Web-based Actuator using PICNIC 02 TS (part 1)

This is my note about web-based actuator using PICNIC board, I got  this awesome device for my master thesis, theme IT agriculture in specific application of web actuator for green house monitoring system. Firstly i will introduce about this research background, hopefully it can give you introduction about this notes.

Field monitoring system in agricultural system is already given and now is being developed for improvement in details by member of bioproduction engineering laboratory. There are three master student take part in this research themes. 吉田博道( Yoshida Hiromichi) will focus on Temperature Graph data analysis, his aim of research is developing alert system for green house monitoring system using web( php & mysql).松本武 (Matsumoto Takeshi) will focus on image processing, the aim of his research is provide the optimize the amount of fertilizer dose, with the ultimate goal protein level that appropriate for market ( farmer needs). アンデリ will focus on web actuator for controlling greenhouse(fertilizer, aeration, irrigation), I using PICNIC board for my controller device and  web-based programming for the data processing. farther application, this device will implement in mobile device such as android tablet ( web apps for tablet), smartphone, and pad.

Web Actuator Scenarios

This is the scenario for actuating device.

Picture above show us the system that we will build, web application which located in central server is provide API (Application Programming Interface), this api will be used by Pad to manage local environment. In our plan, communicate between client and server will use JSON (JavaScript On Notation), is a lightweight text-based open standard designed for human-readable data interchange. It is derived from the JavaScript scripting language for representing simple data structures and associative arrays, called objects.

Pad/Tablet

This device will perform actuating and managing local environment in greenhouse, In our plan, this device bot only gateway for transmitting data to server but also actuating and sending command to PICNIC via http (port 80). Maybe this topic will be the next homework if the actuating web finish and able to working in strawberry greenhouse.

PICNIC 02 Board

This device is made by Akizuki on Trisate. PICNIC abbreviation of PIC Network Interface Card kit.  Network can be connected directly to 10BASE-T interface features, innovative products can directly control the input and output ports of the analog / digital via LAN. This product is a single-chip LSI for flat package in the form of network control board kit but is already mounted on the substrate, EEPROM and other PIC, R / C controller and RS232C board must implement their own board. More information please refer this link or these.

GUI Interface

Actually this device can be accessed using http request (port 80) by default, either udp paralel port(#10001) or udp serial port (#10002). In my trial, the successful method was using http connection. Web interface consist of thre kind part, monitoring input/output (I/O), network configuration and the current configuration status ( amount of packet data and current ip address). In my case i using Ip address in kashiihama dormitory (192.168.64.44) for the card and my computer was set DHCP, so that in the same time I can access PIC and Internet, instead of change my ip address periodically. This is view of web interface PICNIC.

Actually this device is useful for remote monitoring and actuating, as the explanation in official page, we can create program ourself to make custom action for special purposes. My assignment is how to make web actuator and controlling the environment in greenhouse(strawberry greenhouse).