Team 21:

Squeej

•

Joshua Cinquemani

•

Reece McCloskey

Published December 1, 2022 © GPL3+

MEGR 3171 Truck Analytics

We've bought a Truck and attached some sensor to analyze its surroundings.

BeginnerWork in progress3.5 hours105

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Argon

Ultrasonic Sensor - HC-SR04 (Generic)

DHT22 Temperature Sensor

Resistor 220 ohm

Breadboard (generic)

Jumper wires (generic)

LED (generic)

RC Truck

Software apps and online services

Particle Build Web IDE

ThingSpeak API

Story

As kids, messing with RC cars was a common hobby for everyone in the group. Racing them, having them go as fast as possible, testing their durability, and tweaking the cars themselves in anyway to make them better. For our IOT project we decided to take a regular remote controlled truck and add temperature, humidity, and ultrasonic sensors. The main goal for this project was to have a car that could display the distance from an object and give accurate temperature readings. Also along with the ultrasonic sensor we have included an LED that will illuminate when the vehicle is within 20 cm of an object.

Vehicle used for Project

FirstStep: Creating the Circuits

UltrasonicSensor:

The Ultrasonic Sensor is the model HC-SR04. The Vcc connects to the 3.3V pin and the trig pin connects to the D2 pin. The echo pin connects to a 220 ohm resistor to lower the voltage and minimize to possibility of damaging the sensor. The resistor then connects directly to the D6 pin. Finally the GND pin on the sensor connects to the GND pin on the Argon.

HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor Circuit

Temperature and Humidity Sensor:

The DHT sensor is the model AM2302 (same specs as the DHT22 sensor, just no NULL pin), with the pins +, OUT, and -. The - pin connects directly to the GND pin on the argon. The OUT pin connects directly to the D2 pin on the argon. The OUT pin also connects in series with a 10k ohm resistor, the + pin, and the 3V3 pin on the argon.

DHT22 Temperature & Humidity Sensor Circuit

LEDcircuit:

Using a breadboard, the particle argon is situated into the breadboard. The LED is placed on the same rail as D6 of the argon along with a 220 ohm resistor to drawn down the voltage. Doing this helps regulate the voltage to the LED since and LED can only handle voltage between 1.8 and 3.3 volts.

LED Circuit

SecondStep: Writing the Code

UltrasonicSensor:

The code for the HC-SR04 sensor includes the ThingSpeak code from the Particle Community Library. The code begins by defining the pins, echo and trig, and the variables, duration and distance. The Channel Number and Write API Key for the ThingSpeak channel also need to be defined for the data to be graphed in real time. In the void setup you need to begin the ThingSpeak client and set the trig pin as output and echo pin to input. You also need to set the rate that data is sent using serial.begin. In the void loop you need to set the trig pin digitalWrite LOW with a 2 microsecond delay and then a digitalWrite HIGH with a 10 microsecond delay. This triggers the ultrasonic sound pulse. Set the duration as the pulse of the echo to get the time between producing the sound wave and receiving the sound wave after it reflects off an object. Multiplying the duration by (.034/2) converts the duration to distance in centimeters. Next insert the an if statement to detect if the distance is less than 20 centimeters. If the distance is less 20 centimeters it will particle publish a function to the led Argon that will turn on a red led. If the distance is greater than 20 it will particle publish a function to turn on the led. Create the ThingSpeak.writeField to plot the data onto the thingSpeak graph. Particle publish the distance to send the data to the particle cloud, and set a delay of 20000 microseconds to collect data every 20 seconds.

Temperature and Humidity Sensor:

The code for this sensor initially includes an Adafruit DHT sensor code and Thingspeak code from the library, as these were important for building the foundation of the circuit's function, as well as its mapping capabilities. The data writing interval was made 20 seconds because the Thingspeak program takes around 15 seconds to update with new data. Thing speak was the tool we used in order to graph the data taken from the sensor. The data includes the API key and the channel ID for both the temperature and humidity data. The data was also published to Particle Publish, however this information was only used to check the data from the sensor in the intermediate stages.

LEDcircuit:

To get the LED to flash on when the ultrasonic sensor reads a value of 20 cm or less, the argon needs to be able to receive data through the particle cloud. The ultrasonic sensor makes use of particle.publish() to send the data to the cloud. From there the code for the LED uses particle.subscribe() to receive the data and once the output of the sensor reads 20 cm or less the LED will flash on.

Flow Chart: This chart describes the general direction of traffic between each particle argon and towards the live data connection service, Thingspeak.

Particle Argon Connection Diagram

FinalStep: Putting Everything together and Demonstrating the outcome

Final setup

Temperature and Humidity Graphs:

Temperature Live Graph: https://thingspeak.com/channels/1942926

Humidity Live Graph: https://thingspeak.com/channels/1957059

Proximity Graph:

Proximity Live Graph: https://thingspeak.com/channels/1944966

Code

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <ThingSpeak.h>

// Set the trig and echo pins
const int trigPin = D2; 
const int echoPin = D6;

// Connect Vcc to 3.3V Pin
//Connect trig pin to D2
//Connect echo pin to 220 ohm resistor
//Connect Resistor to D6
//Connect GND to GND

//Define the variables
long duration;
int distance;
int safetyDistance;

