The aim of this research study is to design and implement a Wi-Fi-based control panel for remote

control of lights and electrical appliances with a web functionality that allows for wide area control via the

intranet or Internet. This eliminates the inconvenience of moving from one switch to another for analog

operation of light fixtures and appliance in home, office and campus environment. The wireless technology we

adopted is IEEE 802.11 (2008) b/g, also called Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) which operates in free band and is

easily accessible. Wi-Ap (Wi-Fi Automated Appliance) control system contains a web portal which allows for

management and control purposes via the intranet or Internet. We built a standalone Wi-Ap console that allows

the wireless switching on and off of any appliance(s) that is(are) ) plugged into it. The prototype we built was

tested within the Electrical and Information Engineering department, Covenant University, Nigeria intranet and

the test achieved our aim of remote appliances control from a web portal vial the intranet

Adetiba, E.

Onaolapo, J. O.

Oyewole, O. E

Shodipo, A.

Tanimomo, T. A

Yusuf, M

English

Covenant University Repository

Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 3(12): 1335-1341, 2011ISSN:2040-7467© Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2011Submitted: February 20, 2011 Accepted: March 26, 2011 Published: December 26, 2011Corresponding Author: E. Adetiba, Covenant University, College of Science and Technology, School of Engineering andTechnology, Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Ota, Nigeria1335Implementation of Wi-Ap; An IEEE 802.11b/g Based Electrical Switch ModuleWith Web Enabled Interface for Electrical Appliances ControlE. Adetiba, J.O. Onaolapo, O.E. Oyewole, M. Yusuf, T.A. Tanimomo and A. Shodipo  Covenant University, College of Science and Technology, School of Engineering andTechnology, Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Ota, NigeriaAbstract: The aim of this research study is to design and implement a Wi-Fi-based control panel for remotecontrol of lights and electrical appliances with a web functionality that allows for wide area control via theintranet or Internet. This eliminates the inconvenience of moving from one switch to another for analogoperation of light fixtures and appliance in home, office and campus environment. The wireless technology weadopted is IEEE 802.11 (2008) b/g, also called Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) which operates in free band and iseasily accessible. Wi-Ap (Wi-Fi Automated Appliance) control system contains a web portal which allows formanagement and control purposes via the intranet or Internet.  We built a standalone Wi-Ap console that allowsthe wireless switching on and off of  any appliance(s) that is(are) ) plugged into it. The prototype we built wastested within the Electrical and Information Engineering department, Covenant University, Nigeria intranet andthe test achieved our aim of remote appliances control from a web portal vial the intranet. Key words: Appliances, internet, Wi-Ap, Wi-Fi, wireless INTRODUCTIONAppliance control can be considered to have acquireda new face, especially with advancement in technologyand the prolific presence of handheld devices andcomputer networks. As a result, it is now possible tocontrol appliances in a specific building without beingphysically present in the building. This level of remotecontrol offers a lot of flexibility and a degree of security.Various forms of remote control have been exploredin times past, but most of them require some degree ofproximity to the appliances being controlled. Examples ofsuch systems include Bluetooth (offering line-of-sightcontrol) and X10 technologies (control over power lines).However, they have their limitations especially in theareas of flexibility and distance.Previous study on appliance control include Web-based Home Appliance Automation by Isong (2009)which aimed at improving available home automationsystems by making it web-based. Appliances can thus bemonitored from a remote location over the Internet.Communication was via a parallel port on the server tocontrol the required appliances at home. The limitationsencountered in the project include lack of backup power(in case of power failure), limitation of network coverageimposed by the wireless router, delays in signaltransmission, distance limitation on connection betweencomputer and switching unit as imposed by physicalparallel port connection.A Home Appliance Control System over Bluetoothwith a Cellular Phone was reported in (Kanma et al.,2003). As the name implies, this is a system thatincorporates remote control, fault diagnosis and softwareupdate for home appliances on a cellular phone based onthe Java2 platform. The major limitation encountered inthis project is the problem of coverage. Bluetooth, beinga short range wireless technology, covers only about 100m. This automatically means that a user can only controlappliances when he is