ISSN 2319-8885

Vol.03,Issue.35
November-2014,
Pages:6979-6984
www.ijsetr.com

Data Acquisition and Loads Controlling using Android Mobile and GSM
Technology
D. BHAGYA LAKSHMI1, S. SARATH CHANDRA2
1

PG Scholar, Dept of ECE, QIS Institute of Technology, Ongole, JNTUK, AP, India, Email: bhagya413.09@gmail.com.
2
Assoc Prof, Dept of ECE, QIS Institute of Technology, Ongole, JNTUK, AP, India, Email: ssschandra@gmail.com.

Abstract: With the scarcity of power resources and increase in demand for power, the world is going through a power crisis.
The world is now looking forward to develop technologies for efficient power generation and utilization at the same time. Here
LPC 2148 microcontroller is interfaced with Current Transformer-Sensor. Since ARM 7 has inbuilt ADC the sensors are directly
interfaced with the microcontroller and the values are continuously monitored with the set values. The Sensed energy value
sends it to the user mobile using Bluetooth communication and GSM technology. The User Interface of the device is to be
developed in android. The final output will be a smart plug that can monitor a remote device using android platform. The
controller collects the data and sends it to the mobile whenever the consumption of energy completed or low balance. So, the
consumer can check his information from the mobile using GSM module and control the loads if there is any exceeded power
consumption with developed android program. Thus the user can know about the status of the system remotely. Moreover, the
energy consumption is displayed on the LCD. For energy meter around area, we can control the loads using Bluetooth
technology. Globally, we can control the loads using GSM technology.
Keywords: Microcontroller, Automatic Energy Meter Reading System (AEMRS), Bluetooth Module, GSM Module.
I. INTRODUCTION
In some countries high loads at peak hours have lead to
blackouts in the past. India also faced a similar blackout in
August 2012 which left some 650 million people without
electricity [1]. Each such blackout used to cost millions in
loss to the industries which in turn used to affect the GDP of
the country. So power generation efficiency alone is not
important to a country but efficient power consumption
pattern as well. In this situation it has become a necessity to
raise awareness about the importance of giving people access
to data surrounding their energy usage. Even broader access
to this information could help reduce energy use worldwide
[2-3]. Energy consumption calculation is difficult. Electronic
utility meters are an important step towards automating the
utility metering process. The onset of rural electrification
provides opportunities for new and more efficient metering
technologies to be implemented [7]. Collection of meter
reading is also inefficient because a meter reader has to
physically be onsite to take the readings. This method of
collection of meter readings becomes more problematic and
costly when readings have to be collected from vast and often
rural areas.
Meter reading staffs are reluctant to make the effort to
travel to such areas and will often submit inaccurate
estimations of the amount of power consumed. For
households at the top of high building and luxury housing
plots, traditional meter reading is highly inefficient. There
may be chance for missing bills, absence of consumer etc.

Number of manual errors occurred during billing. This

application helps the user to observe and monitor the energy
consumption via mobile phone based on limit in order to
reduce the energy bill. The mobile users are on the rise with
the total mobiles in India to overtake human population in
numbers soon. So the GSM mobile will play a major role in
human to human and machine to human interaction [8].
Smart plug enables the users to operate a device and monitor
its power consumption even from a remote location using
GSM module. Control and data acquisition at the same time
thus enhances the user's ability to have a great control over
his/her spending on electricity. Bluetooth communication is
the best one to communicate nearby areas [9-11]. The
organization of this paper is as follows. SectionII reviews
previous studies and related research projects especially
power consumption monitoring applications and systems.
SectionIII describes our proposed-system architecture.
SectionIV shows system implementation of this application.
SectionV shows the results and the last conclusion was
elaborated in SectionVI.
II. RELATED WORK
In[4], the authors considered household power consumption
monitor and control. The developed system enabled users to
control over household appliances such as bulb lights or
virtually any kind of load, and to monitor the power output.
The system sends power output consumption information to a
PC, which gets analyzed and uploaded onto a server,
wherever the Internet connection is available to the user. In

Copyright @ 2014 IJSETR. All rights reserved.

