Published March 2, 2022 © GPL3+

Rail Vibration Detector using Android's Accelerometer Sensor

Using Xiaomi smartphone's accelerometer sensor to detect rail vibration with Node-Red

IntermediateFull instructions provided2 hours588

Rail Vibration Detector using Android's Accelerometer Sensor

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Android device

Has an accelerometer sensor

Computer

Software apps and online services

Node-RED

Termux

Story

Rail Vibration Detector system is made to detect upcoming trains on the railroad track by using Android's accelerometer sensor. The accelerometer sensor can be monitored through Node-Red dashboard and sent to email.

How Does it Work?

Android smartphones have many sensors inside such as ambient light sensor, barometer sensor, fingerprint sensor, gyroscope sensor, accelerometer sensor, and many more. In this project, we will be using Android Xiaomi Note 9's accelerometer sensor as a vibration detection on a train rail.

To access and use the phone sensor, we will need Termux App and Termux API that we can install from the Playstore. Then, we can send accelerometer sensor data from Android to Node-Red and process it. We can display the accelerometer sensor data, the rail status, and train status to the Node-Red dashboard and send them to email.

Access Android's Sensors with Termux App

On Termux App, run the following commands to install Node-Red

apt update
apt upgrade
apt install termux-api
apt install coreutils nodejs
npm i -g --unsafe-perm node-red
node-red

You can now see that the Node-Red server is now running. You can open your Android browser and access 127.0.0.1:1880 to access Node-Red. But in this project, we will open it on the computer.

To access the Node-Red on Android from the computer, the easy way is to connect the computer Wifi to Android's hotspot. After that, type ifconfig on Termux.

You can see the Android's IP address. Copy the IP address on your Termux. On your computer browser, paste the IP address and add :1880 at the end of the IP address. So it will be your IP address:1880. In this project, we will open 192.168.43.1:1880. Now, we can finally access the Node-Red on Android from the computer.

Now we need to see all the list of the available Android sensors. In Termux, open a new session and run the following command

termux-sensor -l

We will get the lists of the available sensors. Every Android phone has different available sensors. In this project, my Android phone has an accelerometer sensor named ACCELEROMETER. Other Android phones might have different names for their sensors, such as numbers or codes included.

Node-Red Flows

Now we will proceed to Node-Red on the computer browser. We will have to create Node-Red flows. You can import this project's Node-Red flows from the attachment code below, but the imported flows did not contain email sending flows. You can create your own email sending flows later.

On the exec node, put termux-sensor -s "Sensor Name"-n 1. Change the bold characters into your Android's accelerometer sensor name. The exec node will be connected to a JSON node. The node will convert the payload sent from the exec node to JSON. The timestamp node is used to keep the exec node sending the Android accelerometer sensor.

Now you can change the msg.payload into train status, rail vibration status, and show the accelerometer data received by using the function node and dashboard output nodes such as text, led, and line graphs.

Node-Red Dashboard Result

After finished with the flows, deploy and open the dashboard to see the results.

Conclusion

Android has many sensors that we can take advantage of to create projects. We can now successfully use one of the Android sensors as a rail vibrations detector for the upcoming trains. The rail vibrations detection can be used to inform the railway crossing security, turn the railway crossing gate and lamps.

Sources

https://www.hackster.io/mainul/build-an-iot-viz-with-your-android-phone-s-sensors-cc241e

