Smart Internet of Things Projects

Python has big communities. They help their members to learn and share. Several community members have been open sources related to computational statistics and data science, which can be used for our work. We will use these libraries for our implementation.

The following are several Python libraries for statistics and data science.

Arduino is a widely used development board. This board is well known in the embedded community. Most Arduino boards are built using Atmel AVR, but some boards use other MCUs regarding to who joints venture with Arduino. Currently, Arduino boards are built by Arduino.cc and Arduino.org. Other companies also build boards, which are usually called Arduino-compatible. This is because the founder of Arduino already shared the board scheme so that people can build own Arduino. Please make sure you use a board and software from the same company.

To extend Arduino I/O and functionalities, we can use Arduino shields. There are many Arduino shields, with different purposes, for instance, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GSM, temperature, and humidity sensors. The benefit of using the Arduino shield is that it allows you to focus on board development. We just have to attach Arduino shield to the Arduino board without any soldering.

We're going to review several Arduino boards from Arduino.cc. We can read a comparison of all Arduino boards from Arduino.cc by visiting this site: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Products/Compare. We will review Arduino boards such as Arduino Uno, Arduino 101, and Arduino MKR1000.

The Arduino Uno model is widely used in Arduino development. It's built on top of a MCU ATmega328P microcontroller. The board provides several digital and analog I/O pins, to which we can attach our sensor and actuator devices. SPI and I2C protocols are also provided by the Arduino Uno. For further information about the board, I recommend you read the board specification at http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUno. You can see an Arduino Uno board in the following figure:

Source: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11021

Arduino 101 is the same as Arduino Uno in terms of I/O pins. Arduino 101 runs Intel Curie, http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wearables/wearable-soc.html, as its core module. This board has a built-in Bluetooth module. If you want your Arduino 101 connect to a Wi-Fi network, you should add an additional Wi-Fi shield. I recommend you use Arduino Wi-Fi Shield 101, http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoWiFiShield101.

The following figure shows an Arduino 101 board:

Source: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13850

Arduino MKR1000 is a new board at the time of writing. This board uses the Atmel ATSAMW25 SoC, which provides a built-in Wi-Fi module. I recommend using this board as an IoT solution for the Arduino platform because the Wi-Fi module, WINC1500, is supported for SSL and ECC508 CryptoAuthentication. Further information about this board can be found at http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoMKR1000.

The following figure shows the Arduino MKR1000 board:

Source: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoMKR1000

The Raspberry Pi is a low-cost with credit card-sized computer created by Eben Upton. It's a mini computer for educational purposes. To see all Raspberry Pi models, you can go to https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/. You can see Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and Raspberry Pi Zero in the following explanation.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is the third generation of Raspberry Pi. This board consists of a Quad-Core 64-bit CPU, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. It's highly recommended for your IoT solution.

The following figure shows a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B board:

Source: https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b

The Raspberry Pi Zero is a small computer half the size of the Model A+. It runs with a single-core CPU and no network module, but it provides a micro HDMI to be connected to a monitor. Due to the lack of network module, you will need an extended module, for instance, Ethernet USB or Wi-Fi USB, to connect Raspberry Pi Zero to a network.

The following image shows a Raspberry Pi Zero board:

Source: https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-zero/products/raspberry-pi-zero

BeagleBone Black (BBB) Rev C is a development kit based on an AM335x processor, which integrates an ARM Cortex™-A8 core operating at up to 1 GHz. BBB is more powerful than Raspberry Pi. A BBB board also provides internal 4 GB 8-bit eMMC on-board flash storage.

BBB supports several OSes such as Debian, Android, and Ubuntu. To find out more about BBB, go to https://beagleboard.org/black.

The following figure shows a BeagleBone Black board:

Source: http://www.exp-tech.de/beaglebone-black-rev-c-element14

SeeedStudio BeagleBone Green (BBG) is a joint effort by BeagleBoard.org and Seeed Studio. BBG has the same features as the BBB, except the HDMI port is replaced by Grove connectors, so the BBG's price is lower than the BBB. You can review and buy this board at http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/SeeedStudio-BeagleBone-Green-p-2504.html.

The following figure shows a BBG board:

Source: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/SeeedStudio-BeagleBone-Green-p-2504.html

The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi MCU with integrated TCP/IP. It's built by Espressif Systems, a Chinese manufacturer. You can find further information about this chip at http://espressif.com/en/products/hardware/esp8266ex/overview.

