I will need these items for the project

• Flood light controlled with a normal infra red controller. I bought two of these, four black and two silver.
• Infrared transmit module
• VS1838B infrared sensor
• Nrf24L01 a wireless sender and receiver
• Arduino Nano
• 5V or 12V power supply for the Arduino Nano
• Esp32 development module
• 3 or 5 V Power supply for the ESP

Progress

• Outside in the garden ⤒
  • 1. Get the three libraries. Click to view step 1
  • 2. Detect all the flood light remote control signals. Step 2
  • 3. Learn how to send the signals to the flood light using the Nano.Step 3
  • 4. Learn how to use the Nrf24L01 to communicate between two micro controllers. Using Arduino Nano. Step 4
  • 5. Change program in step 2 to make the receiving Nano to listen for commands from the Nrf24L01 instead of Serial and make the Sending Nano listen for commands from the Serial and send them via Nrf24L01. Step 5
  • 6. Move the SpotLight Commander sketch to Esp32 Step 6
  • 7. Test how far the signals travel through my window. Step 7
  • 8. Integrate the Spotlight Commander into the VoffCon esp32 Device server Step 8
  • 9. Learn how to create a wireless network using the Nrf24L01. Arduino Nanos can relay messages to other Nanos out of esp32 range. Step 9
  • 10. Make a compact waterproof package around the arduino nano and it's components. Step 10
• Inside the house ⤒
  • Make a working DeviceServerEsp32 in VoffCon so I can use the device page to send commands to the SpotlightRemoteCommander.
  • Create the Garden control card in VoffCon
  • Create the Garden control in VoffCon
  • Make build into VoffCon a Nrf24L01 network solution (nice to have in the future but not necessary for this project)

Units in the garden

Unit inside the house

1. Libraries

First things first, start by getting the three Libraries I need.

IRemote

I will need to download the IRemote library to be able to send and receive infrared signals

RF24

I will need to download the RF24 library to be able to send and receive commands without wires more distances than IR signals can travel. This library can also be found from the Arduino IDE by going to menu Sketch->Include LIbrary->Manage Libraries... and search for "RF24". Im going to use "RF24 by TMrh20". Additional info

RF24Network

I will need to download the RF24Network library. To have more than one spotlight, or maybe have more devices than just spotlights, I will need to connect them to some sort of network which the RF24Network library provides. It is also provided by TMrh20 and can be downloaded from the Arduino IDE like the RF24 library. Search for the library "RF24Network by TMrh20". Additional info and thistutorial with video.

2. Detect the remote control signals

Information on how I connected the sensor to the arduino. I did not use the 100Ω resistor like I was suppose to.

This is the sketch I used to detect signal from the remote control. It is located in IRemote examples and is named IRrecvDemo.ino.

3. Learn how to send the signals to the flood light using the Nano

Information on how I connected the transmitter to the arduino. And a image of the remote control. If you view the code you should see that the irCommand array is set up like the buttons are located on the remote.

After detecting all the signal I was able to create this sketch to control the flood light. The sketch sends commands typed to the serial and then send on to the flood light.SendIRtoFloodlight.ino The data pin (send pin) must be D3. For example if a user types "ON" without the quotes then the micro controller sends the "ON" IR code to the flood light. If a user types "RED" then the flood light turns red.

4. Communicate between two Micro-controllers Arduino Nanos and also the Esp32 using the Nrf24L01

I downloaded the RF24 library, connected each Arduino Nano to a Nrf24L01 by using the wiring information from the table below. Turned on both nanos, and they started communicating. easy peasy 😀.

The code running on both Arduino Nanos are form a RF24 example sketch called GettingStarted.

The only difference between the codes on the Nanos is line 22. where role is changed from 0 to 1.

Arduino Nano one

bool role = 0;

Arduino Nano two

bool role = 1;

// Coming soon

5. Commands from Serial on Nano A sent wireless's to Nano B to be executed

I decided to use the RF24Network library to test how hard it would be. It turns out that it's easy. View the code on both Nanos to see how easy it really is. 😊

Spotlight Infrared Remote Controller listens for commands from the Spotlight Commander and execute them by sending Infrared signal commands to the spotlight.

