This research work regards the design and realization of an absorption spectrophotometer based on a LED light source in place of the usually employed Xenon lamp. The advantage of the use of LED technology resides in several factors such as the reducing of the analyte temperature variations and thus noise generation, which occur if a Xenon light source is used, beside of the high luminous efficiency, reliability, operating duration, lower maintenance and a lower power consumption. This last factor allows to supply the entire designed apparatus using a solar panel thus making the system easly portable for use even in places where the electricity network is absent. An optical filtering system was realized in order to detect the analyte absorption for each wavelength range selected by the optical filters. A PC-interfaced PIC-based control unit used to manage the different functionalities required by the spectophotometer was realized and tested. The control unit acquires and processes, via the developed firmware, the raw data provided by different sensors employed in the system. The sensors are used to monitor analyte temperature and humidity values, to control the analyte pressure and to acquire the luminous intensity value of the light beam before and after passing through the analyte. Finally, the realized electronic control unit actuates different mechanical sections (stepper motor, solenoid valve), sincronyzing and controlling the data exchange between hardware sections, microcontroller and the PC.

Telemetry is a technology that allows remote measurement and transmission of moving car information, allowing to collect a huge amount of data that are interpreted to ensure that car is performing at its optimum. In this research work, by using electronic modules and sensors available at very low costs, a reliable and accurate telemetry system was realized in order to monitor physical and mechanical parameters of a racing vehicle during its motion. Implemented data acquisition and wireless communication unit allows to collect, on board of vehicle, the temperature of engine compartment and cooling liquid, suspensions’ extensions, vehicle speed and also its orientation and acceleration and to send wirelessly all these data to a base station, where are monitored by technical staff, so ensuring quick intervention in case of malfunctioning. STM32 Nucleo development board, heart of realized telemetry system, properly programmed with the developed firmware, acquires data from used sensors and, through a WiFi radio module, sends them to the base station; the data are also stored on a SD memory card to avoid data losses. Sparkfun CAN module is employed for this aim and to interface the engine control unit with ST Nucleo board. Experimental tests were carried out for verifying correct operation of realized system; by analyzing trends over time of monitored vehicle parameters as function of the vehicle movements, driving conditions and race track, the technicians ensure safety of pilot life and also an optimization of the vehicle performances.

Detecting how elderly people interact with their surrounding environment, especially with domestic electrical appliances, is an important parameter to assess Mild Cognitive Impairments and frailty issues. This paper proposes an innovative approach for monitoring elderly behavior by detecting home appliance’s usage. It is based on an unobtrusive smart meter that periodically measures the global power consumption in the house, associated with some smart plugs for punctually monitoring specific electrical devices. This infrastructure has been implemented and validated within the Personal Data Capturing System of the City4Age Platform, where, joined with other provided monitoring systems, can feed risk detection algorithms with more accurate data. Summarizing, implemented system, although simple and at low cost, is able to combine data provided by designed power meter with those of smart meter plugs and, by means of implemented algorithms, to detect unusual elder behavior, moreover resulting reliable and accurate.

This paper describes a solar-based harvesting system able to properly power supply the sensor node of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) developed for ensuring traceability and services relatively to goods stored in containers placed in the monitored areas (e.g commercial seaport). Battery life-time is a main problem especially in networks where sensor nodes are not easily accessible. For this reason, sensor nodes are equipped with power management devices able to supply power, in an intelligent way, from the harvester when harvestable energy is available or from backup batteries, ensuring, under every operating conditions, the correct functioning of node. In this research work, an overview of the available energy harvesting technologies, showing some related devices present on the market, is presented; subsequently, the suitable energy harvesting technique for power supply the designed WSN node was chosen. Hence the smart node able to monitor the physical parameters deemed of interest related to stored goods and a solar-based harvesting board, based on LTC3330 IC, were designed and tested. Supercapacitors are charged when harvestable energy is higher than the one required from node; stored energy is then used in time periods with no harvestable energy before requiring the backup battery intervention.

New generations of equipments must have better performances respect to the previous generations, such as higher efficiency, low power consumption, reduced electromagnetic interference, small dimensions, lightness and so on; all these improvements must be achieved while maintaining, at the same time, systems cost as low as possible. Brush-Less Direct Current (BLDC) motors, employed even more in the last years in many equipments in various application fields, present low maintenance costs, compact size, high reliability, efficiency, low power consumption and other optimum features, proposing themselves as excellent candidates for satisfying the stringent requirements mentioned previously. In this paper, after a detailed overview on the current and possible future application fields of BLDC motors, from home appliances, to automotive, industrial automation, medical equipments and robotic instrumentation, the design and realization of a driving and control system of a BLDC motor, with Hall sensors embedded, is presented. A BLDC motor is provided by permanent magnets on moving part (rotor) and windings on fixed part (stator); energized stator windings create electromagnetic poles and the rotor (equivalent to a bar magnet) is attracted by the energized stator phase. By using appropriate sequence to supply stator phases, a rotating field on stator is created and maintained. The lead between rotor and rotating field must be controlled to produce torque and this synchronization implies accurate knowledge of rotor position which is obtained by means of the embedded Hall effect sensors. The realized driving system is composed by three principal blocks: the control electronic board, the power driving board and the BLDC motor. By PC connected via USB with the driving board, the user can choose the motor rotation direction, set the desired rpm value and, by varying potentiometer value located on board, change the rotation speed. Different tests were performed for verifying the correct motor operation and the results show that all the employed devices, driving board, control board and BLDC motor, work properly.

We present the bidirectional power line communication system developed in parallel to an electronic board for driving and control of HID (high-intensity discharge) and LED (light-emitting diode) lamps. The communication system, developed to be applied in the sector of public illumination, is been designed to combine high efficiency and reliability with low production costs; it consists indeed of discrete cheap components. The communication system described in this paper implements the technique of transporting digital information over existing power lines, avoiding the issue of installing new cables. Digitized signals can use power line cables through the amplitude voltage and current modulation. The solution proposed is more advantageous compared to communication techniques currently on themarket which are essentially two types, power line carrier (modem for high-voltage lines) or radio (zig-Bee transceiver).

