Smart Blinds System

Abstract

Blinds are widely used at homes and business places to control the exposure of sunlight indoors.
Smart blinds are emerging technologies that can do this task with minimal user input. In this
system, we have proposed a smart blind that can be operated in manual and automated mode. In
automated mode, the blind is automatically adjusted to expose the required light using an LDR to
determine the indoor intensity and a microcontroller that does the control. In the manual’s mode,
the user is given the freedom to adjust the blind to his own custom requirement. The system utilizes
low cost DC motors and Arduino microcontrollers make it a cheap and viable solution to modern
daylight control needs in homes and business premises. The main focus of this work is to apply
the theoretical knowledge in to practical engineering applications and make a user friendly
automatic blind prototype.

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Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3
1.1 Background ...................................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Scope ................................................................................................................................ 3
2 Literature Review .................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Arduino Uno Microcontroller .......................................................................................... 3
2.2 Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) ..................................................................................... 4
2.3 DC Motor and Motor driver ............................................................................................. 4
3 Design Requirements ............................................................................................................... 5
4 Recommendation ..................................................................................................................... 5
5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 6
6 References ............................................................................................................................... 7

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1. Introduction
1.1 Background
Normally adjusting an ordinary window is time consuming and need more effort. But with a smart
blinder the amount of sun light that enters a room can be adjusted automatically depending on the
light intensity. This system consists of a microcontroller embedded system that automatically
adjusts itself in real time depending on the environment conditions and user preferences. Ardunio
microcontroller is the main component of this smart blinder. DC motor is used to control the flaps
and the light intensity is measured by LDR.

1.2 Problem Statement

One of the main concepts of modern world is conservation energy. This prototype encourages to
uses natural light during the day light which will directly affect the point conservation of energy.

1.3 Objectives
Objective of this project is to make a prototype smart blind system which automatically control
daylight which enters the room while maintain room privacy of the user. Project includes design
and making a prototype model, compile a program using Arduino IDE, makes necessary circuitry
and DC motor controlling.

1.4 Scope
Smart blind system prototype consists with several flaps and uses a standard window. Reason to
use several flaps is to reduce the motor torque need to control the flaps. This project can be
developed in to a solar powered smart blind system by installing simple circuitry to recharge the
batteries in day time. Smart blind system can be developed in to a more advanced device by making
switch inputs to automate light bulbs, HVAC systems and advanced security systems.

2 Literature Review
2.1 Arduino Uno Microcontroller
Arduino is a microcontroller which has become so popular in the recent times in robotics projects.
There are various types of Arduino boards which differ from one to one in size, features and also
processing power. The only functionality this microcontroller provides is what is programmed on
to it by the user. It is capable of reading data from sensors, compute data, transfer data to a PC or

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output them to LEDs or LCD screens attached to the board. These microcontroller users open
source software based on C language. Arduino is based on an AVR microcontroller which has a
much simpler development tool. These microcontrollers are popular mainly because of the simple
development tool, open source and also it’s very much cheap compared to other microcontrollers
in the market. The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. It has 14
digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz
ceramic resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains
everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB
cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.

2.2 Light Dependent Resistor (LDR)

An LDR is a component that has a resistance that changes with the light intensity that falls upon
it. They have a resistance that falls with an increase in the light intensity falling upon the device.
The resistance of an LDR may typically have the following resistances.

Mainly there are two types of photo resisters depending on the conductive material used.

 Intrinsic photo resistors

 Extrinsic photo resistors

Depending on the type their applications and working condition changers. As an example extrinsic
photo resisters used in long wave length applications and they need to be operate at low
temperatures, because of that need to select correct photo resistors which can be applied for smart
blind system.

2.3 DC Motor and Motor driver

Op to-Isolated DC Motor Controller Board is used to suitable for controlling DC Motors from 6
to 24Vdc and with up to 5A load. This board features opto-isolated motor drivers for improved
isolation and reliability. High quality MOSFET's are used as the drive transistors providing fast
switching and minimal power loss. Our DC Motor Controller Board also includes speed and
direction control directly on the board or via a standard TTL interfaces to an external controller
such as a microcontroller or control board. The board also included LED status control, easy to
connect terminal interfaces for power connections and DC Motor connections. High quality heat
sinking for the output MOSFET transistors. Excellent isolation with high performance opto-
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isolators. This board is ideal for cases where speed control of loads is essential, such as robots,
servos and other DC Motor Applications.

3 Design Requirements
Following are the desired design requirements,

4 Recommendation
The blinder could be developed as a solar powered automatic blind system which is an
environment friendly and energy efficient smart device. Thus by completing this project, we

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gained valuable knowledge about the practical usage on how to read digital inputs from switches
and analog inputs from potentiometer and LDR using the Arduino Microcontroller. The whole
project proved to be very knowledgeable and a good learning experience.

5 Conclusion
This project leads us to apply all the knowledge that we have gained from this course and
understand more on how to apply all the theories learned at the lecture. Thus, by completing this
project, we gained valuable knowledge on the usage and synchronization of the electronics
components with a program.

As this project refers to an automated blind system, the most important part is the
automation section through the Arduino Microcontroller. At first the program was tested without
using the encoder where the number of counts was taken by the number of executions of the
specific function. But the results were not precise with this program as it had to execute all the
functions before incrementing the counts. Thus, it was observed that at times the clockwise rotation
is fast, but the counter clockwise rotation is slow. Hence the starting and the end points vary. When
encoders were used, it produced better accuracy than the previous program.

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6 References
 D. Priest, ‘The CNET Smart Home Antes Up for Smart Blinds', 2016. [Online].

https://www.cnet.com/news/the-cnet-smart-home-antes-up-for-smart-blinds/.

 RollerTrol, ‘Motorized Blinds and Skylight/Window Openers’, RollerTrol Automation

Systems, 2017. http://www.rollertrol.com.

 Interface Boards. (n.d.). Retrieved from futurlec:

http://www.futurlec.com/DC_Opto_Motor.shtml