YAGDO – Yet Another Garage Door Opener

March 25, 2016 by Bob Baddeley 19 Comments

It seems like every few months we cover another garage door opener, and the concept is quickly becoming the “Hello World” of DIY home automation. In this installment, reader [ray] made his own garage door opener and chose the ESP8266 as the wireless interface of choice, but spiced the application up with an ultrasonic sensor that detects whether the car is in the garage and a web app that shows history, plus integration with Blynk for remote access. For posterity, he made the project open source as well.

The video is well produced with lots of details and instructions, and the circuit board and assembly are refined and clean. It may be a “Hello World”, but it’s done right.

Some of the other garage door hacks we’ve covered in the last year include the fingerprint scanner opener, the IM-ME opener, the motion-based security opener, the cat-enabled opener, the OpenCV Pi opener, and a Bluetooth Low Energy opener.

Continue reading “YAGDO – Yet Another Garage Door Opener” →

Aquarium Light Mimics The Outdoor Sky

March 24, 2016 by James Hobson 5 Comments

[OlegZero] has some pet fish in his basement, and decided to work on a little project for them — an aquarium light that mimics the outdoors. He calls it the FishLight project.

His goal was to create a light panel that could imitate the color of the outdoor sky (approximately) using an RGB LED strip. During normal operation, the LEDs cycle through the colors of day, from dusk to dawn using an ATmega88 microcontroller. After his girlfriend saw what it could do, she quickly came up with the idea to add a cityscape to the background to turn it into a piece of attractive decor for their home.

Still fail to see the point of going to this much effort for a few fish? Well, besides it turning into a rather nice artistic light for their basement, the concept can be applied to other animals as well. Like encouraging chickens to produce more eggs by making the days “longer” with artificial light. As it turns out chickens produce less eggs when the days get shorter — an easy fix with something like this!

Mirror Monitor Responds To Your Gestures

March 24, 2016 by James Hobson 20 Comments

[DerVonDenBergen] and his friend are working on a pretty slick mirror LCD with motion control called Reflecty — it looks like something straight out of the Iron Man movies or the Minority Report.

Like most mirror monitors they started with a two way mirror and a de-bezelled LCD — but then they added what looks like an art gallery light off the top — but instead of a light bulb, the arm holds a Leap Motion controller, allowing gesture commands to be given to the computer.

The effective range of the Leap Motion controller is about 8-10″ in front of the display allowing you to reach out and point at exactly what you want — and then squeeze your fist to click. A complete gallery of images is available over on Imgur, but stick around after the break to see a video of the display in action — we kind of want one.

Continue reading “Mirror Monitor Responds To Your Gestures” →

R2-D2 Keeps This University Bathroom Smelling Fresh

March 20, 2016 by James Hobson 8 Comments

For a fun university project, [Cengizhan Can] and friends decided to make an automated air freshener for one of their bathrooms at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Happening to have an old R2-D2 plastic candy jar, they decided to try to see if they could make it Star Wars themed.

They loaded up the R2-D2 shell with an Arduino, a ton of sensors (don’t worry, nothing for spying) and an actuator for triggering the air freshener. During normal operation the LCD will display ambient temperature information and the approximate number of air freshener shots remaining in the canister. An external door sensor checks to see if the stall is open, and coupled with a light sensor, only sprays freshener after use, and when no one is in the stall anymore.
Continue reading “R2-D2 Keeps This University Bathroom Smelling Fresh” →

Laser-Cut Lamp With Magic Switch

March 18, 2016 by James Hobson 25 Comments

This laser-cut lamp is an awesome example of what you can do with a laser cutter and a bit of creativity. It was completely laser cut and features no fasteners, except for a bit of glue.

[PaisleyGarbage] has been making lamps for a while now and had the concept for this one early on. After rendering a model of it on the computer, he decided it was finally time to try making it. It wasn’t quite as easy as he thought it’d be, but the challenges along the way only help you to learn when doing a project like this.

He laser cut alternating strips of wood and acrylic to create the unique sandwiched light look of the final product. Instead of using fasteners or anything, he even slid the pieces together on acrylic dowels keeping the design as minimalist and clean as possible. But the part we really like is the magnetic switch.

Continue reading “Laser-Cut Lamp With Magic Switch” →

Presenting The Internet Of Trash Cans !

March 17, 2016 by Anool Mahidharia 17 Comments

This was gonna happen – sooner or later. [matthewhallberg] built a “Smart” trash can that is connected to the Internet and can be controlled by its own Android App. We’re not sure if the world needs it, but he wanted one and so built it. He started it out on a serious note, but quickly realized the fun part of this build – check out his funny Infomercial style video after the break.

The build itself is uncomplicated and can be replicated with ease. A servo motor helps flip the lid open and close. This is triggered by an ultrasonic ping sensor, which responds when someone waves a hand in front of the trash can. A second ping sensor helps inform the user when it is full and needs to be emptied. A Leonardo with the Idunio Yun shield helps connect the trash can to the internet. An mp3 shield connected to a set of powered computer speakers adds voice capability to the trash can, allowing it to play back pre-recorded sound clips. Finally, a Bluetooth module lets him connect it to an Android phone and the companion app controls the trash can remotely.

For the IoT side of things, [matthewhallberg] uses a Temboo account to send an email to the user when the trash can is full. The Arduino sketch, a header file to configure the Temboo account, and the Android application can all be downloaded from his blog. If this project inspires you, try building this awesome Robotic trash can which catches anything that you throw near it or read the barcodes off the trash being thrown out and update the grocery list.

Continue reading “Presenting The Internet Of Trash Cans !” →

Fingerprint Garage Door Won’t Open Every Time A Neighbor Microwaves A Burrito

March 16, 2016 by Gerrit Coetzee 18 Comments

With three kids, including himself, [Dave] faced the very real likelihood of someone absent-mindedly leaving the garage door open and being robbed blind. Rather than installing some plebeian solution, he compiled a feature list. And what a feature list it is!

The garage door needed to notify him of its status with strategically placed LEDs around the house, and give him full control on his devices. He wanted to open and close it using his existing key-code entry system. Lastly, it would be extra-cool if he could add some biometrics to it; in this case, a fingerprint sensor.

The core hardware is the staple Arduino augmented with a fingerprint module, a touch screen, some vitamins, and a WiFi break-out. He also worked up some casings in tinkercad: one for the indoor hardware, another with a flip cover for the outdoor fingerprint scanner.

We think [Dave] has accomplished what he set out to. We can just picture the would-be-thief staring at the finger print scanner and moving their operation one house over where the world is simpler. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Fingerprint Garage Door Won’t Open Every Time A Neighbor Microwaves A Burrito” →