Remote power On/Off control and current measurement for home electric outlets based on a low-power embedded board and ZigBee communication

In this paper we have designed a remote power on/off control and a current measurement for electric outlets, based on both an embedded board and on ZigBee communication. This design consists of two parts: the ZigBee control module and the server module. The ZigBee control module contains several controllable outlets, a current measurement circuit, the ZigBee receiving and transmission circuit and a micro control unit. The measurement circuit senses the current and sends back a signal to the server module through the ZigBee. The measurement data of the current and voltage detection can be stored in the embedded board, and they can be designed to become aware of any overload and to send out a message to the circuit breaker for safety. We use Visual Basic as the interface software for the design of the graphic user interface to provide a user-friendly operation of a typical homepsilas electric outlets.