There are many boards based on the ESP8266 chip. The following is a list of board platforms that are built on top of an ESP8266 MCU:

If you're interested in the ESP8266 chip, I recommend you join the ESP8266 forum at http://www.esp8266.com. The following is a list of product forms for NodeMCU v2 and SparkFun ESP8266 Thing.

The following figure shows a NodeMCU v2 board:

Source: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/NodeMCU-v2-Lua-based-ESP8266-development-kit-p-2415.html

Although NodeMCU v2 and SparkFun ESP8266 Thing boards have the same chip, their chip model is different. NodeMCU v2 uses an ESP8266 module. The SparkFun ESP8266 Thing board uses an ESP8266EX chip. In addition, the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing board provides a LiPo connector, which you can attach to an external battery.

The following figure shows a SparkFun ESP8266 Thing board:

SparkFun ESP8266 Thing board. Source: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13231

TI CC3200 is a Wi-Fi MCU based on the ARM® Cortex®-M4 from Texas Instruments. This board is a complete solution for IoT. This chip supports for station, access point, and Wi-Fi direct modes. In terms of security, TI CC3200 supports WPA2 personal and enterprise security and WPS 2.0. You can review this module at http://www.ti.com/product/cc3200.

For IoT development, Texas Instruments provides the SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3200 LaunchPad evaluation kit, which is a complete kit for development and debugging.

The following figure shows a SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3200 LaunchPad board:

Source: https://www.conrad.de/de/entwicklungsboard-texas-instruments-cc3200-launchxl-1273804.html

The TI CC3200 is also used by Readbear, http://redbear.cc, to develop RedBearLab CC3200 and RedBearLab Wi-Fi Micro boards. These boards have the same functionalities as the SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3200 LaunchPad board, but it excludes the CC3200 debugger tool. These boards' prices are also lower than that of the SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3200 LaunchPad board.

The following figure shows a RedBearLab CC3200 board:

Source: http://www.exp-tech.de/redbearlab-cc3200

Most Arduino development uses Sketch. This is a simple programming language for building Arduino applications. If you have experience in C/C++, you'll be familiar with the programming syntax.

To start your development, you can download Arduino software from https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software. After that, read about Arduino API at http://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/HomePage.

Related to digital and analog I/O, you should be familiar with the following Sketch API:

In this section, I'll show you how to work with analog and digital I/O on Arduino. I use a light sensor. LDR or Photoresistor sensors are low-priced light sensor device. Even Seeedstudio has already designed one in module form, Grove – Light Sensor(P). You can review it at http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove-Light-SensorP-p-1253.html. This module has four pins, but you only connect the VCC and GND pins to the VCC and GND pins of your Arduino board. Then, the SIG pin is connected to an analog pin of the Arduino board. The following figure shows a Grove – Light Sensor(P):

Source: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove-Light-SensorP-p-1253.html

You will need the following resources for testing:

Now you can connect digital 6 to digital 7. Then, the SIG pin from the LDR module is connected to A0. The VCC and GND pins of the LDR module are connected to 3V3 and GND. You can see the hardware wiring in the following figure:

This wiring is built using Fritzing, http://fritzing.org. It's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. You can build your own wiring with some electronics components and boards. This tool provides a lot of electronics components. You can also add your own electronics components or downloads from the Internet.

My wiring implementation is shown in the following figure:

The next step is to write an Arduino program. Open your Arduino software, then, write the following program:

int dig_output = 7;
int dig_input = 6;
int analog_input = A0;

int digital_val = LOW;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600); 

  pinMode(dig_output, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(dig_input, INPUT);
}

void loop() {

  digitalWrite(dig_output,digital_val);
  int read_digital = digitalRead(dig_input);
  Serial.print("Digital write: ");
  Serial.print(digital_val);
  Serial.print(" read: ");
  Serial.println(read_digital);

  int ldr = analogRead(analog_input);
  Serial.print("Analog read: ");
  Serial.println(ldr);  

  if(digital_val==LOW)
    digital_val = HIGH;
  else
    digital_val = LOW; 

  delay(1000);
}

Save this program as ArduinoIO. You can deploy this program to your Arduino board through Arduino software.

When finished, you can open the Serial Monitor tool from your Arduino software:

This program sends digital data (high and low values) from digital pin 7 to digital pin 6. You can read a light value from the LDR module via analogRead() on the A0 pin.