This paper aims to describe two intelligent systems, microprocessor based, capable of monitoring, both locally o remotely, more photovoltaic strings. In particular, the electronic board called CS097 helps to detect environmental parameters such as temperature and solar radiation and to calculate average power and energy produced by the solar system, in order to monitor the efficiency and electricity production of the photovoltaic field. It can control up to four photovoltaic strings, acquiring voltage and current values for each string. Transducers, installed on the same board, detect currents lower than 20 amps and voltages lower than 1000 V. The acquired data have a maximum error of 1% compared to true current and voltage values generated by the strings. It’s also provided a galvanic isolation between the measuring circuits and the acquisition ones. The CS083 and CS088 electrical boards, instead, work as an alarm system which indicates a critical condition in case of an electrical continuity loss or a not-justified rapid variation of the voltage read on each string.

The emerged potentials and opportunities in the electronics field are becoming greatly appreciated in a highly competitive environment such that of the mechanic/engine field. In fact, the electronic system integrated in a vehicle is playing an increasingly fundamental role, especially in the competition/races sector, such that related to the “Formula SAE” (Society of Automotive Engineers), a competition in which participating teams (eg the Salento Racing Team) compete in the design, construction and testing of prototype single-seater cars (Fig. 1(a)). In this research work, an electronic system able to monitor in real time and constantly principal parameters characterizing the moving vehicle and to transmit wirelessly the acquired data was realized [1, 2]. Different sensors, mounted on vehicle, exchange data with the data acquisition and wireless communication control unit (Fig. 1(b)): linear potentiometers in order to monitor the suspensions behavior, temperature transducers located inside the engine compartment, gyroscope/accelerometer for detecting the accelerations and the inclination angles in space (i.e. pitch, roll and yaw), one NTC thermistor for acquiring the cooling liquid temperature and Hall effect sensors for monitoring the vehicle speed and any slippage of the wheels [3]. Besides, the realized data acquisition board, shown in Figs 2a and 2b, is composed of a conditioning board, for adjusting the voltage value of signals provided by sensors in accordance to voltage values required by the STM-32 Nucleo F411RE development board, which processes received data and, by means of the DORJI DRF1278F WiFi radio module, sends them to the base station (Fig. 2c) [4]. A further component is the SPARKFUN CAN-BUS shield module employed for data storage on SD memory card and for establishing the communication between the STM board and the engine control unit which receives signals from Hall sensors and from the NTC thermistor. The developed firmware (flow chart shown in Fig. 3), installed on STM32F411RET6 microcontroller embedded on STM board, allows the reading of signals provided by sensors, the SPARKFUN CAN module management and wireless transmission data through DORJI WiFi module. In Fig. 4, graphs relative to the sent data to the base station, concerning the vehicle speed, suspensions behavior and cooling liquid temperature monitoring, are shown. As reported in the graphs, data are correctly received by the base station and they show accordance between themselves, confirming, in this way, the proper functioning of the developed data acquisition and wireless transmission systems.

The aim to photo-ignite Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) with added metal impurities (ferrocene), makers of photo-ignition process. The realized ac powered electronic boards present different features such as variable flash brightness, pulse duration and high flash rate as function of user-adjustable potentiometers or by PC provided command signals. By using the designed PC-configurable boards in the realized experimental setup, the lighting parameters (i.e. pulse energy/power and energy density) for different Xe lamps have been measured and optimized. Varying temporal/luminous parameters of used light sources by means of realized driving boards, different pulse energy and power values were obtained, in order to fully exploit and analyze MWCNTs/ferrocene photo-induced ignition. Finally, employing these boards, the ignition of MWCNT/Ferrocene mixtures has been triggered and investigated.

In this research work a brief overview on the latest advancements in upper-limb prosthetic technology is presented; these mainly derive from the advantages offered by increasingly smart and high-performances electronic devices and modules,which nowadays are commercially available at very low costs. Then the electronics of Adam’s Hand, a transradial myoelectric prosthesis for upper-limb amputees, is described. The device is equipped with sensors and actuators that simplify and aid the hand movements; in particular, the mechanism on which it is based can actuate 15 degrees of freedom with just one motor (instead of the five/six motors conventionally used in other commercially available prosthetic devices). Two servomotors are used to actuate the wrist movements. The myoelectric signals used to control the prosthesis are detected through the Myo armband, which integrates eight Electromyography (EMG) electrodes and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) based on InvenSense MPU-9150 IC; all these data are sent by Myo armband through BLE protocol to the realized control electronics which actuates the used motors.

This paper describes a programmable electronic unit for controlling the environmental parameters and managing the electrical functions of a civil/industrial thermo-solar plant. The control unit acquires data from five analog temperature sensors, processes this informations and, on the basis of them, commands a series of external equipments (pumps, electric valves and power supllies) with dedicated relay outputs. In addition to, the designed electronic system has a display for graphical interface with users in order to ensure simple programming and managing and lastly it’s manageable even remotely. The electronic board, integrated with the display embedded system, allows the optimization of plant performances in order to maximize efficiency and energy saving; obviously, the system is designed in general purpose concept and, being widely programmable, its functionalities can be simply and quickly modified by user through the touch screen display.

This work presents an electronic board for driving and control of High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps and Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps. The proposed electronic board is able to drive HID or LED lamps by means of a reconfigurable output. This feature allows using the ballast in lighting systems that currently use traditional discharge lamps, as well as keeping the same ballast when discharge lamps are replaced by LED modules in the near future, when LED street lighting systems will be more affordable. Additionally, since the lighting system is designed to be used in rural areas where there is no public electricity, each lighting point incorporates a system to convert solar energy into continuous voltage by means of photovoltaic panels. In this work, energy saving issues are taken into account.

This paper describes a harvesting and power management system that can be equipped with a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) node in order to harvest energy presents in the environment to be used for sensor node power supply. The proposed scope is to develop a harvesting board exploiting available integrated circuits and devices for extending battery life-cycle of sensor node developed by Medinok SPA. The aim is to realize a WSN able to perform a monitoring of principal physical parameters deemed of interest in a facility, as automatic as possible, for the storage and handling of goods, applied for example to a commercial seaport, where stored containers need to be continuously monitored. Battery life-time is a main problem especially in networks where sensor nodes are not easily accessible. For this reason, sensor nodes are commonly equipped with power management devices able to supply power in an intelligent way from the harvester when harvestable energy is available or from backup batteries ensuring, under every operating conditions, the correct functioning of the sensor node. In this work, a solar-based harvesting system, based on LTC3330 IC, was designed and tested on Medinote sensor node but usable for any device requiring to be fed.

