In the previous Internet of Things (IoT) video, we demonstrated how you can use an application based on Autodesk Forge to control electrical appliances. TeamCAD's Development Director, Vladimir Gutesa, was controlling the AC unit, that was behind his back, so you could easily see if the unit was powered on or off.
After posting the mentioned video and article, we received lots of comments, and in a couple of them questioned “How can you be sure that the AC unit is on or off if you are not in the room?”.
Our development team sat down to deal with this challenge and finally solved it by adding another sensor based on the Hall effect.
The Hall effect is the production of a voltage difference (the Hall voltage) across an electrical conductor that is transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the current.
Now we are not just able to show the status of electrical appliances, but also power consumption.