Smart Kitchen IoT: Here’s How You Can Automate Your Kitchen
By Everyone wants to live in a house complete with home automation features. I mean, who doesn’t want to lead a comfortable life where you can simply use your voice or your smartphone to control everything in your house? From your lights, fans, ACs, to even your oven – everything can be controlled using IoT (Internet of Things). However, do you know how to set up a smart kitchen IoT?
As the term suggests, a smart kitchen is a kitchen where many kitchen appliances turn on automatically. Moreover, you can also control them remotely as well. However, unlike the ecosystems for Google Home devices and Amazon Home devices, there’s no smart kitchen ecosystem in the market yet.
However, there does exist a way to make a smart kitchen by yourself, although it requires some mechanical effort. Therefore, are you ready to make your smart kitchen IoT? If yes, read this post till the end!
Building A Smart Kitchen IoT Using ESP8266
While many smart kitchen appliances for cooking and kitchen management do exist, there exists one complete smart kitchen IoT solution. However, you must set up this solution from scratch using the NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SOC chip.
In this case study, you will learn how you can build your smart kitchen IoT from scratch using a set of tools and the Blynk app. This app will monitor all your sensor’s readings, along with allowing you to control various sensors and appliances remotely.
Therefore, keep reading to learn what items you need to build your smart kitchen IoT, and how to set it up properly.
Materials Required
Here is the list of all the devices that you require to set up your smart kitchen IoT:
1. HiLetgo NodeMCU ESP2866 Wi-Fi Module
Price: $16.39 (Amazon)
If you wish to build a smart kitchen IoT, then you must use the ESP8266 Board to connect all the devices together and build an automated IoT system.
2. Bojack DHT11 Sensor
Price: $5.99 (Amazon)
You will need the DHT11 sensor to constantly monitor and act as your kitchen’s temperature and humidity sensor.
3. Ximimark MQ-135 Air Quality Sensor
Price: $8.99 (Amazon)
You will need the MQ-135 Air Quality sensor to monitor the Air Quality Index to detect gas leakages.
4. HiLetgo HC-SR501 PIR Sensor
Price: $8.49 (Amazon)
The HC-SR501 sensor for your smart kitchen IoT will help you detect the presence of people in your kitchen.
5. Hosyond 0.96” 12C OLED Display
Price: $14.99 (Amazon)
This 0.96” OLED display will be connected to the Blynk app to show real-time temperature, humidity, and Air Quality Index.
6. Cylewet Buzzer 5V
Price: $6.98 (Amazon)
This 5V Buzzer will act as your smart kitchen IoT alarm to indicate the presence of gas leaks.
7. Aokin 4-Channel Relay Module
Price: $11.99 (Amazon)
This 4-channel relay module will have four connecting points. One of them will be connected to your kitchen’s exhaust fan, while you can freely connect the other three ports to electrical kitchen appliances (like microwaves, mixers, heaters, etc.)
8. EDGELEC Jumper Wires (X20)
Price: $6.98 (Amazon)
You will need twenty jumper wires to connect the 4-channl relay input ports to the ESP2866 board.
9. REXQuialis Breadboard
Price: $8.88 (Amazon)
This breadboard will help you join many of the devices together in a singular circuit.
10. Amazon Basics USB Cable
Price: $10.77 (Amazon)
You will need one USB cable (preferably Type-A) to connect one of these devices to the PCB board (breadboard).
Circuit Design
To create the circuit board, you must assemble them all on the breadboard. Therefore, you must connect all the sensors to the ESP8266 board and mount them on the breadboard in the same way as shown in the schematic above.
Here’s what you need to connect and in what way:
- OLED display: The display will have two SDA and SCL pins. Connect these to the NodeMCUs D2 and D1 pins respectively.
- DHT11 Sensor: Connect this to NodeMCUs D4 pin.
- MQ-135 Sensor: Connect this to NodeMCUs A0 pin.
- PIR Sensor: Connect this to NodeMCUs D3 pin.
- 5V Buzzer: Connect this to NodeMCUs D0 pin.
- Kitchen appliances: Whatever electrical kitchen appliances you have, you must connect them to the NodeMCU using the 4-channel relay wires. Therefore, connect them to NodeMCUs D5 to D8 pins.
