Project Description

The device is a feature-rich and versatile IoT hub. I designed it to be a control and monitoring device (or central device) for other IoT devices that I will develop in coming months and years. It will also be used to control and monitor some other compatible IoT devices that are in existence.

Uses

The device will be used in:

1. Smart home: for controlling lights, power supply, sockets, pumps, air conditioners, as well as for monitoring liquid and gas storages, ambient air conditions, power usage etc.
2. Smart car: for controlling and monitoring smart cars
3. Smart industry: for controlling and monitoring industrial equipment and processes
4. Smart agriculture: for controlling farm tools and equipment, and for controlling and monitoring agricultural processes
5. Remote control for electronics devices: for controlling electronics devices such as air conditioners, televisions, sound systems etc.
6. Robots and drone control: for controlling drones and robots
7. Surveillance: equipped with a USB camera, the device will be used for surveillance
8. Smart health: for controlling health equipment and for controlling and monitoring health processes
9. Smart business: with external devices connected to it, the device will be used for business processes such as accepting payment, monitoring goods and, displaying information etc.

Controller

The device is powered by two ESP32-S3 microcontroller boards. One board handles the LCD touchscreen and the user interface, while the other board handles other tasks.

Connectivity

The device is equipped with the following connectivity protocols:

1. Wi-Fi
2. Bluetooth classic and Bluetooth LE
3. LoRa
4. 4G LTE
5. GSM

Sensors

The device is equipped with the following sensors:

1. CO2
2. Temperature
3. Pressure
4. Humidity
5. mmWave
6. Accelerometer
7. Gyroscope
8. Compass
9. GPS

AI Capability

The device is equipped with VC-02 AI voice module. With this, the user can communicate with the device through voice commands.

User Interface

The device is equipped with an RGB capacitive LCD touch screen. The device can use a 4.3inch, a 5inch as well as a 7inch displays. I developed the user interface using the latest LVGL v9. Few parts of the user interface designed on a sample ESP32-S3 4.3inch RGB LCD touch screen development board are shown below.

Power

The device is powered by 5000mAh Lithium ion battery. The power system has DC-DC converters to get the appropriate voltages for the different parts of the device. It also has an automatic charging circuit that can work with any suitable 5V wall charger through a type-C USB port. Effective battery gauge monitoring is handles by the MAX17048G on the board.

External Devices

The device is equipped with connectors through which external devices can be connected. The external devices can either use IIC or UART protocols to communicate with the device. The device will also communicate with other external devices wirelessly.

Future Improvements

1. Addition of a dedicated edge AI module/chip that can handle machine vision and machine hearing
2. Modifying the device to be Matter protocol compatible