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Triggy - Sensor Node for Life Automation

A smart sensor Node to trigger an action on a smartphone each time a physical change is detected (temperature, displacement, click...)

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Triggy is a multi-function connected object that triggers predefined actions on a smartphone or tablet when physical events occur, based on user defined rules. No external server, only a bluetooth LE link between the phone and the Node is needed. It provides a simple solution for an incredible number of everyday life situations, all this on a single CR2032 battery.

An Android application allows to find and configure nearby Triggy Nodes and to create rules between triggering events and actions to be performed. Combining it with IFTTT or a cloud connection, the possibilities become even wider: home automation, remote notifications, cloud automation... As an action, an HTTP webhook can be sent via WiFi and interact with your Raspberry Pi or ESP8266 projects.

But what can I do with it ??? This is the good question to ask yourself. Have a look at the collection of Triggy usages in the Files section!

Basically, the goal of Triggy is to provide a solution to many situations, using a small board (the Triggy Node or T-Node) as a smartphone or tablet companion. The T-Nodes sense the environment and automatically trigger actions based on physical events, paving the way to numerous usage scenarios. A Triggy Node can detect an event such as: this door is opening, the temperature in the fridge goes above x degrees, someone pushed the button, etc... Then a fully customizable rule allows to decide what to do: generate a notification on the phone, play a ringtone, or a lot more. An advantage over other solutions is that no external server or account creation is required.

This project focuses on usages possibilities, thus a series of PDFs will be provided in the Files section. In each PDF a few number of scenarios are described, showing situation when Triggy can help:

Here below are shown additional situations where Triggy can be used, based on verified rules:

Some actions are local to the device connected to a T-Node (notification , play a sound/ringtone, put the device on vibrate...), others are available through IFTTT. Cloud connection + IFTTT = extended possibilities. 

 Triggy can be used as a component of a home automation system (http webhooks are parts of the possible actions), however not limited to home applications.

Video showing an exampIe of IFTTT recipe creation and action triggering:


MOTIVATIONS

Today one can easily buy and install a more or less expensive smart home solution. Some of them allows a connection to the cloud, others also support the IFTTT service. With Triggy, we want to enable new possibilities, new usages. Hereafter the key points that have guided this project:

  1. Low investment required
  2. Most of home automation solutions use a hub, a box to centralize and connect the different parts of the system (sensors, actuators ...) The price of that hub makes the whole solution generally expensive. Using an already owned, a spare or second-hand smartphone or tablet, the hardware cost of a Triggy solution will be far lower. With one Triggy board and a smartphone, it is already possible to do wonderful things. Additionally buy a WiFi smart plug, smart light or any available smart actuator that supports IFTTT, and you can easily do home automation. Low cost and easy to use!

  3. Small form factor and low power
  4. These two constraints go hand in hand, because the size of a WiFi-connected sensor (no hub required) is generally imposed by the size of the battery required to operate it for a decent duration. Components choices and efforts to reduce the power consumption of the Triggy Node allow now to make it work on a coin-cell battery (CR2032) with at least a year of battery life. The board dimensions have been decreased down to 25mm x 25mm, which allows to stick it almost everywhere (mailbox flap, cat flap, small objects ...) while being discreet. Existing sensors, such as a movement detector, working without a hub or gateway (WiFi) are a lot bigger than this, due to the WiFi peak consumption.

  5. Open standard
  6. Bluetooth Low Energy is used for the communication between the Triggy board and the smartphone. This protocol is both publicly accessible and low power. BLE GATT servers (such as Triggy) expose a standard data structure, allowing to use it with other applications. Another advantage is a seamless integration of Triggy with any smart home solution compatible with IFTTT. It can work also...

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Adobe Portable Document Format - 788.01 kB - 05/13/2018 at 13:10

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Adobe Portable Document Format - 643.18 kB - 03/24/2018 at 13:55

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Paper case - front .pdf

Printable paper enclosure for the board - front side

Adobe Portable Document Format - 522.26 kB - 09/07/2016 at 20:26

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Paper case - back.pdf

Printable paper enclosure for the board - back side

Adobe Portable Document Format - 102.63 kB - 09/07/2016 at 20:26

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nRF52832_PS_v1.0.pdf

nRF52832 official datasheet

Adobe Portable Document Format - 5.86 MB - 08/23/2016 at 12:05

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  • 1 × Nordic nRF52832 Bluetooth LE Microcontroller
  • 1 × NXP MAG3110 Magnetometer
  • 1 × Johanson 2450AT43A100 SMD 2.4 GHz chip antenna
  • 1 × Murata XRCGB32M000F2P00R0 Crystal 32 MHz
  • 1 × AVX ST3215SB32768E0HSZB1 32.768 kHz crystal

View all 10 components

  • Board v0.4: done!