https://stevesnoderedguide.com/working-with-json-data-node-red

Node-Red Flows JSON

[{"id":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","type":"tab","label":"Status Rel Kereta Api","disabled":false,"info":""},{"id":"7cfc4dce.4a91b4","type":"ui_text","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","group":"4c741057.067dc","order":1,"width":0,"height":0,"name":"","label":"Status Rel Kereta","format":"{{msg.payload}}","layout":"row-spread","x":1070,"y":260,"wires":[]},{"id":"189537bd.743408","type":"ui_text","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","group":"4c741057.067dc","order":1,"width":0,"height":0,"name":"","label":"Status Palang","format":"{{msg.payload}}","layout":"row-spread","x":1060,"y":300,"wires":[]},{"id":"96a55de6.0185e","type":"ui_led","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","group":"4c741057.067dc","order":0,"width":0,"height":0,"label":"Lampu Palang","labelPlacement":"left","labelAlignment":"left","colorForValue":[{"color":"green","value":"1","valueType":"num"},{"color":"red","value":"2","valueType":"num"}],"allowColorForValueInMessage":false,"name":"","x":1030,"y":340,"wires":[]},{"id":"d87c1176.de911","type":"exec","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","command":"termux-sensor -s  \"ACCELEROMETER\" -n 1","addpay":"payload","append":"","useSpawn":"false","timer":"","winHide":false,"oldrc":false,"name":"Data_ACCELEROMETER","x":450,"y":280,"wires":[[],["2e9166fb.ab334a"],[]]},{"id":"2e9166fb.ab334a","type":"json","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"","property":"payload","action":"","pretty":false,"x":650,"y":280,"wires":[["ad0838b8.1d6048"]]},{"id":"ad0838b8.1d6048","type":"change","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"","rules":[{"t":"move","p":"payload","pt":"msg","to":"payload.accm","tot":"msg"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":610,"y":340,"wires":[["89d12415.06a648","cdfca63c.846da8","3e07c154.c1dcee","48fdd895.e6dff8","578ef609.784b18","27cb7072.48d71","2962f8b3.252ac8"]]},{"id":"89d12415.06a648","type":"function","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"X (biru tua)","func":"msg.payload = msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[0];\nmsg.topic = 'xa';\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","x":850,"y":480,"wires":[["5a04defe.619b4","5d46af8a.c8023"]]},{"id":"5a04defe.619b4","type":"ui_chart","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"","group":"484a5e3e.68ef","order":1,"width":0,"height":0,"label":"Getaran Rel Kereta","chartType":"line","legend":"false","xformat":"ss","interpolate":"linear","nodata":"","dot":false,"ymin":"-20","ymax":"20","removeOlder":"2","removeOlderPoints":"","removeOlderUnit":"60","cutout":0,"useOneColor":false,"useUTC":false,"colors":["#1f77b4","#aec7e8","#ff7f0e","#2ca02c","#98df8a","#d62728","#ff9896","#9467bd","#c5b0d5"],"useOldStyle":false,"outputs":1,"x":1070,"y":460,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"cdfca63c.846da8","type":"function","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"Z (biru muda)","func":"msg.payload = msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[2];\nmsg.topic = 'za';\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","x":860,"y":560,"wires":[["5a04defe.619b4","bfac541a.7fb558"]]},{"id":"3e07c154.c1dcee","type":"function","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"Y (kuning)","func":"msg.payload = msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[1];\nmsg.topic = 'ya';\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","x":840,"y":520,"wires":[["5a04defe.619b4","eff51229.d0981"]]},{"id":"a65386ab.aadcd8","type":"inject","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"","props":[{"p":"payload"},{"p":"topic","vt":"str"}],"repeat":"2","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","x":230,"y":280,"wires":[["d87c1176.de911"]]},{"id":"5d46af8a.c8023","type":"ui_text","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","group":"484a5e3e.68ef","order":2,"width":0,"height":0,"name":"","label":"X (biru tua)","format":"{{msg.payload}}","layout":"row-spread","x":1050,"y":500,"wires":[]},{"id":"eff51229.d0981","type":"ui_text","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","group":"484a5e3e.68ef","order":3,"width":0,"height":0,"name":"","label":"Y (kuning)","format":"{{msg.payload}}","layout":"row-spread","x":1040,"y":540,"wires":[]},{"id":"bfac541a.7fb558","type":"ui_text","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","group":"484a5e3e.68ef","order":4,"width":0,"height":0,"name":"","label":"Z (biru muda)","format":"{{msg.payload}}","layout":"row-spread","x":1060,"y":580,"wires":[]},{"id":"3a9a1ed6.4c47a2","type":"ui_media","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","group":"2030ba48.fdbb96","name":"Illustrasi Gambar","width":0,"height":0,"order":1,"category":"kereta1","file":"kereta1.png","layout":"adjust","showcontrols":true,"loop":true,"onstart":false,"scope":"local","tooltip":"","x":430,"y":380,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"197edd39.782be3","type":"comment","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"START","info":"Input