Aim of this paper is the design of an absorption spectrophotometer based on LED technology presenting several advantages such as high luminous efficiency, reliability, long operating duration, low maintenance and low power consumption besides the reduction of analyte temperature variations which occur if Xenon light source is used. An optical filtering system was realized to detect analyte absorption for each wavelength range selected by proper optical filters; also to characterize filtered light beam in terms of its coherence length, thus correlating measured absorption spectrum with light source characteristics, the Michelson interferometer was used. Realized white LED-based spectrophotometer can be used to monitor air quality in hospital rooms or to detect atmospheric pollution deriving from vehicular traffic and different typology of pollutants (e.g., heavy metals deriving by industrial activities). A PC-interfaced control unit acquires and processes raw data provided by sensors (pressure, temperature, humidity, luminosity) and manages the optical filtering system motion by actuating a stepper motor. Whole system operation was tested and obtained results confirm the proper functioning and correct interaction, through PC terminal, between user and control unit.

This paper describes the realization of an electronic apparatus for controlling and driving a bi-axial solar tracker system of a PV plant, managed by a PC software application with an user-friendly graphical interface. The designed software is able to calculate the sun circadian orbit and consequently to move the solar panels in order to maintain the panel’s surface always perpendicular to solar rays, improving the efficiency in energy production. In particular, the object of this work consists in optimizing an existing, from us designed, fully-hardware apparatus which didn’t allow a simple and rapid plant management, completely replacing the Master electronic board with the designed software, able to communicate by PC with Slave electronic boards for tracker motors driving

Aim of this paper is to present a PIC-based low-cost monitoring system for domestic PV plant, able to detect environmental and electrical parameters for controlling energy production and its proper functioning. Thereby the designed equipment can guarantee, by sending alarm signal to a data/receiving viewing device, quick detection in case of system’s malfunction or productivity’s drops. In fact realized system is able to transmit by wireless ZigBee module, the PIC processed data about PV plant’s status and productivity to a remote device, touch screen display or PC, for viewing the information to the user.

This paper describes the functioning of an electronic board for driving solenoid diesel injectors, designed and used in experimental setup based on Common Rail injection scheme, for injectors’ characterization with 100% biodiesel fuel through analysis of spray emitted in a quiescent velocimetric chamber. The board allows user to adjust electrical/temporal parameters of voltage signal applied to injector coil, determining its opening, by acting on six potentiometers. The electronic setup for control and execution of whole injection process is also composed of a National Instruments acquisition board, both units controlled from PC by means of an expressly implemented LabView Virtual Instrument.

Installation of renewal energy plant is a vital question for safeguarding cities and human agglomerations against pollution and helping them in the effort to save conventional energy contribution. As it is a widespread issue, PV plants can be located everywhere even in a severe conditions on the proviso that no external depositions, covering and coating the solar module, can alter the photovoltaic efficiency. To solve the problem, practically speaking, diverse solutions are envisaged and among them there is a continuous cleaning of dust by means of water and special liquids. The research proposes a modelling of the effect of dust on efficiency using experimental measurements provided through MPPT (maximum power point tracker) installed in the measuring architecture. Dust covering the PV module reduces the solar irradiance affecting the energy conversion. A comparison has been performed between a clean PV module under MPPT variations and another one of the same technology (CdTe, cadmium telluride) with dust. Both acquisitions have been carried out simultaneously for around one month. Both measurement campaigns agree with the scientific literature.

This paper describes an intelligent electronic system for the control of LED and SAP lamps for public lighting. The lighting system is designed to be applied in rural areas where there isn’t public voltage electricity. Each lighting point, in fact, has a system to convert solar energy into continuous voltage by photovoltaic panels. The communication between the electrical cabinet and the individual lighting point is through the power line. In order to ensure a high energy savings, in addition, the intensity of the luminous flux produced by the single lighting points is maintained at 50% of the nominal value. Instead, it is increased to 100% in case of vehicles in transit in the area illuminated by lighting point, vehicle or pedestrians detected using appropriate presence detector.

In this work we present an electronic board for driving and control of High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps and Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps. In the last fifteen years we have seen a big expansion of HID lamps for public lighting utilizations. In these last years in the same way the LED technology is developing in public lighting. For these two reasons we will need more and more an electronic device which can drive both HID and LED lamps. The presented electronic board is able to drive six lamps by means of six outputs reconfigurable for HID or LED lamp; in particular five outputs are dedicated to drive only LED lamps, while one output can be set up for HID or LED lamps by user. In this work particular effort was made for energy saving problems. Additionally a communication module is developed for remote control. The presented board is developed with discrete components; in order to minimise the board’s cost and PCB’s area, it is working in progress another board with a fully-integrated ASIC with all the control logic systems, communication module and power factor correction inside.

The use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the combustion and propulsion sector, which is the object of this work, is due to the discovery of photo-ignition properties of such nano-material, when they are exposed to an intense luminous flash [1]. This phenomenon allows obtaining fuels combustion system more efficient and clean (HCCI engine) [2]. Most of the literature studies involve a Xe-lamp to ignite the CNTs mixed with metal catalyst; the use of this light source is not without criticism because it requires very high supply voltages, has an intrinsic mechanical instability, and it can’t work at frequencies required by an automotive engine running [3]. A LED-based ignition system can be considered the optimum solution, because LEDs have high luminous efficiency, higher mechanical stability and for the absence of frequency limitations. In this work, a LEDs-based experimental setup used to perform combustion tests of gaseous fuels, by means of photo-ignition of MWCNTs/FeCp2, has been proposed (Fig. 1). The setup uses a multi-LED ignition-system, placed outside the combustion chamber, convoying the light emitted by each LED source into the chamber by a fiber optic. The electronic section drives and controls the LED sources, synchronizing temporally them with the input of the enriched air-fuel mixture. Moreover, it will also handle and monitor all physical / environmental parameters involved in the combustion process, such as temperature and pressure inside the combustion chamber, etc. In order to obtain a light pulse of controlled duration, a driving and control electronic system was realized (Fig. 2). The white power LEDs (Cree XHP70) were driven by proper LED drivers; to generate a single light pulse, a pulsed signal is applied to the enable control input of each LED driver. This last signal is obtained on PC audio channel by proper LabVIEW application and after conditioning by an interface board. A four LEDs source was used to perform ignition tests on the dry mixtures MWCNTs/FeCp2 to obtain energy density comparable to which obtained with the Xe lamp. In the Figs. 3a and b, the setup used to perform ignition tests on dry mixtures MWCNTs/FeCp2, is shown; the driving and control unit is constituted by four LED drivers, the interface board and the PC with LabVIEW application (Fig. 3a), whereas tests area with the four LEDs source and the power/energy meter (Thorlabs PM100D) equipped with pyroelectric sensor (Thorlabs ES145C) are shown in Fig. 3b. The light source is placed at 1cm at least from the pyroelectric sensor and then from CNTs sample (Fig. 3b). Using this experimental setup, the minimum pulse durations needed to ignite the MWCNTs/FeCp2 samples for the different concentrations by weight, are determined. Known the light source intensity, the minimum ignition energy of the MWCNTs/FeCp2 samples for the considered concentrations, are calculated (Fig. 4).