For the second sensing testing scenario, we will try to read temperature and humidity data from a sensor device. I use DHT-22. The RHT03 (also known as DHT-22) is a low-cost humidity and temperature sensor with a single wire digital interface. You can obtain this module from SparkFun, https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10167, and Adafruit, https://www.adafruit.com/products/393. You could also find this module in your local electronics store or online.

DHT22 module. Source: https://www.adafruit.com/products/385

Further information about the DHT-22 module, you can read the DHT-22 datasheet at http://cdn.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Sensors/Weather/RHT03.pdf.

Now we connect DHT-22 module to Arduino. The following is the wiring:

You can see this wiring in the following figure:

You can see my wiring implementation in the following figure:

To access DHT-22 on Arduino, we can use the DHT Sensor library from Adafruit, https://github.com/adafruit/DHT-sensor-library. We can install this library from the Arduino software. Click the menu Sketch | Include Library | Manage Libraries so you will get a dialog.

Search dht in Library Manager. You should see the DHT sensor library by Adafruit. Install this library:

When installation is complete, you can start to write programs on the Arduino software. The following is a program sample for reading temperature and humidity from the DHT-22 module:

#include "DHT.h"

// define DHT22
#define DHTTYPE DHT22 
// define pin on DHT22
#define DHTPIN 8 

DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600); 
  dht.begin();
}

void loop() {
  delay(2000);

  // Reading temperature or humidity takes about 250 milliseconds!
  // Sensor readings may also be up to 2 seconds 'old' (its a very slow sensor)
  float h = dht.readHumidity();
  // Read temperature as Celsius (the default)
  float t = dht.readTemperature();


  // Check if any reads failed and exit early (to try again).
  if (isnan(h) || isnan(t)) {
    Serial.println("Failed to read from DHT sensor!");
    return;
  }

  // Compute heat index in Celsius (isFahreheit = false)
  float hic = dht.computeHeatIndex(t, h, false);

  Serial.print("Humidity: ");
  Serial.print(h);
  Serial.print(" %\t");
  Serial.print("Temperature: ");
  Serial.print(t);
  Serial.print(" *C\t");  
  Serial.print("Heat index: ");
  Serial.print(hic);
  Serial.println(" *C ");  
}

Save this program as ArduinoDHT. Now you can compile and upload the program to your Arduino board. After that, open Serial Monitor to see the temperature and humidity data:

How does it work?

In the setup() function, we initialize the DHT module by calling dht.begin(). To read temperature and humidity, you can use dht.readTemperature() and dht.readHumidity(). You also can get a heat index using the dht.computeHeatIndex() function.

Raspberry Pi board is one of boards used for testing experiments in this book. In this section, we use Raspberry Pi to sense and actuate with external devices. I use a Raspberry Pi 3 board for testing.

Accessing Raspberry Pi GPIO

If you use the latest version of Raspbian (Jessie or later), wiringPi module, http://wiringpi.com, is already installed for you. You can verify your wiringPi version on Raspberry Pi Terminal using the following command:

$ gpio -v

You should see your wiringPi module version. A sample of the program output can be seen in the following screenshot:

Furthermore, you can verify the Raspberry GPIO layout using the following command:

$ gpio - readall

This command will display the Raspberry Pi layout. It can detect your Raspberry Pi model. A sample of the program output for my board, Raspberry Pi 3, can be seen in the following screenshot:

For Raspberry Pi GPIO development, the latest Raspbian also has the RPi.GPIO library already installed—https://pypi.python.org/pypi/RPi.GPIO, for Python, so we can use it directly now.

To test Raspberry Pi GPIO, we put an LED on GPIO11 (BCM 17). You can see the wiring in the following figure:

Now you can write a Python program with your own editor. Write the following program:

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time


led_pin = 17
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(led_pin, GPIO.OUT)


try:
    while 1:
        print("turn on led")
        GPIO.output(led_pin, GPIO.HIGH)
        time.sleep(2)
        print("turn off led")
        GPIO.output(led_pin, GPIO.LOW)
        time.sleep(2)

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    GPIO.output(led_pin, GPIO.LOW)
    GPIO.cleanup()


print("done")

The following is an explanation of the code:

• We set GPIO type using GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM). I used the GPIO.BCM mode. In GPIO BCM, you should see GPIO values on the BCM column from the GPIO layout.

• We defined GPIO, which will be used by calling GPIO.setup() as the output mode.

