vacation

3 Articles

Bark Back IoT Pet Monitor

January 5, 2018 by 6 Comments

Does your pet get distressed when you’re not home? Or, perhaps their good behaviour slips when you’re not around and they cause a ruckus for the neighbours. Well, [jenfoxbot] has just such a dog, so she built a ‘bark back’ IoT pet monitor to keep an eye on him while she’s out.

The brains and backbone of the pet monitor is the ever-popular Raspberry Pi 3. A Sparkfun MEMS microphone breakout board listens for any unruly behaviour, with an MCP3002 analog to digital converter chip reading the mic input. Some trial-and-error coding allowed her to set a noise threshold that — once exceeded — will trigger an audio file, shushing her dog. It also logs events and uploads any status updates to a CloudMQTT server to be monitored while away from home. Her Imgur build album can be found here, and the GitHub project page is here if you want to build your own!

Check out the demo video after the break, that was probably confusing for her good dog, Marley.

Continue reading “Bark Back IoT Pet Monitor” →

Drinkable Clouds Get You Second-Hand Drunk

April 7, 2017 by 30 Comments

While the rise of electronic cigarettes and vaping has led to many aggravated bystanders, an installation in Germany may have found a vapor of a different ilk. Rather than nicotine, this cloud of vapors is full of tequila which precipitates out into glasses (or people) who happen to be nearby.

The cloud generator uses ultrasonic devices to vibrate the tequila molecules until they form a fine mist. The mist is delivered outward towards the sculpture, where a delicious cloud forms. From there, the cloud literally rains tequila out into its original, drinkable tequila form. It appears to take a while to gather enough tequila from the cloud, though, so there is a convenient tap on the side that will dispense it without all the rigmarole.

Basically this is a nebulizer which is using tequila and dispersing the output rather than directing it. You’re unlikely to get a large enough gasp for inebriation, but technically there is an opportunity a risk here of becoming second-hand drunk.

The installing is an effort by the Mexican Tourism Board to encourage Germans to take a break from the rain in favor of visiting sunny Mexico, we’d have to say that the effort seems to be a success. Once there, hopefully any visitors will be able to enjoy a perfect margarita or two as well.

thermostat

Arduino Thermostat Includes Vacation Mode

December 19, 2014 by 19 Comments

When [William’s] thermostat died, he wanted an upgrade. He found a few off-the-shelf Internet enabled thermostats, but they were all very expensive. He knew he could build his own for a fraction of the cost.

The primary unit synchronizes it’s time using NTP. This automatically keeps things up to date and in sync with daylight savings time. There is also a backup real-time clock chip in case the Internet connection is lost. The unit can be controlled via the physical control panel, or via a web interface. The system includes a nifty “vacation mode” that will set the temperature to a cool 60 degrees Fahrenheit while you are away. It will then automatically adjust the temperature to something more comfortable before you return home.

[William’s] home is split into three heat zones. Each zone has its own control panel including an LCD display and simple controls. The zones can be individually configured from either their own control panel or from the central panel. The panels include a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor, an LCD display, a keypad, and support electronics. This project was clearly well thought out, and includes a host of other small features to make it easy to use.