D. BHAGYA LAKSHMI, S. SARATH CHANDRA

[5], the authors designed and implemented a device that
SPI, SSP to I2C bus and on-chip SRAM from 8 kB to 40 kB.
measures and stores home power usage data. They provide an
Make these devices very well suited for communication
interface for viewing power usage to be graphed by user
gateways, protocol converters and soft modems. Voice
prompted the system to dump the data wirelessly to a
recognition and low end imaging are providing both large
computer. In [6], the authors presented a low cost and
buffer size and high processing power. Various 32-bit timers,
flexible home control and monitoring system by using an
single or dual 10-bit ADCs, 10-bit DAC, PWM channels and
embedded micro-web server with IP connectivity for
45 fast GPIO lines, level sensitive external interrupt pins
accessing and controlling devices and appliances, remotely
make these microcontrollers suitable for industrial control
by using Android smart phone. Home environment devices,
and medical systems.
such as power plug, temperature sensor and current sensor
B. GSM Module
were integrated with the proposed home control system.
This GSM Modem can accept any network operator SIM
While our work overlaps with some of the prior efforts, there
card and act just like a mobile phone. Advantage of using this
are distinct differences. First, our application is designed on
modem is serial communication possible wirelessly. We use
Android operating system to monitor and control the excess
RS232 port to communicate and develop embedded
electric consumption. Second, users can view the statistical
applications. Embedded applications like SMS Control, data
history of energy usage, Power Factor, Number of units
transfer, remote control and data logging can be developed
consumed, Bill amount. GSM is the communication between
easily. The modem either connects to PC serial port directly
user mobile and energy meter kit.
or to any microcontroller. It can be used to send or receive
SMS or make/receive voice calls. This GSM modem is a
III. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
The hardware of the system is to be implemented using an
highly flexible plug and play quad band modem for direct
android application is a microcontroller board based on the
and easy integration to RS232 applications and also supports
LPC2148. A GSM module is used for connecting the module
features like Voice, SMS, Data/Fax, GPRS and integrated
to user mobile. A current sensor is used to sense the current
TCP/IP stack.
flowing on to the device by a noninvasive technique.
Programming environments are different for Android. Figure
1 shows the block diagram of our proposed paper. So, we are
using GSM Modem to extract the data from energy meter.

Figure2. GSM module overview.

Figure1. Block diagram.

A. ARM Controller [LPC2148]
1. General Description
The LPC2141/42/44/46/48 microcontrollers are based on
a 16-bit/32-bit ARM7TDMI-S CPU with real-time emulation
and embedded trace support that combine microcontroller
with embedded high speed flash memory ranging from 32 kB
to 512 kB, 128 bit wide memory interface and unique
accelerator architecture enable 32-bit code execution at the
maximum clock rate. For critical applications, the alternative
16-bit Thumb mode reduces code by more than 30 % with
minimal performance penalty. Due to their tiny size and low
power consumption LPC2141/42/44/46/48 are ideal for
applications where miniaturization is a key requirement such
as access control and point-of-scale. Serial communication
interfaces are USB 2.0 full-speed device, multiple UART s,

2. Package Includes
Modem - Assembled & Tested (1 Year Warranty)
Serial Cable
Antenna
3. Quick Start
Insert SIM card: Press the yellow pin to remove the
tray from the SIM cardholder.
Properly fixing the SIM card in the tray and then insert
the tray in the slot provided.
Connect Antenna: Screw the RF antenna if not already
connected.
Connect RS232 Cable to PC/MCU: (Cable provided
for RS232 communication). Default baud rate is 115200
with 8-N-1 and no hardware hand shaking.
Connect the power Supply 12V 1A to the power input of
board. Polarity should be Center +ve and outer ve DC
jack.

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research

Volume.03, IssueNo.35, November-2014, Pages: 6979-6984

Data Acquisition and Loads Controlling Using Android Mobile and GSM Technology
reading register, but instead developed an electrochemical
Network Led indicating various status of GSM module.
metering system, which used an electrolytic cell to totalize
Example: Power on, network registration & GPRS
current consumption. At periodic intervals the plates were
connectivity.
removed, weighed, and the customer billed. The
After the Modem connected with the network, led will
electrochemical meter was labor-intensive to read and not
blink. After few seconds, you can start work using
well received by the customers. In 1885 Ferranti offered a
modem for application.
mercury motor meter with a register similar to gas meters;
AT commands can be sent to control GSM Modem.
this had the advantage that the consumer could easily read
the meter and verify consumption. The first accurate,
4. Examples for send and receive SMS for sending SMS
recording electricity consumption meter was a DC meter by
in text Mode
Dr Hermann Aron, who patented it in 1883.
AT+CMGF=1 press enter.
AT+CMGS=mobile number press enter.
Once The AT commands is given > then prompt will
be displayed on the screen.
Type the message to send via SMS. After this, press
ctrl+ Z to send the SMS.
If the SMS sending is successful then ok will be
displayed along with the number.
5. For reading SMS in the text mode
AT+CMGF=1 Press enter
AT+CMGR= no.
Number (no.) is the message index number stored into
the SIM card. For new SMS, URC will be received on
the screen as +CMTI: SM no. Use this number in the
AT+CMGR number to read the message.
6. Interfacing GSM with microcontroller for sending
SMS
Connect MCU TXD/RXD through MAX232 so MCU can
communicate with GSM Modem
C. Automatic Energy Meter Reading System
The units are counted by a program in the microcontroller
with the help of an impulse detector sensing circuit.
Automatic Energy Meter Reading system (AEMRS)
continuously monitors the energy meter and sends data on
request of user through SMS. It saves huge human labour.