within 100m from those appliances.Brad (2004) designed a sytem which uses handheldsfor wireless remote control of PCs and appliances. Its aimwas to provide a framework for the application of wirelesshandheld devices such as mobile phones and PDAs incontrol of appliances (in the context of ’remote control’).A Web-based Automation System over power linesusing X10 Technology was reported in (Ajisafe, 2007).This project aimed at improving existing technology forhome automation and it was web-based, It allows constantremote monitoring and control of devices when the useris away from home. Hardware used include X10 lampmodules, X10 appliance modules, X10 CM11A controllerinterface, a wireless router and a web server. In Fahdil, 2010, mobile phone SMS was used forhome   appliance   control   through   PC   parallel   portRes. J. Appl. Sci. Eng. Technol., 3(12): 1335-1341, 20111336Fig. 1: System layout of the Wi-Fi automated appliance (Wi-Ap) control system interfacing. The project involved developing a system ofPC remote control with mobile phones. Communicationwas implemented  through  serial and parallel ports. Theserial port was used for transferring data from mobilephone to PC and the parallel port was used for interfacingthe PC with real time control hardware. The system wasimplemented based on the Short Message Service (SMS).Wi-Fi is the fastest growing wireless connectivitytechnology in the world. It is fast, cheap and convenientto use. As consumers increase demand for bettertechnology to suit their mobile lifestyles, Wi-Fi ismultiplying and it is everywhere.According to (Jiwire.com, 2010), more than 20% ofthe U.S. online populations currently use public Wi-Fiand in 2009, all laptops and smartphones were shippedwith embedded Wi-Fi capabilities.In this research study, we implemented an appliancecontrol system that operates over a wireless intranet andthe Internet. We designed and implemented a Wi-Fi basedcontrol panel and a web portal for turning on and off oflights and appliances from laptops, PDA and cellphonesthat are Wi-Fi compliant. This allows for mobility andremote monitoring of electrical installations. Also, weprototyped a home or an office building with modelelectrical installations to test the switching control paneland the web portal.MATERIALS AND METHODSThe research study was carried out between Januaryand May 2010, at the department of Electrical andInformation Engineering, College of Science andTechnology, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State,Nigeria. The system is divided into 3 main parts which arethe control section (web server, PDAs, laptops with Wi-Fi), the network section (wireless network based on IEEE802.11, 2008 b/g) and the switching section (Wi-Fimodule, microcontroller, switching IC, relays and someother components). The network section serves as theconnecting  medium  between  the control and switchingsections. The block diagram of the entire system is asshown in Fig. 1.The following sections describe the basic sub-units(control, network and switching sections) of the system infurther details:C The control section: The control section issubdivided into two parts: Client side and Web serverside. The web server side hosts the web applicationdeveloped using Hypertext Markup Language(HTML), Hypertext Preprocesssor (PHP) andMySQL. The web application provides a friendlyuser  interface through which a user can control andRes. J. Appl. Sci. Eng. Technol., 3(12): 1335-1341, 20111337Fig. 2: Wi-Ap hardware circuit diagram monitor the status of electrical network connected tothe switching section. The client side however,consists of the user’s mobile control devices such aslaptops and Portable Digital Assistants (PDAs) withWi-Fi functionality and other devices that are Wi-Ficompliant. The client accesses the application on theweb server via a device by connecting it to thenetwork and entering (www.wiap.com) in a webbrowser. This prompts a login page for authorization.If login is successful, the user can begin controllingthe electrical appliances.C The network section: This is a wireless networkusing the IEEE 802.11 (2008) b/g wireless LANstandard. This wireless network provides atransmission medium for the control section to sendsignals to the switching section. The wirelessnetwork can either be in infrastructure mode or ad-hoc mode. Infrastructure mode is created with the useof an access point for multiuser connections, whilethe adhoc mode allows for pee-to-peer connectionsonly (Lai, 2009; Stallings, 2002). A wireless control scheme was used for this project rather than wiredscheme because of reduced costs and distancelimitation with other existing technologies.C The switching section: This comprises of a Wi-Fimodule, microcontroller, switching IC, relays andother components. The Wi-Fi module connects to thewireless network and it keeps listening to theconnection for packets. Once a packet is received, itis forwarded to the Universal Asynchronous Receiverand Transmitter (UART) interface of the Wi-Fimodule which in turn forwards it to the UARTinterface of the microcontroller. The microcontrollerhandles the processing of data received from the Wi-Fi module. The data is in the form of a concatenatedstring. The string is parsed and extracted controlinformation is acted upon to control the relevant pins.The switching IC and relays act as amplifier andswitch for output signals from the microcontroller.The circuit diagram for Wi-Ap hardware is shown inFig. 