    Vinch07/22/2018 at 20:06 0 comments

    The new revision of the Triggy Node has been built and verified to be functional today. Reminder: a new revision was required because the magnetometer MEMS MAG3110 was no longer fabricated. So I decided to use the LIS3MDL which works perfectly. It is also the lowest power consuming among the 3 magnetometers I experienced.

    Schematic has been added in the git repo.

    As seen on the picture below, the design is very close to the 0.3 version, only the part around the magnetometer has changed.

  • Toward a new board revision

    Vinch06/07/2018 at 14:59 0 comments

    The world of electronic components is evolving quickly: new chips appear, older ones disappear... I've recently discovered that the magnetic sensor (again) used in the version 0.3 of the board, a.k.a. the MAG3110, is discontinued. So I had to find a new component to replace it, otherwise no new board could be built. The most obvious choice was the LIS3MDL from STMicroelectronics. Not a big deal as not very different, but now I have to redesign the board and have it fabricated.

    I'll post a new log when all this is done.

  • Usages Collection 5-9

    Vinch05/13/2018 at 13:19 0 comments

    Five new Triggy usages have been added in the Files section. These usages are:

    • Intrusion detection and logging system
    • Thermometer with recording function
    • Emergency SMS
    • Fridge/freezer door alarm
    • A handy reminder

  • Usages Collection

    Vinch03/24/2018 at 13:55 0 comments

    At first glance it can be difficult to figure out what can be done with Triggy. However this project is really focused on usages and possibilities to offer a solution in a lot of embarrassing situations. Consequently, I started to create a booklet gathering use cases I've identified. It will take time to describe all of these use cases, but as a first step I've put the first 4 usages in the Triggy_Usages_1-4.pdf document (in the Files section). These usages are:

    • Smart doorbell
    • Automated vibrate/mute
    • Anti-theft alarm (for things)
    • Where is my phone?

    More to come. Good reading.

  • Triggy Hub Android application

    Vinch12/15/2017 at 15:08 1 comment

    I've been working on the Android app for a long time now, as the workload to embed all the features I wanted is quite heavy for a software team of ... 1 guy.

    Finally, I believe that today the app development reached a step where it is decently functional (even if a lot more testing is required) and it is graphically quite satisfying to me.

    Let's summarize what can be done with this app:

       1.  Find and list all nearby Triggy Nodes. Some information about the status of each node is provided on the main screen: device name, RSSI/proximity, temperature, displacement status. Below a screenshot with 3 Nodes already configured:

    Main screen    a) Searching Nodes    b) 3 Nodes found

        2.  Each Node can be accessed more deeply by clicking on the right arrow. This brings the Node connection screen where several control and status are available:

    • Sensors status
    • Enable/disable/reset position for displacement tracking
    • Make the led blink to identify the Node
    • Shut it down when not used (no battery removal required)
    • Access the Node configuration
    • Temperature and displacements logs
    Connection screen, movement log shown

       3.  Node Configuration screen allows to adjust some parameters of the Node:

    • Device name
    • Displacement detection sensitivity
    • Temperature compensation
    • Exclusive link: only this Android phone/tablet can see/connect this Node when enabled
    Node configuration screen

       4.  Back to the Main screen, clicking the app icon brings the Rules List pane. This provides information about currently created rules. Recall that rules allows to trig actions from the sensors state change. Each rule can be deleted, enabled/disabled or modified. Also when clicking on a rule, a summary of what it does is provided.

    Rules list and rule summary

        5. The Rule Builder is where a new rule can be created or existing rules can be modified. Building a rule is done in 5 steps:

    • Node selection by its name
    • Choice of the trigger (the event which will trigger the action)
    • Options for timing, allowing to delay the trigger for example
    • Choice of the action
    • Rule checking / summary

    Depending on the trigger and the action chosen, more parameters can be adjusted (thresholds, options ...)

    Below the snapshots for the different steps.

        6.  The App Menu allows to configure the main parameters such as IFTTT and email accounts, options and so on ... This part still needs to be finalized.

    Most of the triggers and actions are functional. I've already created many rules to be used in real situations, so I can say that is works! This version can be considered as an alpha, a significant amount of development is still required for a release, but at least, I can used it for alpha testing.

    Major missing functionalities:

    • Create a service to have the app working on background without being kill by Android
    • Triggers for the expansion board (light level + water/moisture detection)

  • Board version 0.3: LSM303D replaced

    Vinch11/23/2017 at 21:01 0 comments

    This is the new (last ?) revision of the Triggy Node board. The main motivation for this new board is the unavailibility of the accelerometer/magnetometer, the LSM303D. Since few months, this component was unavailable from any distributor. Lastly it was stated as: "end of life".