This paper describes a programmable electronic system for controlling the environmental parameters and managing the electrical functions of a civil/industrial thermo-solar plant. The device acquires data from temperature and light sensors, processes these information and commands external equipments (pumps, electric valves and power supplies) with dedicated relay outputs for the optimization of plant performances in order to maximize efficiency and energy saving. Recently several researches, in the field of solar thermal energy production, have demonstrated that nanofluid-based solar collectors present higher conversion efficiency. In this context, the designed control unit can be used to detect physical parameters in order to compare to monitor, at the same time, the two different types of solar collector in similar environmental conditions and to show on touch screen display the detected performances.

In this paper it is described an algorithm, implemented in a biaxial solar tracker, that can instantly calculate the sun position at the latitude and longitude of a set point. The algorithm can drive up to two engines which are able to change the position of a solar panel, in order to increase its efficiency, for tracking the sun in its movement from east to west (azimuth motion) and in its elevation up to solar noon (tilt motion). The whole system is adaptable to various types of structures as it involves a cycle of self-learning of the structure and consequently the adaptation of calculations to the tracker on which it is installed.

This paper describes the operation and calibration modes for an experimental monitoring system of a photovoltaic (PV) plant with greater emphasis on the Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT). In order to optimize the energy production and therefore the economic convenience, it is very important that MPPT device works properly and that the measurement of PV electrical quantities is not affected by excessive errors. In this regard, the operation and related features of the MPPT3000, multifunction testing device used in the proposed measuring chain, are described in detail. More specifically, in addition to multi-parameter data acquisition system for PV plants, an experimental setup for calibration and operation check of MPPT devices has been developed, during their normal operation directly connected to the PV panels. From the collected data, it is observed a low measurement error (less than 1,5%) and verified the correct functioning of MPPT3000 devices, able to maximize the PV produced power even in case of abrupt variations in the solar irradiation level.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an expression, sometimes abused by companies given the absence of an unambiguous meaning, that indicates the upcoming evolution of Internet as it has been known so far. In fact, all objects will have network capabilities which will be exploited to overcome, in certain situations, human intervention. Thanks to the direct cooperation of new class of devices, aware of their operating scenario and interconnected in subnetworks, our life style will be strongly enhanced and simplified. IoT, however, is not yet the “El Dorado” of technology, capable of revolutionizing everyday life: some aspects and open issues have to be carefully analyzed. The huge complexity of this new technology forces companies to select a specific research field: for this reason, they focus only on some features that an IoT device should have to guarantee fulfillment of requirements. In this context, this research work concerns an analysis of features, operation principle and limits of SPI and I2C communication protocols followed by the proposal of a new hybrid protocol suited for embedded systems, named FlexSPI, thought as an evolution of the classic SPI. Thanks to a robust software architecture, it is able to provide many features that can be used by smart objects to enhance their capabilities. In this way, sensors and actuators or, more in general, subsystems, can quickly exchange data and efficiently react to malfunctioning; moreover, number of devices on bus can be safely increased even while smart object is performing operations.

The paper illustrates findings regarding the design and realization of flexible GUI (graphical user interface) to be used on current and past instrumentation, especially for instruments using Michelson interferometer. It was designed for an affordable spectrophotometer constructed in the laboratory of Measurement and Instrumentation of the Department of Innovating Engineering/University of Salento. As it is well-known, in the milieu of scientists and researchers working in the area of Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) instrument, the quality of interferogram is a key issue on detecting the pollutant or material under test by means of specific frequency.

In this paper, we report a detailed description of developed Flex-SPI firmware structure together with experimental tests carried out by using ad-hoc instrumental setups based on TI MSP-EXP430F5438 experimenter boards. Developed framework, aimed to provide a solid base to test the possibility of performing a shared SPI communication with a fixed number of wires without renouncing to push-pull output stage advantages, has been implemented and successfully validated. Also, FlexSPI energy consumption has been evaluated and then compared with the I2C one, by proper experimental setups and related data processing: the two protocols, in fact, share several features, although they rely on a different hardware configuration. The energy/bit metric was chosen so that the two output stages can be compared regardless the effective quantity of exchanged packets; thus, this measure provides an indication of necessary energy amount to move a single bit to guarantee the correct firmware functionality. Despite larger quantity of exchanged data due to channel reservation needs (with a 35% traffic overhead, in the performed tests), the FlexSPI total energy consumption is comparable with the I2C one, at the same communication speed; thus a lower energy/bit requirement is required for FlexSPI protocol, decreasing with the negotiated speed, in this way proving FlexSPI protocol as a suited and valid choice for high-speed low-consumption communications inside embedded systems with a developed architecture capable of great flexibility.

Aim of this work is the design and realization of a driving system for monitoring and controlling of a BLDC motor with Hall sensors embedded. The realized system is composed by three principal blocks: the control electronic board, the power driving board and the BLDC motor. The first block is based on the STM32 Nucleo development board assembled with the second one, the ST-X-Nucleo-IHM07M1 motor driver expansion board which integrates an L6230 IC driver. The used BLDC motor is the DF45M024053-A2 model provided by Nanotec. The firmware, needed to properly control motor operation, was developed in ARM mbed environment, a development tool available on cloud which allows to send the .bin file (obtained after firmware compilation) directly to the STM32 development board, regarded from operating system, once connected via USB to PC, simply as an external memory. By PC connected via USB with STM32 board, the user can choose the motor rotation direction, set the desired rpm value and, by varying potentiometer value located on board, change the rotation speed. Furthermore, different controls are performed during motor operation such as on PWM duty-cycle value (if it is equal to 100% , then power supply is removed), on temperature value of L6230 IC driver and a control of motor rotation; in this latter case, if BLDC motor is stalled for a time period higher than 3 seconds, then the power supply is interrupted in order to safeguard the motor/system integrity.

