had to buy 2 more to provide enough coverage. They aren't that cheap and aren't available in India directly (though I could import via ebay or amazon). Few months back, another one went dead. When I say dead, it would not power on, when you connect to the power line; no LEDs will glow and will be functionally dead as well. 

This wasn't scaling (I can't keep buying new ones) and I didn't know what was wrong so I can prevent this. As it was anyways dead I decided to break it open and figure out what had happened (maybe just a fuse blown?). That's where it all started.

Unfortunately I don't seem to have photos during the disassembly (not sure why I didn't shoot). This was one of the hardest disassembly ever, for me. It is meant not to be opened. There is one screw at the back (hidden under a sticker). Unscrewing that doesn't do much, although required. The packaging is very rigid, you can't even break it easily. I drilled a small hole on this, using a Bosch drilling machine to peek in a bit :D yes, it was a risky thing to do. The white cover is locked on to the black case with notches in the sides -- I had to peek into the the heat vents to figure this out.  Using a thin screw driver as wedge, I could open the white cover revealing the mother board inside.

It runs of a proper ARM-based Atheros chip, along with a (expected) RealTek chip for Ethernet support. I could only see the top of the board, and most of the board's soldering was not accessible at this point, so I couldn't test any of the circuitry for faulty parts. I had to take the board out. Be careful if you are doing this -- as I figured out later that the board had been glued to the black case below; so it wouldn't come off the case easily. You need to apply force along the sides and take it off. There is no other screw, I can tell you now (this was my biggest scare, that if I miss a screw, the force might break the board).

With quite some struggle and care, I took the board off the case. This is how the back of the board looks:

Arrows in yellow, show the gum that was holding the board to the case. At first, I even thought if this was some sort of leakage from the underlying components.

This is how the top side of the board looks (yellow wire was soldered by me to test the board outside):

The arrow on the left points to the fuse. I tested for continuity and it looked ok. Then started testing  each capacitor. The 3 capacitors at the bottom right were seeming to be faulty (short on DC). I was a bit surprised to see all 3 capacitors being blown -- on further investigation, they were in parallel in the circuit and even one faulty capacitor could project all 3 to be faulty. When I looked at the back side of the board (red-rectangle as in the backside-view picture), I could see some leakage on one of the capacitors. The capacitor also had a slight bulge at its top (no photo). I was more hopeful then. On soldering out the capacitor, off the board, the other two capacitors tested normal -- Good!

This was the faulty capacitor:

Now I need to get a spare cap with the same spec. Ebay India came to rescue. Ordered 10 capacitors 1500uF/10V and were delivered in 3 days.

The above top-side picture actually shows the board with the new capacitor replaced. Packed it in and did one final round of testing before I packed it into its box.

Test success. And here it is the final working version back in action:

And that's how I fixed a TP link EoP adapter for Rs.10 :)

If you have one such dead one, give it a try. It is likely this cap issue.