LIGHTS OFF
I really enjoy bad inventions that makes the user's life worse so making "Lights Off" was a perfect oppurtunity to make my own while also trying my hand at using arduino.
The idea of "Lights Off" is a robot that uses a light sensor to detect when the lights in a room are on. Then, a small arm then goes to switch the light back off so that the user can never have their lights turned on.
The experience of making this project was important because it helped me understand how to use motors with arduino, as well as how to pivot when running into issues.
To start making the project, I decided to hello world the stepper motor. I did this by finding a youtube video on how to wire a stepper motor and used the provided code. The link to the code is attached.
Next, I made a hello world for the light sensor using an LED to show it worked. I also found the wiring and code on youtube. The link for the code is attached. The response was a bit slow, as the motor had to complete a movement before the light would turn on or off. This slow response was fixed when I combine the wiring and code.
To complete the wiring and coding stage, I combined the code for the light sensor with the code for the stepper motor.
At this point in the 4 hour time frame, I was feeling good. All I had left to do was create the housing and an arm to attach to the motor.
This is when I ran into an issue. Neither the foam core prototype nor the mechanical pencil I attached to the stepper motor was strong enough to flip the light switch. With around an hour and a half left, I was unsure of what to do. Thankfully, I was pointed in the direction of a servo motor as a replacement for the stepper.
The servo motor was actually strong enough to flip the light switch, but it took a lot of time to remove the stepper and integrate the servo. This was due to my lack of experience in using such things. With the little time I had left, I tried my best to create housing for the electronics. I decided to lasercut a simple box out of foam core. The first cut was too small and I had to go back for a larger version.
Finally, I hot glued the housing together and ran out of time. Although I wish it could've been better structurally and aesthetically, I am proud of what I accomplished given my inexperience in physical computing.