In this paper, the design and testing of a PC-interfaced PIC-based control unit used to manage an absorption spectrophotometer, employing a white LED as light source, are described. LED technology allows to perform the absorption measurements reducing the analyte temperature variations and thus noise generation, which occur if a Xenon light source, usually employed, is used; also thanks to LED technology, the system results low cost, easy to use and with a low power consumption. The realized spectrophotometer can be used for atmospheric and industrial pollutant detection or for indoor air monitoring (e.g., in hospital rooms), being able to detect particulate matter, pesticides, volatile organic compounds as well as pollution produced by heavy metals. The realized system manages the different required functionalities, such as acquisition and processing, via firmware, of raw data provided by sensors, actuation of mechanical devices (stepper motor and solenoid valve), and synchronizing and controlling the data exchange between hardware sections, microcontroller, and PC. Both hardware and software sections were designed carrying out the appropriate tests to verify their proper operation. Results confirm the correct system functioning and interaction, via PC terminal, between user and the realized control unit.

The aim of this work is to investigate and characterize the photo-ignition process of dry multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) mixed with ferrocene (FeCp2) powder, using an LED (light-emitting diode) as the light source, a combination that has never been used, to the best of our knowledge. The ignition process was improved by adding a lipophilic porphyrin (H2Pp) in powder to the MWCNTs/FeCp2 mixtures—thus, a lower ignition threshold was obtained. The ignition tests were carried out by employing a continuous emission and a pulsed white LED in two test campaigns. In the first, two MWCNT typologies, high purity (HP) and industrial grade (IG), were used without porphyrin, obtaining, for both, similar ignition thresholds. Furthermore, comparing ignition thresholds obtained with the LED source with those previously obtained with a Xenon (Xe) lamp, a significant reduction was observed. In the second test campaign, ignition tests were carried out by means of a properly driven and controlled pulsed XHP70 LED source. The minimum ignition energy (MIE) of IG-MWCNTs/FeCp2 samples was determined by varying the duration of the light pulse. Experimental results show that ignition is obtained with a pulse duration of 110 ms and a MIE density of 266 mJ/cm2. The significant reduction of the MIE value (10–40%), observed when H2Pp in powder form was added to the MWCNTs/FeCp2 mixtures, was ascribed to the improved photoexcitation and charge transfer properties of the lipophilic porphyrin molecules.

This paper describes an intelligent electronic system designed to monitor, both locally or remotely, a PV system in order to detect any theft or malfunction and to optimize energy production by efficient algorithm for driving the plant’s solar trackers. The system consists of several electronic boards; the CS097 sensing/processing board detects environmental parameters, temperature and solar radiation, calculates produced power and energy for monitoring efficiency and electricity production. The CS083/CS088 electrical boards work as alarm anti-theft system which detects a critical condition in case of electrical continuity loss or not-justified rapid variation of PV string voltage; the intelligent unit has dual operation mode that makes it capable of auto-adapting itself distinguishing between day and night. The designed CS012 board controls a biaxial solar tracker and instantly calculates the sun position at latitude and longitude of the installation site so following solar orbit.

Detection of leakages in pipelines is a matter of continuous research because of the basic importance for a waterworks system is finding the point of the pipeline where a leak is located and − in some cases − a nature of the leak. There are specific difficulties in finding leaks by using spectral analysis techniques like FFT (Fast Fourier Transform), STFT (Short Term Fourier Transform), etc. These difficulties arise especially in complicated pipeline configurations, e.g. a zigzag one. This research focuses on the results of a new algorithm based on FFT and comparing them with a developed STFT technique. Even if other techniques are used, they are costly and difficult to be managed. Moreover, a constraint in the leak detection is the pipeline diameter because it influences accuracy of the adopted algorithm. FFT and STFT are not fully adequate for complex configurations dealt with in this paper, since they produce ill-posed problems with an increasing uncertainty. Therefore, an improved Tikhonov technique has been implemented to reinforce FFT and STFT for complex configurations of pipelines. Hence, the proposed algorithm overcomes the aforementioned difficulties due to applying a linear algebraic approach.

Aim of this work is the design of a programmable electronic system for monitoring the environmental parameters and managing the electrical functions of a thermo-solar plant. The designed control unit detects data from temperature and light sensors, processes acquired information and commands external equipments (pumps, electric valves and power supplies) in order to optimize plant performances and maximize efficiency and energy savings. Recently several researches, in the field of solar thermal energy production, have demonstrated that nanofluid-based solar collectors present higher conversion efficiency. In this context, the designed control unit can be used to detect their operation parameters in order to compare the performances of nanofluid- based solar collector with those of traditional one. The electronic experimental setup is capable to monitor, at the same time, the two different types of solar collector in similar environmental conditions and to show on touch screen display the detected performances. In order to have reference data, experimental measurements have been carried out by using traditional water and Al2O3–based nanofluid thermo solar collectors. The obtained experimental data showed the benefit in terms of efficiency in the use of nanofluid as heat transfer fluid in such a system.

This paper describes a programmable electronic unit for controlling the environmental parameters and managing the electrical functions of a civil/industrial thermo-solar plant. The control unit acquires data from analog sensors, processes these information and commands external actuation devices with dedicated relay outputs, allowing the optimization of plant performances in order to maximize efficiency and energy saving. The designed electronic system has a touch-screen display for graphical interface with users, which makes device programming and managing operations easier. In addition to, the system is accessible via PC terminal on site by means of serial cable with RS232 standard and from Android-based mobile devices connected to internet network for remote monitoring, since the designed control unit is connected to a modem/router device with an RS485/Ethernet adapter.