2 and the software layout is shown in Fig. 3.Res. J. Appl. Sci. Eng. Technol., 3(12): 1335-1341, 20111338Fig. 3: Wi-Ap software design layoutFig. 4: Use case diagram for Wi-Ap portalRESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe login page is the first page encountered by theuser/administrator on accessing the web application. Theuser or administrator logs on by entering a username andpassword combination which is then compared to the onepreviously saved in the database. If the combination iscorrect, the user or administrator is redirected to the homepage. The use case diagram for the Wi-Ap portal is shownin Fig. 4.The home page contains hyperlinks for navigating tothe status control pages among others. The control pageprovides the user with a means of controlling the status ofappliances (Fig. 5). The status page indicates the currentstate of the appliances.The manage users page is available only to theadministrator and it allows him to create users, deleteusers and change passwords. The timed control pageallows the user to configure an appliance to come on/offafter   a   specific   amount   of   time.   The   about   pageRes. J. Appl. Sci. Eng. Technol., 3(12): 1335-1341, 20111339Fig. 5: Screenshot of the control pageFig. 6: System simulation and testingRes. J. Appl. Sci. Eng. Technol., 3(12): 1335-1341, 20111340(a) Wi-Ap switching circuit  (b) Wi-Ap console(c)  Wi-Ap deployment prototypeFig. 7: (a) Wi-Ap switching circuit, (b) console and (c) deployment prototype gives a brief overview and description of the entire webapplication.Proteus was used to carry out simulation tests on theentire design during and  after design. Proteus has noprovision for Wi-Fi modules so, a modem was usedinstead. The simulation took place in real time.The simulation diagram for the switching section isas shown in Fig. 6 and 7 shows.C The completed Wi-Ap switching circuitC The Wi-Ap consoleC Wi-Ap deployment prototypeCONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKThe prototype of our Wi-Fi Automated Appliance(Wi-Ap) control system is fully ready and functional.Implementation and deployment of the system has a hugepotential of providing increased flexibility in remoteelectrical appliances control. However, for futureprototypes and improvements, areas to improve uponinclude wireless network, work-around for the web server,and improvement in control mechanism.ACKNOWLEDGMENTWe acknowledge the management of CovenantUniversity for providing Internet facilities for our researchon this work. Also, we immensely appreciate the Centerfor Systems and Information Services (CSIS), CovenantUniversity, for allocating bandwidth for testing theprototype on the intranet.REFERENCESAjisafe, T., 2007. The Design of a Web-based HomeAutomation System over Power lines using X10Technology. B. Eng. (Hons) Report, CovenantUniversity, Ota, Nigeria.Brad, A.M., 2004. Using handhelds for Wireless RemoteControl of PCs and Appliances Interacting withComputers, 17: 251-264.Res. J. Appl. Sci. Eng. Technol., 3(12): 1335-1341, 20111341Fahdil, T.A., 2010. Using SMS in Mobile Phone forHome Appliances Controlling Through PC ParallelPort Interfacing. Retrieved from: http://www.seminarprojects.com/attachment.php?aid=901.IEEE, 802.11, 2008. Available Retrieved from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE-802.11Isong, I., 2009. Web-based Home Appliance Automation.B. Eng. Final Year Project Report, CovenantUniversity, Ota, Nigeria.Jiwire, C., 2010. Why Wifi. Retrieved from:www.jiwire.com/why-wifi.Kanma H., N. Wakabayashi, R. Kanazawa and H. Ito,2003. Home appliance control system over Bluetoothwith a cellular phone. Consum. Electr. IEEE Trans.,49(4): 1049-1053.Lai, L.J., 2009. Radio Remote Control of Appliances.National Yunlin University of  Science andTechnology,Stallings, W., 2002. Wireless Communication andNetworking. Prenctice Hall, ISBN: 0-13-040864-6.

Available Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE-802.11 Isong, I.,

Home appliance control system over Bluetooth with a cellular phone.

Radio Remote Control of Appliances.

The Design of a Web-based Home Automation System over Power lines using X10

Using handhelds for Wireless Remote Control of PCs and Appliances Interacting with

Why Wifi.

Implementation of Wi-Ap; An IEEE 802.11b/g Based Electrical Switch Module With Web Enabled Interface for Electrical Appliances Control

http://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/1669/1/Adetiba%20E%209.pdf

Implementation of Wi-Ap; An IEEE 802.11b/g Based Electrical Switch Module With Web Enabled Interface for Electrical Appliances Control

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