• To set digital output, we can call GPIO.output(). GPIO.HIGH is used to send 1 to the digital output. Otherwise, GPIO.LOW is used for sending 0 to the digital output.

Save this program into a file called ch01_led.py.

Now you can run the program by typing the following command on your Raspberry Pi Terminal.

$ sudo python ch01_led.py

We execute the program using sudo, due to security permissions. To access the Raspberry Pi hardware I/O, we need local administrator privileges.

You should see a blinking LED and also get a response from the program. A sample of the program output can be seen in the following screenshot:

Sensing through sensor devices

In this section, we will explore how to sense from Raspberry Pi. We use DHT-22 to collect temperature and humidity readings on its environment.

To access DHT-22 using Python, we use the Adafruit Python DHT Sensor library. You can review this module at https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_DHT.

You need required libraries to build Adafruit Python DHT Sensor library. Type the following commands in your Raspberry Pi Terminal:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev

Now you can download and install the Adafruit Python DHT Sensor library:

$ git clone https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_DHT
$ cd Adafruit_Python_DHT/
$ sudo python setup.py install

If finished, we can start to build our wiring. Connect the DHT-22 module to the following connections:

• DHT-22 pin 1 (VDD) is connected to the 3.3V pin on your Raspberry Pi

• DHT-22 pin 2 (SIG) is connected to the GPIO23 (see the BCM column) pin on your Raspberry Pi

• DHT-22 pin 4 (GND) is connected to the GND pin on your Raspberry Pi

The complete wiring is shown in the following figure:

The next step is to write a Python program. You can write the following code:

import Adafruit_DHT
import time

sensor = Adafruit_DHT.DHT22

# DHT22 pin on Raspberry Pi
pin = 23


try:
    while 1:
        print("reading DHT22...")
        humidity, temperature = Adafruit_DHT.read_retry(sensor, pin)

        if humidity is not None and temperature is not None:
            print('Temp={0:0.1f}*C  Humidity={1:0.1f}%'.format(temperature, humidity))

        time.sleep(2)

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    print("exit")


print("done")

Save this program into a file called ch01_dht22.py. Then, you can run this file on your Raspberry Pi Terminal. Type the following command:

$ sudo python ch01_dht22.py

A sample of the program output can be seen in the following screenshot:

How does it work?

First, we set our DHT module type by calling the Adafruit_DHT.DHT22 object. Set which DHT-22 pin is attached to your Raspberry Pi board. In this case, I use GPIO23 (BCM).

To obtain temperature and humidity sensor data, we call Adafruit_DHT.read_retry(sensor, pin). To make sure the returning values are not NULL, we validate them using conditional-if.

PID control is the most common control algorithm widely used in industry, and has been universally accepted in industrial control. The basic idea behind a PID controller is to read a sensor, then compute the desired actuator output by calculating proportional, integral, and derivative responses and summing those three components to compute the output.

An example design of a general PID controller is depicted in the following figure:

Furthermore, a PID controller formula can be defined as follows:

K_p, K_i , K_d represent the coefficients for the proportional, integral, and derivative. These parameters are non-negative values. The variable e represents the tracking error, the difference between the desired input value i, and the actual output y. This error signal e will be sent to the PID controller.

In this section, we will build a Python application to implement the PID controller. In general, our program flowchart can be described by the following figure:

We should not build a PID library from scratch. You can translate PID controller formula into Python code easily. For implementation, I use the PID class from https://github.com/ivmech/ivPID. The following is the content of the PID.py file:

import time

class PID:
    """PID Controller
    """

    def __init__(self, P=0.2, I=0.0, D=0.0):

        self.Kp = P
        self.Ki = I
        self.Kd = D

        self.sample_time = 0.00
        self.current_time = time.time()
        self.last_time = self.current_time

        self.clear()

    def clear(self):
        """Clears PID computations and coefficients"""
        self.SetPoint = 0.0

        self.PTerm = 0.0
        self.ITerm = 0.0
        self.DTerm = 0.0
        self.last_error = 0.0

        # Windup Guard
        self.int_error = 0.0
        self.windup_guard = 20.0

        self.output = 0.0

    def update(self, feedback_value):
        """Calculates PID value for given reference feedback

        .. math::
            u(t) = K_p e(t) + K_i \int_{0}^{t} e(t)dt + K_d {de}/{dt}

        .. figure:: images/pid_1.png
           :align:   center

           Test PID with Kp=1.2, Ki=1, Kd=0.001 (test_pid.py)