Biodiesel fuels are increasingly attracting interest in the scientific community and in the world motor industry. The morphological analysis of injected sprays is a key factor to increase engine performances using new biodiesel fuels and to compare them with those related to the use of conventional fuels. In this paper, an experimental setup is realised to carry out test campaigns, in order to analyse and compare the spray injections of different fuel typologies. A PC-interfaced electronic system was realised for driving BOSCH injectors and for varying the injection pressure and opening time. Hence, the morphological analysis was performed for each tested fuel by characterising the shaperatio and penetration depth inside the velocimetric chamber. The results show higher penetration values for biodiesel fuels due to their viscosity and drops in superficial tension, which facilitate a deeper penetration compared to those obtained with conventional diesel fuels. Although used biodiesels contain only 20% of renewable vegetable-origin diesel fuels, the viscosity and superficial tension are slightly higher than those of petroleum diesel, thus determining a weak vaporisation and formation of larger drops. By knowing the morphological behaviour of sprays using biofuels and conventional fuel, it is possible, by using programmable electronic systems, to adjust and improve the spray parameters in order to obtain better engine performances. The results reported in this instance could be utilised by future research works for choosing the most suitable biofuel based on the desired morphological behaviour of the injected sprays.

In this paper, we report on hardware structure, operation mode and software development for a new advanced communication protocol whose aim is obtaining a fully shared SPI bus with a fixed amount of wires, without renouncing to advantages of a push-pull output stage and obtaining an architecture capable of great flexibility. All four signals of a classic SPI protocol are entirely shared by the slaves on bus: when a master wants to communicate with a particular device, it will perform an addressing at packet level: starting from its main characteristics, various adopted solutions to realize a shared SPI bus will be analyzed, explaining how a communication session is performed. The firmware structure was designed as a software stack composed by interacting layers, tracing model of similar protocols that share with FlexSPI some features. Some of the advanced procedures that can be performed thanks to this protocol will be discussed, highlighting the suitability of FlexSPI for dynamic smart objects; in fact, by adding these features to developed framework, it is possible to explore and appreciate expandability of this communication protocol, making it suitable to meet advanced IoT requirements of smart objects. FlexSPI can be built like a MAC layer above the SPI bus, to process all necessary pieces of information to perform the packet level addressing, using a stack having a layered architecture. This is idea followed in the firmware development, to implement this communication protocol, experimentally verified in the performed and reported communication tests, confirming that it is possible to obtain a shared push-pull bus.

This work aims to investigate and characterize the photo-ignition phenomenon of MWCNT/ferrocene mixtures by using a continuous wave (CW) xenon (Xe) light source, in order to find the power ignition threshold by employing a different type of light source as was used in previous research (i.e., pulsed Xe lamp). The experimental photo-ignition tests were carried out by varying the weight ratio of the used mixtures, luminous power, and wavelength range of the incident Xe light by using selective optical filters. For a better explanation of the photo-induced ignition process, the absorption spectra of MWCNT/ferrocene mixtures and ferrocene only were obtained. The experimental results show that the luminous power (related to the entire spectrum of the Xe lamp) needed to trigger the ignition of MWCNT/ferrocene mixtures decreases with increasing metal nanoparticles content according to previously published results when using a different type of light source (i.e., pulsed vs CW Xe light source). Furthermore, less light power is required to trigger photo-ignition when moving towards the ultraviolet (UV) region. This is in agreement with the measured absorption spectra, which present higher absorption values in the UV–vis region for both MWCNT/ferrocene mixtures and ferrocene only diluted in toluene. Finally, a chemo-physical interpretation of the ignition phenomenon is proposed whereby ferrocene photo-excitation, due to photon absorption, produces ferrocene itself in its excited form and is thus capable of promoting electron transfer to MWCNTs. In this way, the resulting radical species, FeCp2+∙ and MWCNT−, easily react with oxygen giving rise to the ignition of MWCNT/ferrocene samples.

Aim of this work is to describe the electronic driving system and the entire experimental setup realized in order to photo-ignite a gaseous fuel/air mixture enriched with Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with added metal impurities, makers of photo-ignition process. The realized electronic boards present different features such as variable flash brightness, pulse duration and high flash rate, allowing to fully characterize the combustion process under investigation. Varying the Xenon light source’s parameters, the needed light energy/power to ignite MWCNT/Fe mixtures with different weight ratio was found. Experimental results show that lower energy thresholds are required with increasing MWCNTs amount respect to ferrocene. Then, the photo-induced ignition of CNTs mixed with nanoparticles was used in a properly realized experimental setup for triggering the combustion of different CNT-enriched air/fuel mixtures (CH4, Liquid Propane and H2). The combustion tests triggered by MWCNTs/ferrocene photo-ignition show better performances (shorter ignition delays, higher peak pressure values and a higher fuel burning rate), for all used gaseous fuels and all tested air / fuel ratios, compared with those obtained by using a traditional spark plug.

The possibility to use carbon nanotubes (CNTs) enriched with a certain amount of metal nanoparticles for photo-inducing the combustion of liquid fuel sprays, gaseous and solid fuels was investigated in different research works. CNTs photo-ignition phenomenon has been used to trigger the combustion of different fuel typologies, demonstrating better features compared with those obtained by employing a traditional spark-plug.These improvements are due to the presence of distributed ignition nuclei inside the combustion chamber, so obtaining better values of the peak pressure, ignition delay and combustion duration. In this work, the CNTs photo-ignition phenomenon has been analyzed in order to find the minimum energy values needed to trigger the ignition, by varying the light pulse parameters and the nanoparticles concentration, Multi Wall CNTs (MWCNTs) – ferrocene, by weight. Afterwards, the results of combustion processes, triggered by using the nanoparticles, are shown comparing them with those obtained by means the spark plug and with results already published related to other fuel typologies. Hence, an overview of the possible applications of this photo-ignition phenomenon, beside that of the automotive field, is presented, also considering the disadvantages ofthe Xe-lamp based triggering system. Therefore, after a critical discussion on the light source typology until now used (Xenon lamp), by reporting the possible contra-indications deriving from the use of this light source in most of the applicative fields, a solution is here proposed. It involves the substitution of the Xe lamp with LED sources, showing also the related experimental setup. This solution is also strengthened by the our experimental observations of CNTs photo-ignition by using high-power white LEDs as light source, never reported up to now in the literature, and by better characteristics of adaptability, robustness, easy driving and benefits provided by the LEDs rather than the Xenon lamp.

This article describes the photo-induced ignition process of multi-walled carbon nano-tubes (MWCNTs)/ferrocene mixtures by pulsed Xe lamps using programmable driving boards with adjustable parameters, such as variable flash rate and pulse’s energy/intensity. Varying the energy of incident light pulse, minimum ignition energy values were found as a function ofmixture weight ratio, observing that a higherMWCNT amount with respect to metal nano-particles leads to lower ignition energy. The photo-induced ignition of CNTsmixed with nano-particles was then used iin a properly realized experimental setup for triggering the combustion of CNT-enriched fuel mixtures. Different types of gaseous fuels mixed with air (CH4, liquid propane, and H2) were tested. The combustion process triggered by MWCNTs/ferrocene photo-ignition shows better performances, for all used gaseous fuels and for all tested air/fuel ratios, compared with those obtained by using a traditional spark plug. In particular, CNT-based photo-induced combustion evolves more rapidly with shorter ignition delays, higher peak pressure values, and a higher fuel burning rate as observed by reported experimental tests.

