Smart Range Hood - Pi Chef Challenge Blog post #1

*Ding*

"Honey - Your donuts are ready!"

Posts:

Post 1: You've already found it!

Unboxing video: Challenger kit unboxing!!!

Post 2:System architecture and planning - Pi Chef Challenge Post #2

Post 3: Smart Range Hood - Blog Post #3 - Mechanical design complete!

Post 4: Pi Chef Challenge - Smart Range Hood - Initial Pi Power up & config - Blog post #4

Post 5: Pi Chef Challenge - Blog post #5 - MQ Sensor Selection

Post 6: Smart Range Hood - Can I have a bigger slice of breadboard? - Pi Chef Challenge blog #6

Post 7: Smart Range Hood - Intro to the control system - DHT22 (et al) [Buzzer, Light control] - Pi Chef Challenge - Blog post #7

Post 8: Smart Range Hood - Sheet metal assembly - Pi Chef Challenge Blog post #8

Post 9: Smart Range Hood - Can I have just a little more slice of PCB-pi? Pi Chef Challenge - Blog post #9

The project scope:

Provide a smarter home by utilizing the range hood. It will monitor environmental conditions; provide smarthome integration; and provide a quick way for my wife to summon me for dinner. This will be a real life project that will get used on a daily basis, so it must be robust enough in design to provide longevity and sustainability.

This project will complete our kitchen renovation which still requires a new range hood. The goal is to create a smarter range hood for (hopefully) less than buying an off-the-shelf 40" hood for $1000.

Since the kitchen remodel started back in March of 2017, I have found a new range hood in the scratch & dent area of a home remodeling store - an old display model. I was able to purchase it for $75 and it was originally a $300+ range hood.

Here we see the kitchen with the new counters, stove, and backsplash. We also can see the old ugly range hood and the new doner hood sitting next to it on the floor. The fan box and most the wiring will be used in the new design, but a smart controller will be added in lieu of the original pushbuttons. A touchscreen interface will be used. The touchscreen will use the same mounting holes as the original pushbottons. The ribbon cable will feed out through the opening. Relays will be used to control the circuits as dictated by the user or the automation.

Components:

- RPI as controller; ideally mounting right inside the cavity of the hood.

Air quality sensors to automatically turn on vent (Temperature, Humidity; flammable gas (MQ3), potentially a flame sensor, heat sensor, and/or smoke sensor)

Camera which can text out an image of what's cooking for a button-press on the front of the hood. It can also send out images if some potentially dangerous condition is detected or if a user requests an image (I'll do a Twitter link if anyone wants to see what's cooking). The image will be texted to me when my wife wants to summon me for dinner

- Touch-screen interface.

- Relay expansion board for RPI to activate the four circuits of the range hood.

- Custom-bent sheet metal range hood (will use temporary one for testing)

This is a CAD model of the hood that I have 90% designed. New exterior sheet metal will be created, but the guts of the doner hood will be added along with the new controller.

Difficulties and challenges

Receiving WIFI from within a stainless steel box (will it work???)

Creating CAD models and having a sheet metal fabricator bend a brand-new box for a 40" range hood.

Modeling a 3D printed case for the touchscreen

Create custom PCBs if time allows (have never ordered PCBs before; have always hand-soldered or wire-wrapped on perf-board)

Custom programming to tie it all together with my existing OpenHAB system

Last and very not least - Keeping up with the birth of my second child (Due December 22nd - right at the beginning of the contest) and taking care of my wife Lets be honest - she is really sponsoring me to do this contest...

The mockup shown above includes range hood lights, plus fan speed control. Note - this is mocked up inside my existing OpenHAB smarthome. All the other items shown are fully integrated based on Arudion/ ESP8266/RaspberryPi projects. The Methane and Hydrogen levels shown in the graph are readings from two MQ sensors that are placed in my house to monitor gas levels. That project was originally done to look for dirty diapers with my first child.

The mockup here shows a potential UI for the range hood touchscreen interface. Physical buttons may be preferred, but this is all conceptual at this point. Perhaps the screen shows the label for the current functionality of the actual buttons.

Functionality :

Very intuitive; user friendly local control (Simple physical buttons for Lights, Fan LOW/MED/HIGH)

Auto-On functionality based on humidity (boiling water; values compared to external humidity sensors already integrated to my smart home) or flammable gas sensing (flame-out scenario or gas leak).

Limit run time (forgetting to turn off)

External control & Reporting status over MQTT to already-existing smart-home w/ OpenHAB. Potentially use Python or Node-Red for main coding language. Motion is planned for use with the image capturing.

This will work locally without an active connection to MQTT in case the wifi or server goes down.

Buttons can easily be re-mapped to say, turn on other lights in the kitchen, or open the garage door since a security camera image can be displayed on the screen.

Background on ideal smart-home integration:

One major drawback of many smart-home devices is that they often remove or make difficult "local control" of the device. For example; smart light bulbs. The consumer can very easily insert the smart bulb into an existing light socket. They are then required to launch an app on their phone to get the lights on and off. What would really be ideal in this case is for the wall switch to still work like a light switch; but additionally be able to integrate with the smart home for additional functionality - turning on at night; when you come home; etc. This project will maintain proper local operation without a smartphone, but additionally tie in with automation.

Other goals:

Maintain retrofit-ability of internal components of range hood. When I move out, I can simply swap in the original button set and no one will know it was a smart hood. I won't have to maintain this appliance after I sell the house.

Anything other ideas from the community? What other ideas could I incorporate into this project???