    Consequently, I had to find another magnetometer sensor component. The LIS3MDL would have been fine, but this part was also unavailable. So I decided to use a popular magnetometer among makers: the MAG3110 from NXP. It is not very expensive and easy to use. Also the package ( QFN) is far easier to solder than the LGA of the LSM303D. The only drawback I see is a slightly higher power consumption in running mode and 2 uA (instead of 1 uA) in standby.

    Of course, the capacitors around the magnetometer have been replaced to match the reference design provided in the datasheet. And lastly, the MAG3110 is no longer powered directly by the battery, but instead through a GPIO of the MCU. This allows to save the 2 uA when not using the magnetometer. The rest of the board remained unchanged.

    After having updated the firmware, the new sensor is working perfectly.

  • 3D Printed Enclosure

    Vinch08/15/2017 at 21:12 0 comments

    It's a new step for the Triggy project: a decent custom enclosure for the board. This plastic enclosure replaces the previous paper-made enclosure. It's less customizable and a bit more expensive but far more robust and gives a finished look. The Triggy Tag can also be safely let outside, e.g. for rain sensing or in the pocket.

    This enclosure is the result of several (a lot of) iterations with my personal FDM 3D printer. I used only PLA material for this prototype. The last version (on the pictures below) has been obtained on an SLA printer.

    The final enclosure, in black and white versionsEnclosure is made of two parts. Internal faces viewThe enclosure with the board inside

  • Triggy board v0.2

    Vinch05/09/2017 at 20:02 0 comments

    Hello everybody,

    I made a new version of the Triggy board and I've just populated it with the parts (no change on the part list). Everything seems OK with this new board, in particular the antenna matching which provides correct output power.

    Here are the changes versus the v0.1:

    - Smaller PCB with corners cut: this new form factor will allow using a more interesting enclosure shape without increasing its size (more information in a new coming log).

    - NFC2 pin no longer used as external board GND pin. The NFCx pins of the nRF52832 can be used as GPIOs, but the operation requires to flash some specific bits. Consequently it's easier to use other free pins.

    - The two sensors on the external board now have separate GND pins.

    - The references of the 32 MHz and 32 kHz crystal have been changed. Their load capacitance being different, I also have changed the associated capacitors.

    That's all for now. The github now contains this v0.2 board.

  • Some news

    Vinch12/13/2016 at 20:17 0 comments

    Since the decision to create rules directly on the Triggy Hub app, there is a lot of work to do before making everything work. This is a complete new screen to create, and this will take time. The good news: this way of mapping events and actions will improve a lot the usability of the system. Triggering local actions avoids the internet connection requirement while enabling more low-latency automation.

    An additional local action I though about is an emulation of a keyboard press. Many applications have hotkeys that can be activated with a physical keyboard. Here we can simply create a rule to emulate any keyboard press. A typical application would be to take a picture from the Android camera app when clicking the triggy module button.

  • Android app changes

    Vinch11/12/2016 at 08:37 0 comments

    Triggy Hub Android application is being heavily modified to enrich the possiblities. I wanted to make the system less dependent on IFTTT, for those who don't want to use this service. In fact, most of the time the user wants to be informed of an event (when a door opens, when it rains, when the temperature goes too low etc ...) This can be done with a notification or a kind of alarm. Moreover, notifications could be pushed to other devices with third party applications.

    So now it will be possible to create rules (local, not IFTTT) to run on the Android device. When an event is detected, one could decide to send a notification, play a sound, mute/unmute the phone, turn on/off the WiFi (any other idea ?) All this without internet connection required, but of course the phone must be in the BLE range of the Triggy module which generates the event.

View all 18 project logs

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Discussions

Josh Baker wrote 12/29/2017 at 22:34 point

Is a pre-built Node available for purchase?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Vinch wrote 12/30/2017 at 22:42 point

Hello Josh. No I don't plan to sell them directly (on Tindie for example), rather I'm thinking about a crowdfunding in the future.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Adam Fabio wrote 09/30/2016 at 00:02 point

Hey [Vinch]! Triggy is a featured project on the Hackaday front page! Congrats!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Vinch wrote 09/30/2016 at 07:37 point

Wow, that's great! Thanks a lot for the information.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Vinch wrote 09/06/2016 at 16:15 point

Hi Francois. Thanks for your interest and, by the way, thanks to all followers of this project! As of today, I managed to trigger IFTTT actions from the Android app, using a dedicated function. The next step is to develop the part which makes the link between the information received from the board, in BLE, and the call to this function. I'll make a video once all this is working together.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Francois wrote 09/05/2016 at 19:28 point

Hello. Nice project! There is a great potential for this affordable iot solution. But have you been able to actually make it work in real condition and trigger an IFTTT action? 

  Are you sure? yes | no

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