Concept and Inspiration
The main idea was to recreate the controls for automatic sunroofs which react to sunlight and rain. They incorporate light and rain sensors alongside a manual control via buttons. The idea is to have the sunroof deploy when the sun is too bright, retract when it’s getting dark and either retract or not deploy at all when it rains. These conditions build the base for my design.
Design and Material Bill
For my design I used light and humidity sensors for the automatized movement of the motor and a button for the manual control. The idea was to work with “if” statements enabling and disabling the movements based on the surrounding conditions.
The Material Bill used for the project includes:
- Step motor and control unit
- LDR Pin (light sensor)
- Water sensor (humidity sensor)
- Push button
- Arduino UNO
- Breadbord
- cables
Wiring Step 1 – Step Motor
The first step was connecting the step motor to its control unit and then to the Arduino board with the wiring seen in the deconstruction below.
Wiring Step 2 – Humidity Sensor
The second step was connecting the water sensor (working as the humidity sensor) to the A5 pin of the Arduino board, to enable the analog reading.
Wiring Step 3 – Light Sensor
The third step was connecting the LDR Pin to the A0 pin of the Arduino board, similarly to the water sensor, to enable the analog reading for the final design.
Wiring Step 4 – Push Button
The fourth and final step was connecting the button to to 8 pin to use it as the manual control unit for the step motor.
Final Prototype
In the pictures below you can see the final design and layout. I bridged the board to be able to use both sides which allowed the wiring to be less chaotic. Since I do not have any black or red cables, they have been replaced with white and orange ones respectively to represent ground and the 5V from the Arduino board.
Final Video
This is the final working prototype of my design and in this video you can see how the motor reacts to the light and humidity sensor as well as the manual control with the button.
(1) Image source: https://es.notfallrucksack.net/products/elektrische-vollkassettenmarkise-450-x-300-cm-grau-tuch-dunkel-rot?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&srsltid=AYJSbAcHvDkYE2k8gYq2FbXb0wfOlFMCVwr_LkNIo9XZebkRAof2Wx4psM8