        """
        error = self.SetPoint - feedback_value

        self.current_time = time.time()
        delta_time = self.current_time - self.last_time
        delta_error = error - self.last_error

        if (delta_time >= self.sample_time):
            self.PTerm = self.Kp * error
            self.ITerm += error * delta_time

            if (self.ITerm < -self.windup_guard):
                self.ITerm = -self.windup_guard
            elif (self.ITerm > self.windup_guard):
                self.ITerm = self.windup_guard

            self.DTerm = 0.0
            if delta_time > 0:
                self.DTerm = delta_error / delta_time

            # Remember last time and last error for next calculation
            self.last_time = self.current_time
            self.last_error = error

            self.output = self.PTerm + (self.Ki * self.ITerm) + (self.Kd * self.DTerm)

    def setKp(self, proportional_gain):
        """Determines how aggressively the PID reacts to the current error with setting Proportional Gain"""
        self.Kp = proportional_gain

    def setKi(self, integral_gain):
        """Determines how aggressively the PID reacts to the current error with setting Integral Gain"""
        self.Ki = integral_gain

    def setKd(self, derivative_gain):
        """Determines how aggressively the PID reacts to the current error with setting Derivative Gain"""
        self.Kd = derivative_gain

    def setWindup(self, windup):
        """Integral windup, also known as integrator windup or reset windup,
        refers to the situation in a PID feedback controller where
        a large change in setpoint occurs (say a positive change)
        and the integral terms accumulates a significant error
        during the rise (windup), thus overshooting and continuing
        to increase as this accumulated error is unwound
        (offset by errors in the other direction).
        The specific problem is the excess overshooting.
        """
        self.windup_guard = windup

    def setSampleTime(self, sample_time):
        """PID that should be updated at a regular interval.
        Based on a pre-determined sampe time, the PID decides if it should compute or return immediately.
        """
        self.sample_time = sample_time

For testing purposes, we create a simple program for simulation. We need required libraries such as numpy, scipy, pandas, patsy, and matplotlib libraries. First, you should install python-dev for Python development. Type the following commands in your Raspberry Pi Terminal:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install python-dev

When done, you can install numpy, scipy, pandas, and patsy libraries. Open your Raspberry Pi Terminal and type the following commands:

$ sudo apt-get install python-scipy
$ pip install numpy scipy pandas patsy

The last step is to install the matplotlib library from source code. Type the following commands on your Raspberry Pi Terminal:

$ git clone https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib
$ cd matplotlib
$ python setup.py build
$ sudo python setup.py install

Once the required libraries are installed, we can test our PID.py file. Type the following program:

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('Agg')

import PID
import time
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from scipy.interpolate import spline


P = 1.4
I = 1
D = 0.001
pid = PID.PID(P, I, D)

pid.SetPoint = 0.0
pid.setSampleTime(0.01)

total_sampling = 100
feedback = 0

feedback_list = []
time_list = []
setpoint_list = []

print("simulating....")
for i in range(1, total_sampling):
    pid.update(feedback)
    output = pid.output
    if pid.SetPoint > 0:
        feedback += (output - (1 / i))

    if 20 < i < 60:
        pid.SetPoint = 1

    if 60 <= i < 80:
        pid.SetPoint = 0.5

    if i >= 80:
        pid.SetPoint = 1.3

    time.sleep(0.02)

    feedback_list.append(feedback)
    setpoint_list.append(pid.SetPoint)
    time_list.append(i)

time_sm = np.array(time_list)
time_smooth = np.linspace(time_sm.min(), time_sm.max(), 300)
feedback_smooth = spline(time_list, feedback_list, time_smooth)

fig1 = plt.gcf()
fig1.subplots_adjust(bottom=0.15)

plt.plot(time_smooth, feedback_smooth, color='red')
plt.plot(time_list, setpoint_list, color='blue')
plt.xlim((0, total_sampling))
plt.ylim((min(feedback_list) - 0.5, max(feedback_list) + 0.5))
plt.xlabel('time (s)')
plt.ylabel('PID (PV)')
plt.title('TEST PID')


plt.grid(True)
print("saving...")
fig1.savefig('result.png', dpi=100)

Save this program into a file called test_pid.py. Then, run this program.

$ python test_pid.py

This program will generate result.png as a result of the PID process. A sample of the output form, result.png, is shown in the following figure. You can see that the blue line represents desired values and the red line is an output of PID:

How does it work?