Setting Up The Blynk Smartphone IoT Application
Apart from the NodeMCU ESP8266 board, the second most important piece of this system is the Blynk app. This is an IoT application for smartphones that you can download from the Google Play Store (Android) or the Apple App Store (iOS).
The Blynk app lets you create a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for your smart kitchen IoT. Therefore, you will get to see a visual representation of all your sensors, along with their readings in real-time. Moreover, you will also be able to control all electrical kitchen appliances that you connect to the circuit remotely!
Therefore, follow the steps to connect and set up the Blynk app with your ESP8266 circuit:
- First, download the app on your smartphone.
- Next, sign-in to the application using your email ID and password.
- Now, open a new dashboard by clicking on the “+ New Project” option.
- Next, type the name of your project (Smart Kitchen IoT), select NodeMCU under the “Choose Device” option, tap on Wi-Fi under the “Connection Type” option, and then finally click on the “Create Project” option.
- Now, click on the Widget List and add the following – 3x Buttons, 2x Style Buttons, and 3x Gauge Buttons.
- Next, assign three variables to your Gauge Sensors and name them Temperature, Humidity, and Air Quality Index Value respectively.
- In the same way, assign three variables (Lights + two other electrical kitchen appliances) to the Buttons and two variables (Alarm and Human) for the Styled Buttons.
After you follow all these steps, you will finally get an authentication code in your email. Therefore, open your mailbox and copy this authentication code.
Smart Kitchen IoT Source Codes
To successfully connect the circuit to the Blynk app, you will need the source code for each of these sensors. Moreover, you must add them to the Arduino IDE library to make the sensors function.
Here are all the source codes for the sensors you must add to the Arduino IDE library, all of them being available from GitHub:
After you add these to Arduino IDE library, the codes will be compiled automatically. However, change the Wi-Fi SSID, Password, and the Blynk Authentication Token to connect the ESP2866 circuit to your Wi-Fi.
Moreover, here are all the codes you need. Therefore, paste these codes to your Arduino IDE. Additionally, select ESP8266 board in the Board Manager. Then, follow this by selecting the Port and then uploading the code of the equivalent sensor.
Testing Your Smart Kitchen IoT Functionality
Once you finish uploading all the codes, the ESP8266 should start connecting to your Wi-Fi. Therefore, it will use the Wi-Fi SSID and Password that you gave earlier.
Simultaneously, you can open the Serial Monitor, which will display the readings from all your sensors:
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Air Quality Index value
- Alarm Status
- Human Presence
In addition, you will now see that your OLED display is also showing all the above readings. Therefore, the instant your ESP8266 circuit successfully connects to your Wi-Fi, you will get all your sensor readings and appliance controls on your Blynk app.
If you get to do so, congratulations! You have successfully built your smart kitchen IoT!
| Note: Your exhaust fan automatically activates when the gas level in your kitchen reaches 150 PPM – the default threshold. |
Uses And Benefits Of This Smart Kitchen IoT Setup
Now that you have set up your smart kitchen IoT like a scientist all by yourself, it’s time to learn its two primary uses and benefits. They are:
1. Monitor Kitchen Safety
One of the primary functions of this smart kitchen IoT setup is to monitor your smart kitchen’s safety. Therefore, there are three sensors in place to monitor in real-time the temperature, humidity level, and Air Quality Index.
The lattermost rises to a high level whenever there’s a gas leak. Therefore, whenever any three of these values rises to alarming levels, the buzzer will start ringing as an alarm. This astatically turns on your kitchen’s exhaust. Therefore, it cools your kitchen and dissipates the leaking gas.
2. Control Appliances Remotely
The real “smart” use of this smart kitchen IoT set up is to control all your appliances remotely. This is the reason why you use the ESP8266 board circuit to connect all the sensors and electrical kitchen appliances to the Wi-Fi and the Blynk app.
Therefore, it lets you remotely control all your kitchen appliances using the Blynk smartphone app!
Conclusion: Smarter Kitchen, Smarter Diet
Congratulations! You have successfully created your smart kitchen IoT ecosystem! Here, you can control some of your electrical kitchen appliances using your smartphone’s Blynk app. In addition, there are sensors in place to ensure your kitchen remains safe.
Thanks for reading this post! If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please comment below!
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