Category: IoT

Automating Laptop Charging with AWS: A Smart Solution to Prevent Overheating

In today’s fast-paced digital world, laptops have become indispensable tools. However, excessive charging can lead to overheating, which can significantly impact performance and battery life. In this blog post, we’ll explore a smart solution that leverages AWS services to automate laptop charging, prevent overheating, and optimize battery health. I do agree that Asus does provide premium support for a subscription, but this research and excercise was to brush up my brains and learn to create on aws with some useful solution. The solution is still in concept and once I start using it in production to the full extend, the shell scripts and cloudformation template will be pushed into github handle jthoma repository code-collection/aws

Understanding the Problem:

Overcharging can cause the battery to degrade faster and generate excessive heat. Traditional manual charging methods often lead to inconsistent charging patterns, potentially harming the battery’s lifespan.

The Solution: Automating Laptop Charging with AWS

To address this issue, we’ll utilize a combination of AWS services to create a robust and efficient automated charging system:

  1. AWS IoT Core: Purpose: This service enables secure and reliable bi-directional communication between devices and the cloud.
    How it’s used: We’ll connect a smart power outlet to AWS IoT Core, allowing it to send real-time battery level data to the cloud.
    Link: https://aws.amazon.com/iot-core/
    Getting Started: Sign up for an AWS account and create an IoT Core project.
  2. AWS Lambda: Purpose: This serverless computing service allows you to run code without provisioning or managing servers.
    How it’s used: We’ll create a Lambda function triggered by IoT Core messages. This function will analyze the battery level and determine whether to charge or disconnect the power supply.
    Link: https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/
    Getting Started: Create a Lambda function and write the necessary code in your preferred language (e.g., Python, Node.js, Java).
  3. Amazon DynamoDB: Purpose: This fully managed NoSQL database service offers fast and predictable performance with seamless scalability.
    Link: https://aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/
  4. Amazon CloudWatch: Purpose: This monitoring and logging service helps you collect and analyze system and application performance metrics.
    How it’s used: We’ll use CloudWatch to log system health and generate alarms based on battery level or temperature threshold. Also it helps to monitor the performance of our Lambda functions and IoT Core devices, ensuring optimal system health.
    Link: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/
    Getting Started: Configure CloudWatch to monitor your AWS resources and set up alarms for critical events.

How it Works:

  1. Data Collection: My Ubuntu system with the help of a shell script uses aws cli to send real-time battery level data to the cloud watch logs.
  2. Data Processing: Cloud watch metric filter alarms will trigger lambda function which is set for appropriate actions.
  3. Action Execution: The Lambda function sends commands to the smart power outlet to control the charging process.
  4. Data Storage: Historical battery level data is stored in Cloud Watch logs for analysis using Athena and further optimization.
  5. Monitoring and Alerting: CloudWatch monitors the system’s health and sends alerts if any issues arise.

Benefits of Automated Charging:

Optimized Battery Health: Prevents overcharging and undercharging, extending battery life.
Reduced Heat Generation: Minimizes thermal stress on the laptop.
Improved Performance: Ensures optimal battery performance, leading to better system responsiveness.
Energy Efficiency: Reduces energy consumption by avoiding unnecessary charging.

Conclusion

By leveraging AWS services, a sophisticated automated charging system that safeguards the laptop’s battery health and enhances its overall performance is reached. This solution empowers you to take control of your device’s charging habits and enjoy a longer-lasting, cooler, and more efficient laptop.

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Cloud advantage in farming

Well recently just getting too much free time, my interests have started to take a turn towards kitchen farming. Research around hydroponic tower gardens and finally attempting to build one has given a real morale boost.

This one is a picture in the very early stage, where a 1m 4.5″ PVC pipe can house about 24 x 2″ net pots. Should have stopped at 22 skipping the topmost 2 nos, which was a hindrance when the fountain was installed. Finally managed to cap it with a circular food container, which was salvaged from our kitchen. The water reservoir was an old 20lit water can, and pump bought off amazon, which could lift up to 1.8m.

This pump was chosen to be installed in the bottom tank.

Well now I am waiting for some seeds which I have ordered and would be trying to plant those. Oh okay, this is not what I wanted to write about, and the real content is upcoming.

I wanted to dig into possibilities of minimal usage of cloud and services into managing some part of farming. Though real manual farming is a passion not for me but my brother. With the thoughts and ideas, started to check if some one else had gone in the same direction, which landed me on YT with a handful of ideas, from which a two part video from Great Scott hit the nail right on head.

Just adding the first part as an embedded video, if the original person tears it down, I will attempt to narrate the whole thing, till then there is no point in wrting these and not giving the due credit for the original publisher.

I know there is more to this, and the latter part will come up when I will do this on a realtime. Might be tough for me as the GreenHouse kits are not availabe towards this end, and I dont have my private space as I am living in an apartment with shared common area.

Just for the works, I would consider the following, taking a different path, to use sensors for soil and room humidity and temperature, control air flow with exhaust fan with shutter as well as mist spray irrigation system within the greenhouse, one minute montioring with 5Mp digital cameras and image analysis. Also better housing for the power and control unit to adapt with our climate conditions here. Possible location is at our farmhouse.