First, we define our PID parameters, as follows:

P = 1.4
I = 1
D = 0.001
pid = PID.PID(P, I, D)

pid.SetPoint = 0.0
pid.setSampleTime(0.01)

total_sampling = 100
feedback = 0

feedback_list = []
time_list = []
setpoint_list = []

After that, we compute the PID value during sampling time. In this case, we set the desired output value as follows:

The last step is to generate a report and is saved to a file called result.png:

time_sm = np.array(time_list)
time_smooth = np.linspace(time_sm.min(), time_sm.max(), 300)
feedback_smooth = spline(time_list, feedback_list, time_smooth)

fig1 = plt.gcf()
fig1.subplots_adjust(bottom=0.15)

plt.plot(time_smooth, feedback_smooth, color='red')
plt.plot(time_list, setpoint_list, color='blue')
plt.xlim((0, total_sampling))
plt.ylim((min(feedback_list) - 0.5, max(feedback_list) + 0.5))
plt.xlabel('time (s)')
plt.ylabel('PID (PV)')
plt.title('TEST PID')


plt.grid(True)
print("saving...")
fig1.savefig('result.png', dpi=100)

Now we can change our PID controller simulation using the real application. We use DHT-22 to check a room temperature. The output of measurement is used as feedback input for the PID controller.

If the PID output positive value, then we turn on heater. Otherwise, we activate cooler machine. It may not good approach but this good point to show how PID controller work.

We attach DHT-22 to GPIO23 (BCM). Let's write the following program:

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('Agg')

import PID
import Adafruit_DHT
import time
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from scipy.interpolate import spline

sensor = Adafruit_DHT.DHT22

# DHT22 pin on Raspberry Pi
pin = 23

P = 1.4
I = 1
D = 0.001
pid = PID.PID(P, I, D)

pid.SetPoint = 0.0
pid.setSampleTime(0.25)  # a second

total_sampling = 100
sampling_i = 0
measurement = 0
feedback = 0

feedback_list = []
time_list = []
setpoint_list = []

print('PID controller is running..')
try:
    while 1:
        pid.update(feedback)
        output = pid.output

        humidity, temperature = Adafruit_DHT.read_retry(sensor, pin)
        if humidity is not None and temperature is not None:
            if pid.SetPoint > 0:
                feedback += temperature + output

            print('i={0} desired.temp={1:0.1f}*C temp={2:0.1f}*C pid.out={3:0.1f} feedback={4:0.1f}'
                  .format(sampling_i, pid.SetPoint, temperature, output, feedback))
            if output > 0:
                print('turn on heater')
            elif output < 0:
                print('turn on cooler')

        if 20 < sampling_i < 60:
            pid.SetPoint = 28  # celsius

        if 60 <= sampling_i < 80:
            pid.SetPoint = 25  # celsius

        if sampling_i >= 80:
            pid.SetPoint = 20  # celsius

        time.sleep(0.5)
        sampling_i += 1

        feedback_list.append(feedback)
        setpoint_list.append(pid.SetPoint)
        time_list.append(sampling_i)

        if sampling_i >= total_sampling:
            break

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    print("exit")


print("pid controller done.")
print("generating a report...")
time_sm = np.array(time_list)
time_smooth = np.linspace(time_sm.min(), time_sm.max(), 300)
feedback_smooth = spline(time_list, feedback_list, time_smooth)

fig1 = plt.gcf()
fig1.subplots_adjust(bottom=0.15, left=0.1)

plt.plot(time_smooth, feedback_smooth, color='red')
plt.plot(time_list, setpoint_list, color='blue')
plt.xlim((0, total_sampling))
plt.ylim((min(feedback_list) - 0.5, max(feedback_list) + 0.5))
plt.xlabel('time (s)')
plt.ylabel('PID (PV)')
plt.title('Temperature PID Controller')


plt.grid(True)
fig1.savefig('pid_temperature.png', dpi=100)
print("finish")

Save this program to a file called ch01_pid.py. Now you can this program:

$ sudo python ch01_pid.py

After executing the program, you should obtain a file called pid_temperature.png. A sample output of this file can be seen in the following figure:

If I don't take any action either turning on a cooler or turning on a heater, I obtain a result, shown in the following figure:

How does it work?

Generally speaking, this program combines our two topics: reading current temperature through DHT-22 and implementing a PID controller. After measuring the temperature, we send this value to the PID controller program. The output of PID will take a certain action. In this case, it will turn on cooler and heater machines.