Magical Night Illuminator

An automated dazzling night light with a magical power to cheer up the mood of your loved ones. Make your own smart room with this project.

BeginnerProtip15 minutes960

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Bolt IoT Bolt WiFi Module

USB-A to Micro-USB Cable

Photo resistor

Resistor 10k ohm

LED (generic)

Software apps and online services

Bolt IoT Bolt Cloud

Story

The primary concern when you have a loved one alone at home is, to ensure an environment appropriate to their physical needs. A combination of poor eyesight and minor safety hazards can put seniors and kids at risk for falls. Hence we, the developers at Bolt Iot, decided to come up with the Magical Night Illuminator. It's essentially a setup which uses the Bolt Wi-Fi module, to measure the light intensity in the room. Once below a threshold, it illuminates the room by turning on the lamp.

Hardware Setup

The hardware connections are quite straightforward if you've already gone through the steps in the Quickstart guide to set up the Bolt device.

https://cloud.boltiot.com/docs

Connecting the LDR Circuit to the Bolt:

Connect the LDR to Bolt as shown in the Fritzing diagram below. Note: There is no positive or negative for this and the 10k Ohm resistor. Also, make sure the Bolt module is not powered on while making connections. Always make it a habit to power off the circuit while making connections for your own and the circuit's safety. Double-check all connections before turning it on.

Here are the steps for making the hardware connections:

Step 1: Insert one lead of the LDR into the Bolt Module's 3v3 Pin

Step 2: Insert other lead of the LDR into the A0 pin

Step 3: Insert one leg of the 10k Ohm resistor into the GND pin

Step 4: Insert the other leg of the resistor also into the A0 pin

Warning!! Make sure that at no point do the 3.3V (or even 5V) and GND pins or wires coming out of them touch each other. If you short power to Ground without a resistor even accidentally, the current drawn might be high enough to destroy the Bolt module.

Thus, we are effectively measuring the voltage across the 10k Ohm Resistor .A RED LED is used in the project which is connected between digital pin 4 and GND. The final circuit should look like the image below:

Software Setup

Copy the API Key and the Bolt Device ID after setting up your Bolt IoT Cloud account from the dashboard. In case this is unclear, have a look at one of our previous posts like the one about a Crypto/Bitcoin Price Notification system

Other than that, run the Python script on your machine by running the below command on your PC or remote server and you're done!

python Magical_Night_Illuminator.py

Have a go at this project and in case you like our Magical Room Illuminator, check us out on Indiegogo, back us, and spread the word! We have exclusive discounts for developers and the first batch of Bolts ships out in February 2018.

Code

Magical Night Illuminator

import time
from boltiot import Bolt
import json

api_key = "Your_API_key"
d_id = "Your_device_id

automated_room_illumination_threshold = 5 # in lux
client= Bolt(api_key, d_id)

def get_automated_room_illumination(pin):
    """
    Get light intensity.
    """
    response = client.analogRead(pin)
    print response
    data = json.loads(response)
    return int(data['value'])

def control_lamp(pin, value):
    """
    Control the Lamp
    """
    response = client.digitalWrite(pin, value)
    print response

while True:
    temp = get_automated_room_illumination("A0")
    print "Light Intensity is", temp
    if temp < automated_room_illumination_threshold:
        control_lamp('4','HIGH')
    else:
        control_lamp('4', 'LOW')
    time.sleep(5)