Developers: Five IoT home projects you can build

Whether you're a professional or hobbyist developer, you likely have some side-projects to help you discover new technology, learn how it works, or build solutions to hopefully make life easier. With the holiday season winding down, did you notice any situations where IoT technology could help improve things around your home to enhance your holiday experience?

We ask this question in our homes, so it inspired us to dive into the QDN Projects page for inspiration. Here are our top five IoT projects for the home, powered with innovation from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

1. Integrated Alexa and LIFX Bulb

Why physically walk up to lamps or switches while you are kicked back and relaxing when you can simply ask Alexa to do the hard work for you?

The Integrated Alexa and LIFX Bulb project shows how to incorporate a DragonBoard 410c Development Board with an Amazon Echo (configured using Alexa Skills Kit) to control an LIFX smart bulb.

The project uses Amazon Voice Services (AVS) along with LIFX's REST API to set the color and state of the LIFX bulb. The DragonBoard 410c runs a Python application that implements an AWS Lambda to handle voice commands from the Amazon Echo via AVS. The Lambda handles various user intents including color and state requests. The handler then invokes a PUT request on LIFX's /lights/states endpoint to command the light bulb according to the incoming user intent.

With a project like this, turning your lights on and off has never been easier. You can easily control multiple lights though voice commands, and even set the ambience with different colors.

2. Home Control on QCA402x

While voice control is convenient, so too is controlling your smart home devices via your smart phone.

The Home Control on QCA402x project does just that using a Qualcomm QCA4020 SoC to control a smart bulb, smart lock, and smoke detector via a mobile app over Bluetooth Low Energy.

The project includes a home automation application written in C that runs on the QCA4020. A smart lock (servo motor) is wired to the QCA4020 and receives PWM signals from the application to lock or unlock the door. A smoke sensor is also wired to the QCA4020, while a thread in the application polls the sensor every 30 seconds to determine if smoke is detected. The smart light bulb is connected wirelessly to the QCA4020 over Bluetooth Low Energy.

This project also includes an Android GUI application that runs on a smart phone to control the smart light bulb and lock. The application sends the corresponding commands to the QCA4020 over Bluetooth Low Energy as the user makes their selections.

This project can be a great foundation for controlling the smart devices in your home while learning about Bluetooth Low Energy.

3. IoT Merchandise Cart on MDM9206

Keeping your drinks and snacks well-stocked is a must for any party, especially at larger venues.

The Merchant Cart project was originally developed to help vendors detect and manage their supply of goods at outdoor events, but aspects of this project can certainly be useful for more personal gatherings.

The project uses a Quectel LTE OPEN EVB connected to an array of Thin Force sensors via GPIO to track inventories of beer bottles. The Quectel LTE OPEN EVB is paired with the Qualcomm MDM9206 modem and inventory data is fed to a web application that provides real-time inventory information. Cloud support comes by way of the Qualcomm LTE for IoT SDK.

Now, you can spend less time physically monitoring your refreshment inventory at parties and more time entertaining guests!

4. Clueless Closet

If you have a closet full of clothes but can never find anything to wear, why not let a computer choose your outfit for you?

The Clueless Closet project does exactly that by incorporating machine learning to pick outfits based on the weather and your style preferences. Built around the DragonBoard 410C Development Board, the project uses smart hangers equipped with Arduinos and sensors, which are polled by the DragonBoard 410c. Images of outfits are scanned and stored in the system, and an application asks the user what style of clothing is to be selected. The system then locates the smart hanger with a selected match and illuminates a light to identify the outfit you should wear.

With computer-assisted clothing selection, you may never need to worry about what to wear ever again!

5. Sound-Activated Lamp

We all strive to save energy where we can, especially when those festive lights keep your home's power meter seemingly spinning out of control.

A great way to save energy is to be smart about it. The Sound-Activated Lamp project demonstrates this by turning on lights when sounds are detected (e.g., in the presence of people), and then automatically turns off the lights after a period of no sound.

This project includes two C modules: the first module defines a kernel-level driver that sets up an IRQ handler for detecting sound. The second module contains the main() loop that repeatedly reads the sound value from the lamp driver and toggles the lamp accordingly.

Using this project, you can automate the activation of lights in certain areas of your home based on occupancy, all while learning about kernel-level Linux code.

Get started on your project today!

These are just a few of the example projects available on QDN, so be sure to check out the Projects page for more inspirational ideas. You can easily filter the list by hardware, area of focus, etc., using the filter options on the left.

If you've built a cool project using any of our technologies, be sure to tell us about it and we may showcase it on the Projects page for others to see.

Qualcomm QCS4020, Qualcomm MDM9206, and Qualcomm LTE for IoT SDK are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.