Figure3. Energy Meter.

2. Alternating Current (AC)
The first specimen of the AC kilowatt-hour meter
produced on the basis of Hungarian Otto Blathys patent and
named after him was presented by the Ganz Works at the
Frankfurt Fair in the autumn of 1889, and the first induction
kilowatt-hour meter was already marketed by the factory at
the end of the same year. These were the first alternatingcurrent watt meters, known by the name of Blathy-meters.
The AC kilowatt hour meters used at present operate on the
same principle as Blathy's original invention. Also around
1889, Elihu Thomson of the American General Electric
company developed a recording watt meter (watt-hour meter)
based on an ironless commutator motor. This meter overcame
the disadvantages of the electrochemical type and could
operate on either alternating or direct current. The most
common unit of measurement on the electricity meter is the
kilowatt hour, which is equal to the amount of energy used
by a load of one kilowatt over a period of one hour, or
3,600,000 joules. Some electricity companies use the SI
mega joule instead. Demand is normally measured in watts,
but averaged over a period, most often a quarter or half hour.

D. Energy Meter
Electricity meters in figure 3 are typically calibrated in
billing units, the most common one being the kilowatt
hour [kWh]. They are usually read once each billing period.
In settings when energy savings during certain periods are
desired, meters may measure the maximum use of power at
some intervals. In some areas the electric rates are higher
during certain times of day. It reflecting the higher cost of
power resources during peak demand time periods and also in
some areas meters have relays to turn off nonessential
equipment.
E. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
1. Direct Current (DC)
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat panel display,
As commercial use of electric energy in the 1880s, it
electronic
visual display that uses the light modulating
became increasingly important that an electric energy meter,
properties
of
liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light
similar to the then existing gas meters, was required to
directly.
LCDs
are available to display arbitrary images,
properly bill customers for the cost of energy, instead of
preset
words
and
digits. Thus we can able to get information
billing for a fixed number of lamps per month. Many
on
the
display.
It
is two rows and sixteen columns display
experimental types of meter were developed. Edison at first
system.
LCD
can
display
characters, digits and symbols.
worked on a DC electromechanical meter with a direct
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.35, November-2014, Pages: 6979-6984

D. BHAGYA LAKSHMI, S. SARATH CHANDRA

original program code converted into a hexadecimal format.
IV. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
During this step there are some warnings about eventual
A. Hardware Implementation
This paper presents the development of a micro-controller
errors in the program. If there are no errors and warnings
based unit for use with traditional energy meters. This unit
then run the program, the system performs all the required
displays day to day energy consumption, the tariff slab,
tasks and behaves as expected the software developed. If not,
electricity charges of consumer load. In this project, a
the whole procedure will have to be repeated again. Below
microcontroller is used like (1) Number of units (2) Bill
figures 4 and 5 shows the compilation of the program.
amount (3) energy consumption from the energy meter in
watts. The day to day consumption is calculated and the
charges for energy used will be displayed on LCD. An added
GSM module, sends a message alert to the consumer upon
consumption usage and also control the loads. Controller can
be used to interface all the components together to function
the system.
B. Software Implementation
The Software developed here is Keil software is used to
develop program to control all the peripherals together.
Firmware implementation deals in programming the
microcontroller so that it can control the operation of the ICs
used in the implementation. In the present paper, we was
used the Orcad design software for PCB circuit design, the
Keil v4 software development tool to write and compile the
source code. The Flash magic programmer has been used to
write this compile code into the microcontroller.
1. Software Tools Required
Orcad
Keil Vision4
Flash Magic

Figure 4: Compilation of source Code.

