Turning a bulb on with my android + arduino

[Tiago]

My latest creation :

Controlling a bulb with Arduino

with:
- Arduino Uno Rev3
- Relay
- wireless module
- Android software

[Harrison]

Cool. Next to wire up the whole house to remove control. Is it via WiFi?

Have you seen the episode of "Big Bang Theory" where they wire up their whole apartment so it can be remotely controlled from the internet? People from China were switching all of their lights on and off. Then they added remote control cars with cameras, and they all rushed Penny to look up her skirt!

[Stephen Coates]

Seems a bit over the top for a light bulb, but still cool

I saw that Big Bang episode.

[Tiago]

It uses a wireless module with bluetooth. I am using the bluetooth protocol over App Inventor,
I just need to pass a single letter like "O" for ON and "F" for off.
If letter = "O" then arduino activated the relay to let the current flow. Simple.

[Harrison]

Nice. It looked quite instant in control, but what sort of delay do you get between telling it to switch on, and it actually performing it?

There must be loads of other things this could be used for.

[Tiago]

The delay? well ...
1) Android has to transmit the 1 character by bluetooth
2) the Arduino receives the character by it's wireless module. I initialize at 9600 baud, i can do it faster, but it's the advice speed..
3) The arduino has to send an order to the relay to open a 2nd circuit (DC to AC)

So, the bluetooth initialization in Arduino code is the major reason (guess is the only true reason).

And yes you can do all sort of thing with it. Just need a bit imagination, and a lot of time LOL
this one was not so hard, and i just use some basic components, the other project, the LCD with RTC clock was much more complicated.