Smart Home

Discover your first experiences with Smart Home in a playful way

The new ROBOTICS TXT Smart Home allows first experiences of the Smart Home to be gathered in a fun way. The Smart Home is bang on trend, and the subject currently on everybody’s lips. But what does Smart Home actually mean? Smart Home is an umbrella term for technical processes and systems with which electronic devices and technology in the home can be controlled remotely, for example, via a smartphone.
With Smart Home, it is now possible to connect all household technology (such as heating, lamps), or household devices such as the cooker or refrigerator, and control and monitor them with a mobile phone.
Intelligent heating can, for example, determine varying room temperatures in individual areas of the home, depending on outside temperatures, and use this to control the radiators.
It is even possible to adjust lights in the home conveniently via an app. A camera will even allow the house to be monitored from a holiday on the beach, for example. Incredibly intelligent!
“Intelligent living” is designed to improve quality of life and living, to ensure security and to organise efficient use of energy.
Our models are all related to this “efficient living”.

This stationary sensor station made of 220 parts is equipped with various actuators and sensors and with a moveable camera. Six different models can be constructed from this kit, which can be programmed and controlled with ROBO Pro software and the ROBOTICS TXT Controller.
Different sensors enable the measurement of various types of data such as air temperature, humidity, sound volume and much more. The LED display or alarm sounds show when certain values are exceeded. The moveable camera can also trigger an alarm when movement is detected in the room and take a snapshot.
The data recorded by the sensors can be collected and represented graphically in the fischertechnik Cloud. When the TXT Smart Home is connected to Wi-Fi, it is very simple to control the models remotely when away from home. The sensor data can be stored in the Cloud and accessed from anywhere in the world. So using a user interface, the so-called “dashboard”, the various sensor data can be permanently monitored, and the movement of the camera can be controlled.
The accompanying instructional booklet provides helpful background information, projects and programmer tips.

To the product ROBOTICS TXT Smart Home

The six different models and their capabilities

Sensor station

The stationary sensor station, the primary model, enables the measurement of air temperature, humidity, air pressure, air quality, sound level and brightness. It is also able to monitor the room with a moveable camera.

Lighting

This model can be used to control outside lighting, according to the brightness of the surroundings. With the aid of a brightness sensor, the lamps can be set to turn on when it gets dark.

Noise sensor

This measures sound levels in the room. The green, amber or red light shows depending on how loud it is.

Well-being sensor

The well-being sensor can be set as a frost monitor, mould monitor or to measure air quality. The frost monitor checks the temperature with regard to its freezing point. If a value of below 3° Celsius is detected, the red light shows and an alarm sounds once. The mould monitor provides information on humidity. As soon as there is a risk of mould, when humidity exceeds 80%, the red light shows. When measuring air quality, the LEDs show whether the air in the room is very good (green), average (amber) or bad (red).

Stationary camera

The camera serves as a motion detector. If the camera registers movement, an alarm is triggered.

Barometer

The barometer measures the air pressure in the room, and the model shows when air pressure rises or falls.

An overview of the most important functions

Logging measurements

Various measurements such as air humidity, air temperature and other information are recorded by different sensors and stored in the fischertechnik Cloud. These can be accessed there at any time.

Push notifications

Messages and/or new activities are sent directly to a smartphone or tablet through so-called push notifications to give information on changes in measurements immediately. For example, a message will be sent directly to the mobile device when air humidity in a room is too high.

Camera

The camera can be moved in various directions with a smartphone or tablet and live images can be accessed at any time. So-called snapshots can be used to capture and store individual images.

Cloud connection

The data recorded can be stored in the fischertechnik Cloud and accessed from anywhere in the world at any time.

Detailed explanation of sensors and actuators

Sensors

Environment sensor

The environment sensor can take four different measurements: It measures the temperature in °C, relative humidity in %, air pressure in hPa and air quality (value 0-500). The data is transmitted via an I2C interface.

Camera

Camera images are transmitted with a resolution of 320x240 pixels and a frame rate of max. 15 frames per second. The camera can trigger an alarm when movement is detected in the room and snapshots can be taken. The camera’s motion axes can also be controlled remotely using the fischertechnik Cloud dashboard. This can swivel approx. 180 degrees, and move up and down.

Brightness sensor

Photoresistor that reacts to brightness. The electronic component adjusts its electrical resistance as soon as light hits it.

Button

The button is also known as a contact sensor. By pressing the red button, a switch is flipped mechanically and electricity flows between contacts 1 and 3. At the same time, contact between connections 1 and 2 is interrupted. You can use the button in two different ways:
As a “Closer”: Contacts 1 and 3 are connected.
When button is pressed: Electricity flows. When button is not pressed: Electricity does not flow.
As an “Opener”: Contacts 1 and 2 are connected.
When button is pressed: Electricity does not flow. When button is not pressed: Electricity flows.

Actuators

Encoder motor

DC motors designed for a voltage of 9 volts and a power consumption of max. 0.5 amps. They also include a socket for a 3 pin connection cable that can be used with the so-called encoder to assess the rotary motion of the motor. The encoders on fischertechnik encoder motors generate three impulses per rotation of the motor shaft. And because these encoder motors also have a gearbox with a transmission ratio of 21:1, one rotation of the shaft from the gearbox is equivalent to 63 impulses of the encoder.

LED

They have can be used in many different ways. For example, as signal lights. These LEDs are designed for a voltage of 9 volts and consume approx. 0.01 amperes of electricity.

What is a Cloud? How does it all work?

"Uploading something to the Cloud" generally means storing data on a remote server - i.e. not directly on one’s own PC. This involves data from a device being uploaded onto the Cloud provider’s server via the Internet. The data can then be accessed again later using this device or others.
Data can therefore be collected in a Cloud. This means that data stored there can be accessed from anywhere in the world while on the move.

The fischertechnik Cloud

With fischertechnik, the data is uploaded to the fischertechnik Cloud via the Internet with the TXT Controller. Data stored in the fischertechnik Cloud is protected in a personal account with password access and can only be accessed by the relevant user. fischertechnik fulfils all statutory requirements of the new EU General Data Protection Regulation regarding personal data. The servers over which our Cloud is operated are located in Germany. This ensures that European requirements regarding the storage of data are met.
There is a so-called “Dashboard” within the fischertechnik Cloud which displays an overview of the data recorded. This means that data is accessible at a glance at any time.

(!) Safety note: TXT Controller firmware version 4.2.4 or higher (!)

Please observe the following notes if the TXT Controller is operated in the so-called WLAN client mode:

- Always activate the WLAN encryption WPA2 in the TXT WLAN settings when you connect the TXT controller in WLAN client mode to a WLAN network.
- Do not operate unknown or untrusted devices in the same wireless network with the TXT controller.
- Select WLAN keys correspondingly complex, e.g. the preset WLAN keys of the current routers
- Do not give the WLAN key to third parties

This ensures that your TXT controller is reliably protected against unauthorized access even in this operating mode.