This paper describes the design and testing of programmable driving boards for turning on Xenon flash lamps, with the aim to photo-ignite a gaseous fuel/air mixture enriched with Multi-walled carbon nanotubes with added metal impurities, makers of photo-ignition process. The key factor of realized electronic boards is the availability to adjust the triggering parameters of pulsed Xe lamps, allowing to fully characterize the combustion process under investigation. By using the designed PC-configurable boards in the realized experimental setups, the effects of Xenon light source’s parameters such as pulse luminous intensity, flash-rate and time duration have been investigated in order to find the needed light energy/power to ignite MWCNT/Fe mixtures with different weight ratio (from 1:4 to 4:1). Experimental results show that lower energy thresholds are required with increasing MWCNTs amount respect to ferrocene.

This work regards on hardware and firmware development of an electronic control and driving system for dancing fountains, able to manage water and lighting scenarios synchronized with mp3 music files stored on an external SD memory card connected to the designed system. The smart PIC-based control unit reproduces the music file related to a particular scenario and drives, in a synchronized way, fountain’s LED-based headlights and water pumps to create amazing light and water plays.

This work regards on hardware and firmware development of an electronic control and driving system for dancing fountains, able to manage water and lighting scenarios synchronized with mp3 music files stored on an external SD memory card connected to the designed system. The smart PIC-based control unit reproduces the music file related to a particular scenario and drives, in a synchronized way, fountain’s LED-based headlights and water pumps to create amazing light and water plays.

Solar energy is available almost everywhere but in some circumstances and locations it is necessary to optimize the dimensions of plants, avoiding large surface of PV modules installed on the ground, preferring modules located on solar trackers to increase the efficiency by at least 35%. However, even in this latter case, there are still margins for increasing the PV plant’s efficiency. For this purpose, we have developed and tested an electronic system for controlling and driving bi-axial solar trackers of a PV plant, managed by a PC software application with a user-friendly graphical interface. The designed software is able to calculate the sun circadian orbit and consequently to move the solar panels in order to maintain the panel’s surface always perpendicular to solar rays, improving the efficiency in energy production. In particular, the object of this work consists in optimizing an existing, designed by us, fully-hardware setup which didn’t allow a simple and rapid plant management, completely replacing the Master electronic board with the designed software, so as to be able to communicate, by means of PC’s RS232 serial port, with Slave electronic boards for tracker motors driving.

This paper describes the design and realization of a smart electronic system, based on a Wireless Sensor Network, for wide-area monitoring of availability level and rapid changes of the water presence in the monitored soil in order to guarantee flood prediction, water savings in the optimized farmland irrigation, waste reduction and optimal use of water resources where its availability is low. The designed sensor node, by means of the different embedded sensors, is capable of detecting environmental parameters, the solar radiation level and soil temperature and moisture (i.e. water volume content) values. The sensors communicate with a central processing unit located on board, used both as data processing unit and as Wi-Fi transceiver to receive/transmit the sensors data. The user near a sensor node, by a tablet or smartphone with an appropriate app, can collect information provided from sensors and share them with all users who use the same app on the Cloud, through peer to peer Wi-Fi or other internet connection.

Aim of this paper is to illustrate and describe the trend of last technological innovations and new IoT-based devices employed in solar-powered LED-based lighting systems, in order to obtain energy savings, low mainteinance costs and to offer additional services to the users or community. Technological developments, in the last years, have allowed the use of LEDs technology in many general illumination applications, from houses to commercial or outdoor spaces. LED lighting is projected to reduce related energy consumption of 15% in 2020 up to 40% in 2030; in this contest, solarpowered LED lighting facilities offer a significant contribution to obtain energy savings, together with substantial environmental and health benefits. Last innovations in nanotechnology and quantum physics have the potential to strongly increase the electrical power obtained from solar panels for feeding any portable device. Furthermore, the spread of Internet of Things (IoT) and the huge use of smartphones and related apps allow wirelessly to control and drive the LED-based lighting systems, that also can be provided with integrated sensors thus realizing new functionalities, an improved management of energy and new services for smart cities. Finally, systems made up of connected lighting devices could become data collection platforms that, making use of renewable energies, enable even greater energy savings referred to lighting and in general electrical facilities present in smart buildings or cities.

This paper describes the design and realization of a smart electronic system, based on a Wireless Sensor Network, for wide-area monitoring of availability level and rapid changes of the water presence in the monitored soil, in order to guarantee, depending on application, early flood prediction, water savings in the optimized farmland irrigation as well as waste reduction and optimal use of water resources where its availability is low. The designed sensor node, equipped with a small PV panel to recharge the Li-Ion battery for feeding the entire system, by means of the different embedded sensors, is capable of detecting environmental parameters, the solar radiation level and soil temperature and moisture (i.e.water volume content) values. The sensors communicate with a central processing unit located on board, the ESP8266 SoC module, used both as data processing unit and as Wi-Fi transceiver to receive/transmit sensors data; the user near a sensor node, by a tablet or smartphone with an appropriate app, can collect information provided from sensors and share them with all users who use the same app, through peer to peer Wi-Fi or other internet connection.

Technological advances in manufacturing smart high-performances electronic devices, increasingly available at lower costs, nowadays allow to improve users’ quality of life in many application fields. In this work, the human-machine interaction obtained by using a next generation device (Myo armband) is analyzed and discussed, with a particular focus to healthcare applications such as upper-limb prostheses. An overview on application fields of the Myo armband and on the latest research works related to its use in prosthetic applications is presented; subsequently, the technical features and functionalities of this device are examined. Myo armband is a wearable device provided with eight electro-myographic electrodes, a 9-axes Inertial Measurement Unit and a transmission module. It sends the data related to the detected signals, via Bluetooth Low Energy technology, to other electronic devices which process them and act accordingly, depending on how they are programmed (in order to drive actuators or perform other specific functions). Applied to the prosthetic field, Myo armband allows to overcome many issues related to the existing prostheses, representing a complete electronic platform that detects in real-time the main signals related to forearm activity (muscles activation and forearm movements in the three-dimensional space) and sends these data to the connected devices. Nowadays, several typologies of prostheses are available on the market; they can be mainly distinguished into low-cost prostheses, which are light and compact but allow for a limited number of movements, and high-end prostheses, which are much more complex and featured by high dexterity, but also heavy, bulky, difficult to control and very expensive. Finally, the Myo armband is an optimum candidate for prosthetic application (and many others) and offers an excellent low-cost solution for obtaining a reliable, easy to use system.