// Coming soon

Spotlight Commander will listen for commands from the serial port and send them wireless's to the Spotlight Remote Controller.

// Coming soon

6. Move the SpotLight Commander sketch to Esp32 and make it work

If it works on Nano it is not certain it will work on the esp32. But surprisingly it worked on the Esp32 dev module by connecting it like described in the sketch. Only thing I had to change was line 22 because I am using other pins for the CE and the CSN. Change pin 7 to 12 and pin 8 to 14.

By viewing the pin-out for the Esp32 Development model I was able to add the "Esp32 dev module" column in to the table above making it easy to connect the Nrf24L01 to the controller.

Here is the modified Spotlight Commander sketch for the Esp32

// Coming soon

7. Testing how far the signals go

I put one Arduino Nano in the garage window running the Spotlight Commander sketch. In the loop() I un-commented the function call "sendContinuously();" and commented out "getCommandsFromSerial();" call (in line 127) to send a continuos test signal from the commander. I connected another Arduino Nano to my laptop and ran the Spotlight Infrared remote controller sketch there. When I had a signal I saw blinking lights because it was writing to the serial and when it does that, a little yellow LED lights up.

I found that when trees were between the sender and the receiver the signal diminished dramatically but, when there was a direct line of sight between the Nanos the signal was strong and reached to the edge of my garden. I concluded that I will need a network to relay messages to nodes behind or near trees. I tested the RF24Network on the Esp32 and it just works. So, I will be using that.

8. Integrating the Spotlight Commander into the VoffCon Esp32 Device server

I was able to run the DeviceServer and the Spotlight Commander in the same sketch.

Hello World

Hello VoffCon Spotlight Commander world. This is a prove of concept and now I know WiFi and NRF24L01 will be able to work to gether. The prove is in two files see below. When running the code the spotlight changes the light but does that much slower than in the sketches above. I am changing the light after each WiFi client check which takes time. So slower is as expected.

 // Coming soon 

// Coming soon

9. Learn how to create a wireless network using the Nrf24L01.

Here I have a working solution. VoffCon sends commands to the server running on Esp32 and the server relays those commands to the clients. There is one client per floodlight.

Working server

Below, is a working server running on the Esp32. The server Nrf24L01 address is 00. It can process commands from VoffCon via WiFi (lan) and send them via Nrf24L01 to the Spotlight Infrared Remote Controllers. It's a relief that after all this work, this project can actually work.

            
            // Coming soon
            
            

            
            // Coming soon
            
            

            
            // Coming soon
            
            

Working client

Here is the code for the flood lights. It consists of 3 files, SpotlightIRemoteController.ino, FloodLightRemote.cpp and FloodLightRemote.cpp. Each nano will listen for commands from the server and execute them by sending a Infrared signal to the flood light. The client Nrf24L01 addresses are from 01 to 04.

The client address is set in the beginning of the file SpotlightIRemoteController.ino (see: const uint16_t this_node =).

The remotes for each floodlight do not send exactly the same signals. To handle that each client must select the correct remote by defining a specific keyword in the file "FloodLightRemote.h". For example, to select the "SILVER_REMOTE_50W_1" remote, then the following must be un-commented #define SILVER_REMOTE_50W_1. Only one of the remote keywords should be un-commented. See code below.

            
            // Coming soon
            
            

            
            // Coming soon
            
            

            
            // Coming soon
            
            

10. Make a compact waterproof package around the arduino nano and it's components

This part will take time. I will need to create a circuit, provide it with power and make it waterproof.

Tasks needed

Build the circuit

I would like to use my milling machine to mill the circuit. This will take time because I have never used it and have no idea how to work it. I've assembled it, turned it on and run some tests. That's about it.

Create a waterproof box around the nano and the NRF24L01

This box needs to provide an easy access to the components inside it.

Provide Arduino Nano with power

I could add a power adapter inside the box for each Nano, but I think it would be better to use one big 12 voltage power supply through out the garden. The VIN pin on the Nano will accept 7-12V so I could just use that for power. Also it's easy to step down from 12V to 5V or 3.3V if needed for other devices.