TCPClient client; // Open hte TCP Client

unsigned long myChannelNumber = xxxxxx; //Change xxxx to your channel number
const char * myWriteAPIKey = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"; //Change xxxx to channels write API key

void setup() {
ThingSpeak.begin(client); //Begin ThinSpeak Client
pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT); //Defines D2 as output
pinMode(echoPin, INPUT); //Defines D6 as input
Serial.begin(9600);
}
//Function begins collecting data from sensor
void loop() {

digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(2);

digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(10);

duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH); //Measures duration that the echo pin has a HIGH output
distance = duration*.034/2; //Converts the duration time to distance in centimeters
safetyDistance = distance;
delayMicroseconds(2000);

if (safetyDistance < 20) {
    Particle.publish("Running");
  //Publishes the function "Running" to the LED if the distance is less than 20cm
}
else 
 Particle.publish("off");
 //Publishes the function "off" to the LED if the distance is greater than 20cm
ThingSpeak.writeField(myChannelNumber, 1, String(safetyDistance), myWriteAPIKey);
//Sends the data collected to the Thing.Speak graph
Particle.publish("Distance in Cm", String(safetyDistance), PRIVATE);
//Publishes data to Particle Cloud
delayMicroseconds(20000);
//Delays data readings to every 20 seconds
}

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <Adafruit_DHT.h>

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <ThingSpeak.h>


#define DHTPIN 2            // what pin we're connected to
#define DHTTYPE DHT22       // DHT 22 (AM2302)
#define INTERVAL 20000       // number of milliseconds between checks
                            // Reading temperature or humidity takes about 250 milliseconds! 
                            // Sensor readings may also be up to 2 seconds 'old' 
                            // (its a very slow sensor)

// Connect pin 1 (on the left) of the sensor to +3.3V
// Connect pin 2 of the sensor to whatever your DHTPIN is
// Connect pin 4 (on the right) of the sensor to GROUND
// Connect a 10K resistor from pin 2 (data) to pin 1 (power) of the sensor

// Initialise an object to represent the DHT22 sensor
DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);

// Declare globa variables for the readings and the time last checked
double temp;
double hum;
unsigned long lastCheck = 0;

TCPClient client;       // Open the TCP Client

unsigned long myChannelNumber = XXXXXXX;    // change this to your channel number
const char * myWriteAPIKey = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"; // change this to your channels write API key
unsigned long myChannelNumber1 = XXXXXXX;     //Since Humidity and Temperature, need 2 Thingspeak Channels
const char * myWriteAPIKey1 = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX";


// Function that can be called from the Particle console
void readSensor() {
    hum = dht.getHumidity();
    temp = dht.getTempCelcius();
}

// Callback function to allow the Particle console access to readSensor()
int checkHandler(String command) {
readSensor();
return 1;
}

void setup() {
    ThingSpeak.begin(client);     // Begin Thingspeak client
    dht.begin();

    // Declare variables that can be seen in the Particle console
    Particle.variable("temperature", temp);
    Particle.variable("humidity", hum);
    Particle.function("readSensor", checkHandler);
    Particle.subscribe("hook-response/temperature", myHandler, MY_DEVICES);
    Particle.subscribe("hook-response/humidity", myHandler, MY_DEVICES);
}

void loop() {
    if (lastCheck + INTERVAL < millis()) {
        lastCheck = millis();
        readSensor();

        // Check if any reads failed and exit early (to try again).
        if (isnan(hum) || isnan(temp)) {
            Serial.println("Failed to read from DHT sensor!");
            return;
            
             // Get some data
  String data = String(10);
  // Trigger the integration
  Particle.publish("temperature", data, PRIVATE);
  Particle.publish("humidity", data, PRIVATE);
    }
        Particle.publish("temperature", String(temp), PRIVATE);
        Particle.publish("humidity", String(hum), PRIVATE);
ThingSpeak.writeField(myChannelNumber, 1, String(temp), myWriteAPIKey); 
//Thingspeak for 1st Channel (Temp)
ThingSpeak.writeField(myChannelNumber1, 1, String(hum), myWriteAPIKey1);
}

}
void myHandler(const char *event, const char *data) {
  // Handle the integration response
}

const int led = D6; //States that the D6 Pin is connected to the Led.

void setup() {
    pinMode(led, OUTPUT); // Sets the Led Pin as output mode.
    digitalWrite(led, LOW); // This sets the led to initially be off.
    Particle.subscribe("Running", click, "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"); 
  //This connects the Led Argon to the Ultrasonic Sensor Argon when the sensor is within 20 centimeters. 
    Particle.subscribe("off", off, "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"); 
  //This connects the Led Argon to the Ultrasonic Sensor Argon when the sensor is outside of 20 centimeters. 
}

void click(const char *event, const char *data) {
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH); 
  //This is connected to the "Running" Particle.subscribe function.
}
void off(const char *event, const char *data) {
 digitalWrite(led, LOW);
 //This is connected to the "off" Particle.subscribe function.
}

Credits

Comments

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MEGR 3171 Truck Analytics

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Schematics

Temperature-Humidity Sensor Circuit

Ultrasonic Sensor Circuit

LED Circuit

Code

Ultrasonic Sensor Code

Temperature-Humidity Sensor Code

Led Code

Credits

Squeej

Joshua Cinquemani

Reece McCloskey

Comments

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MEGR 3171 Truck Analytics

MEGR 3171 Truck Analytics

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Schematics

Temperature-Humidity Sensor Circuit

Ultrasonic Sensor Circuit

LED Circuit

Code

Ultrasonic Sensor Code

Temperature-Humidity Sensor Code

Led Code

Credits

Squeej

Joshua Cinquemani

Reece McCloskey

Comments

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