This paper describes a programmable electronic equipment for controlling the environmental parameters and managing the electrical functions of a thermo-solar plant. The control unit acquires data from analog sensors, processes these information and commands external actuation devices in order to optimize plant performances improving efficiency and energy saving. The designed electronic system has a touch-screen display for graphical interface with users, which makes device programming and managing operations easier. In addition to, the system is accessible via PC terminal on site by RS232 serial cable and from Android-based mobile devices connected to internet network for remote monitoring, since control unit is connected to a modem/router device with an RS485/Ethernet adapter.

Prosthesis is a complex medical device which needs to be adapted to the specific individual requirements. A good prosthesis is based on reliable and simple interaction of its mechanic and electronic parts with the user; it is controlled by small electrical signals generated by muscle contractions (myoelectric signals) and measured with electrodes placed on the skin. In this research work, the designed and realized prosthesis (Fig. 1a) is equipped with sensors and actuators that simplify and aid the hand movements. The myoelectric signals are detected through the MYO bracelet which integrates the Electromyography (EMG) electrodes and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) based on InvenSense MPU-9150 IC; all these data are sent wirelessly by MYO bracelet to the control electronics for activating one DC motor for handling the five fingers and two servomotors for wrist [1]. Unlike conventional prostheses that use five motors one for each finger, in designed prosthesis a mechanism based on rigid and compact toothed wheels is exploited; the wheels apply constant forces, not dependent on fingers position thus transmitting movement to all fingers. Also, use of a single motor allows to obtain a lighter and less expensive prosthesis, battery energy savings and larger space for control electronics housing. The realized driving/control electronic unit handles the different prosthesis sections (Fig. 1b); it acquires data from five resistive force sensors and five LM35 temperature sensors, each couple for finger, it drives two Futuba S3305 servo-motors for wrist movement and one Maxon DCX 19 S DC motor for fingers movement. Also, the Arduino-based control unit receives data, wirelessly from MYO bracelet through bluetooth low-energy MYO unit, by using the HM11 module that integrates SoC Texas Instruments CC2541 chip (Fig 2a) and it exchanges data with the Raspberry Pi board (placed into proper case with LCD display, Fig. 2b) by USB serial cable [2]. The Raspberry board collects data from sensors and, through a WiFi connection, sends them on cloud to a dedicated web server; it also manages the touch-screen 3.5” LCD getting user-friendly interface in order to handle different aspects of the prosthesis such as autonomy, sensors data displaying, wireless connectivity. Performed experimental tests (Figs. 3, 4) show that realized electronic system (firmware developed in Arduino IDE) allows to correctly detect the different data provided by sensors and by the EMG MYO electrodes and to drive the employed DC and servo motors [3]. Data related to physical and myoelectric parameters from IMU, EMG MYO electrodes and from temperature and pressure (force) sensors are displayed on PC terminal via USB connection for verifying the correct system operation (Fig. 4a) and, through the Raspberry Pi board, same data are sent on cloud in order to be monitored by the orthopedic staff (Fig. 4b).

Aim of this paper is to present a wireless monitoring smart system of household electrical facilities, with ZigBee/WiFi transceivers, able to detect absorbed current from electrical loads, to calculate dissipated power and energy by means of PIC-based software and to view, in real-time, calculated consumption values on web page properly realized for user’s remote control. Depending on light/presence sensors’ signal, the realized system can switch on/off the monitored electrical loads for obtaining energy saving and user satisfaction. Also by sending DALI-standard commands to slave loads (e.g lighting facilities based on LEDs), the user can monitor, remotely by using a tablet/smartphone connected to internet, the operation’s state and adjust the light intensity of each light point for achieving different scenarios. All functional tests, carried out on realized PCB prototype, have provided positive results allowing the use for the monitoring/driving of a real house’s electrical facilities.

This paper describes an intelligent system for monitoring photovoltaic plants, detecting thefts or malfunctions and optimizing energy production by algorithm to drive solar trackers. Sensing/processing board detects environmental parameters and calculates produced power/energy for monitoring efficiency while anti-theft system reveals any critical condition. Designed board controls biaxial trackers calculating sun position and following solar orbit to optimize energy production. Monitoring and anti-tampering systems communicate with PC or remote stations by wireless modules. Finally, wireless monitoring system of household facilities measures absorbed currents viewing consumption values on web-page. Depending on light/presence sensors, system can switch on/off monitored facilities obtaining energy savings.

In this paper it is described a wireless monitoring smart system of household electrical facilities, with ZigBee/WiFi transceivers, able to measure the absorbed current from electrical loads, to calculate dissipated power and energy by means of PIC-based software and to display the calculated consumption values on web page opportunely realized for user’s remote control. Depending on light/presence sensors’ signal, the realized system can switch on/off the monitored electrical loads for obtaining energy savings and user satisfaction. Also by sending DALI-standard commands to the slave loads (e.g lighting facilities based on LEDs), the user can monitor, remotely by using a tablet/ smartphone connected to internet, the operation’s state and regulate the intensity of each light point for achieving different lighting scenarios. All functional tests, carried out on the realized PCB prototype, relative to the monitoring/driving of real house’s electrical facilities, have yielded positive results.

This paper describes a wireless monitoring smart system of household electrical facilities, with ZigBee / WiFi transceivers, able to detect absorbed current from electrical loads, to calculate dissipated power and energy by means of PIC based software and to view the calculated consumption values on web page properly realized for user’s remote control. Depending on light/presence sensors’ signal, the realized system can switch on/off the monitored electrical loads for obtaining energy savings and user satisfaction. Also by sending DALI-standard commands to slave loads (e.g lighting facilities based on LEDs), the user can monitor, remotely by using a tablet/smartphone connected to internet, the operation’s state and adjust the light intensity of each light point for achieving different lighting scenarios.