The project concentrated on making the testing of emergency lighting in commercial buildings more efficient. Traditional methods for testing these lights are time-consuming and expensive for several reasons. Each light fixture must be manually checked, a process that becomes even more arduous in large buildings with many lights. This involves verifying each light's functionality and compliance with safety standards, often requiring access to hard-to-reach areas and coordination with multiple maintenance teams. Such manual inspections can also disrupt a building's daily operations, leading to additional indirect costs. The need for specialized staff and equipment for testing and maintenance further increases expenses. By implementing Bluetooth Mesh technology, I was able to automate this process, significantly reducing the need for manual labor and easing these operational and financial challenges.
You will need at least:
- two nRF52840 Development Kits or more
- a computer with Python v3.10 and the nRF Connect SDK installed
- a phone with the nRF Mesh mobile app
- a board compatible ADC brightness-sensor, in this case a light dependent resistor is used.
- relay as well as cables to connect them together.
How to setup:
- Clone the project into your mesh samples folder
- Connect the boards to the computer using a USB cable.
- Build and flash one or more of the boards with the light monitor server and one with the light monitor client. See here for a guide on how to do so: https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-latest/page/nrf/samples/bluetooth/mesh/light/README.html#building_and_running
- Using the nRF Mesh app, provision your boards. Establish a group address for the client to publish to and one for the servers to publish to. Subscribe the client to the servers publish address and the servers to the clients.
- See here for a guide on how to do this: https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-latest/page/nrf/samples/bluetooth/mesh/light/README.html#provisioning_the_device
- Connect the sensor to pin 03 on the server board as well as ground and power.
- Connect the relay to pin 29 on the server board as well as ground and power.
- Open the terminal and navigate to where you have the emergency_light_tester.py file. You have to update the variable with the COM ports used by our boards to be able to connect the webserver. They are default set to COM ports used in Linux. You can set all ports you are using and it will search for the correct one.
- This page explains how to install flask and virtual enivironment: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/tutorial-flask
- Activate venv using activate. It can be found in the /venv/bin folder, or you
can use the command:
venv/bin/activate(This maybe dependent on the OS you are running) - Run the command:
flask --app emergency_light_tester run(On Windows you may have to use ‘python -m ‘ in front of the command.) - Open a web browser and go to the address: http://127.0.0.1:5000/