every 2 seconds","x":210,"y":240,"wires":[]},{"id":"1b14ea72.c55be6","type":"ui_text","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","group":"4c741057.067dc","order":1,"width":0,"height":0,"name":"","label":"Status Kereta","format":"{{msg.payload}}","layout":"row-spread","x":1060,"y":220,"wires":[]},{"id":"48fdd895.e6dff8","type":"function","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"Getaran Rel","func":"if (msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[2]>=9&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[0]<5&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[1]<5){\n    msg.payload = \"Rel tidak bergetar\";\n}\nelse if (msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[2]<=-9&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[0]<5&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[1]<5){\n    msg.payload = \"Rel tidak bergetar\";\n}\nelse {\n    msg.payload = \"Rel Bergetar\";\n}\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","x":850,"y":260,"wires":[["7cfc4dce.4a91b4"]]},{"id":"578ef609.784b18","type":"function","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"Kereta","func":"if (msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[2]>=9&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[0]<5&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[1]<5){\n    msg.payload = \"Kereta belum datang\";\n}\nelse if (msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[2]<=-9&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[0]<5&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[1]<5){\n    msg.payload = \"Kereta belum datang\";\n}\nelse {\n    msg.payload = \"Kereta akan datang\";\n}\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","x":830,"y":220,"wires":[["1b14ea72.c55be6"]]},{"id":"27cb7072.48d71","type":"function","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"Palang","func":"if (msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[2]>=9&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[0]<5&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[1]<5){\n    msg.payload = \"Palang Terbuka\";\n}\nelse if (msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[2]<=-9&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[0]<5&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[1]<5){\n    msg.payload = \"Palang Terbuka\";\n}\nelse {\n    msg.payload = \"Palang Tertutup\";\n}\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","x":830,"y":300,"wires":[["189537bd.743408"]]},{"id":"2962f8b3.252ac8","type":"function","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"LED","func":"if (msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[2]>=9&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[0]<5&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[1]<5){\n    msg.payload = 1;\n}\nelse if (msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[2]<=-9&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[0]<5&&msg.payload.accm[\"ACCELEROMETER\"].values[1]<5){\n    msg.payload = 1;\n}\nelse {\n    msg.payload = 2;\n}\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","x":830,"y":340,"wires":[["96a55de6.0185e"]]},{"id":"2f69e044.5175d","type":"comment","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"Sensor Accelerometer","info":"Accelerometers in mobile phones are used to detect the orientation of the phone.\nOutput berupa status X, Y, Z, angka dari Z, Y, Z, dan posisi handphone.","x":440,"y":240,"wires":[]},{"id":"91bbb12f.cf99f","type":"comment","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"Status Kereta & Palang","info":"","x":880,"y":180,"wires":[]},{"id":"a827569.96741a8","type":"comment","z":"1ae6f980.e8a3b6","name":"Status Accelerometer","info":"Accelerometers in mobile phones are used to detect the orientation of the phone.\nOutput berupa status X, Y, Z, angka dari Z, Y, Z, dan posisi handphone.","x":880,"y":420,"wires":[]},{"id":"4c741057.067dc","type":"ui_group","name":"Status Rel & Kereta","tab":"ba2f7da4.f12c4","order":2,"disp":true,"width":"6","collapse":false},{"id":"484a5e3e.68ef","type":"ui_group","name":"Sensor Accelerometer","tab":"ba2f7da4.f12c4","order":1,"disp":true,"width":"6","collapse":false},{"id":"2030ba48.fdbb96","type":"ui_group","name":"Illustrasi Gambar","tab":"ba2f7da4.f12c4","order":3,"disp":true,"width":"6","collapse":false},{"id":"ba2f7da4.f12c4","type":"ui_tab","name":"Tab 4","icon":"dashboard","order":5}]

Credits

Falia Ananda

3 projects • 2 followers

Graduate student in Industrial Electrical Engineering. Interested in IoT, energy, and sustainability.

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Rail Vibration Detector using Android's Accelerometer Sensor

Rail Vibration Detector using Android's Accelerometer Sensor

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

How Does it Work?

Access Android's Sensors with Termux App

Node-Red Flows

Node-Red Dashboard Result

Conclusion

Sources

Code

Node-Red Flows JSON

Credits

Falia Ananda

Comments

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