Orcad is used for drawing the schematic diagram, it is

mentioned above. Keilv4, Flashmagic are the two software
tools used to program microcontroller. The working of each
software tool is explained below in detail.
2. Programming code description
A compiler for a high level language helps to reduce
production time. To program the LPC2148 microcontroller
the Keil v4 is used. The programming is done in the
embedded C language or Assembly language. Keil v4 is a
suite of executable, open source software development tools
for the microcontrollers hosted on the Windows platform.
One of the difficulties of programming microcontrollers is
the limited amount of resources the programmer has to deal
with. In personal computers resources such as RAM and
processing speed are basically limitless when compared to
microcontrollers. In contrast, the code on microcontrollers
should be as low on resources as possible.
3. Keil Compiler
Keil compiler is software used where the machine
language code is written and compiled. After compilation,
the machine source code is converted into hex code which is
to be dumped into the microcontroller for further processing.
Keil compiler also supports C language code. The
compilation of the C program converts it into machine
language file (.hex). This is the only language the
microcontroller will understand, because it contains the

Figure 5: Run process of compiled Code.

3. Flash magic
Flash Magic is a PC tool for programming flash based
microcontrollers from NXP using a serial or Ethernet
protocol while in the target hardware. The figures 6 and 7
below show how the baud rate is selected for the
microcontroller, how are the registers erased before the
device is programmed.

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research

Volume.03, IssueNo.35, November-2014, Pages: 6979-6984

Data Acquisition and Loads Controlling Using Android Mobile and GSM Technology

Figure 9: Receiving message of user number to store in

controller.

Figure 10: Number of units, amount and watts consumed

display.
Figure 6: Dumping of the code into Microcontroller.

Figure 11: Messaging the energy consumption whenever

required and stopped.

Figure 7: Dump process finished.

If dumping process of the hex file is completed, then the
controller will work as per our requirement.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Result of our project can be work properly and the circuit
can show the complete construction of the project which we
done (fig 8 to 14).

Figure 12: Data acquisition by sending character d from

android phone to the Bluetooth module.

Figure 13: Data acquisition Using GSM mobile.

Figure 8: Proposed system prototype.
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.35, November-2014, Pages: 6979-6984

D. BHAGYA LAKSHMI, S. SARATH CHANDRA

Authors Profile:
Ms. D. Bhagya Lakshmi has completed
her B.Tech in ECE Department from
Pace Institute of Technology and
Sciences, Valluru, JNTUK. Presently she
is pursuing her Masters in VLSI &
Embedded Systems from QIS Institute of
Technology, Ongole, JNTUK, A.P, India.
Figure 14: Controlling the load as ON by sending O as
message to communication module.
Mr. S. Sarath Chandra completed his B.
VI. CONCLUSION
E. from Anna University, Chennai,
Data acquisition and Loads Controlling using Android
received his M. Tech from JNTU
mobile and GSM Technology using Android mobile for
Hyderabad and presently he is pursuing
remote monitoring of energy consumption at the device level
Ph. D. in the field of Embedded Systems
has been developed and the android application can be added
from K. L University. He is having 9
to control the excess current loads. The results obtained using
years of experience in teaching, presently
the device showed an energy saving up to certain percent.
working in QIS Institute of Technology, Ongole as an
Associate Professor in the Department of Electronics &
A. Future Scope
Communication Engineering.
The present system can be developed by using GPS system
and the meter reading, billing data maintenance can be
maintained by server under government.
VII. REFERENCES
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[3] http://www.google.com/powermeter/about/.
[4] Alahmad, Mahmoud A. ; Wheeler, Patrick G.; Schwer,
Avery ; Eiden, Joshua ; Brumbaugh, Adam, "A Comparative
Study of Three Feedback Device Residential Real-Time
Energy Monitoring", IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Electronics, Vol. 59, Issue: 4, 2012, pp.2002-2013.
[5] http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/
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[6] Shen, I-Cheng; Liu, Tang-Jen, "Reducing power
consumed by a PC-based server in an Internet-based data
acquisition system using a novel server agent",3CA,
2010,vol. 1,pp.423-425.
[7] Arduino.[Online].Available: http://arduino.cc/.
[8] Microchip datasheet on ENC28J60 Stand-Alone
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[9] Rosenthal, Andrew L.Mani, Jeevankumar; Kachare,
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[10] Kanda, Kazuya; Ishii, Tadashi; Kameoka, Takaharu
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International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research

Volume.03, IssueNo.35, November-2014, Pages: 6979-6984