Power to Parents - Intel Edison

PowerToParents - InteL Roadshow NYC 2015

The control of everyday devices on parents’ hands.

On modern days often kids are alone at home. How do parents can enforce, for example, the right amount of time on TV for their kids? PowerToParents gives to parents the ability of describing how long their kids can use an appliance when they ask for it. The project was developed and rewarded as third place during a Roadshow sponsored by Intel which took place at New York City.

• Intel Edison + Arduino Breakout Board
• Base Shield V2
  
• Grove - Button
• Grove - Relay
  

Follow the video above.

The ports are don't need to be exactly the same as in the video, however, if you change the ports, don't forget to update the source code.

Please, exercise A LOT OF CARE when handling the relay, the wires and connections. As you can turn on and off all sort of equipments, make sure that you have experience handling HIGH currents.

The necessaries to pre set the Intel Edison up is not being covered in here. To further information, we advise you to follow the Instructable made by DangerousTim, An Absolute Beginners Guide To The Intel Edison

The Power to Parents solution is divided in two parts: The Intel Edison software and the server software. The code to those parts may be find on the GitHub repository.

Yet it is advised that the server is on the internet, you may install it on a computer on the network, or even on the Intel Edison. However, you may access it wherever if it is on the internet.

Both the server and the Intel Edison software run on node.js.

The server

Install Node.js on your machine copy the server's folder which is on GitHub to your machine. Before starting the server up, make sure that you directory has all the dependencies to work. Those are:

• express.io
• Nodemailer and
• socket.io

It was decided to use socket.io because it implements a convenient way of using sockets. It also allows the application to communicate in real-time with the Intel Edison software. Therefore, the parent can be notified immediately if any request was made.

After downloading the code, change the information referent to the recipient of the variable email to your email. Make sure the variable serverIP is correctly set to your server IP.

The Intel Edison

Copy the paste edison on the GitHub repository to your Intel Edison device. As the server, the software on the Intel Edison also runs on Node.js. However, it doesn't need the same dependencies as the server. The necessary dependencies are:

• mraa and
• socket.io-client

When the Intel Edison is configured and updated, both the Node.js and the library mraa are installed. Make sure only that the library socket.io-client is rightly configured.

Now that you have set both hardware and software, it is time to run it.
Start your server:

$ node server.js

And then the application on your Intel Edison

$ node main.js

Power to Parents is now ready to be used. Have fun.