Published February 1, 2018 © CC BY

LSS (Light Status System) Intensity and Direction Finder

Light Status System using Arduino to find the direction and intensity of the light and to receive and process the data in WPF application.

BeginnerFull instructions provided2 hours2,280

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino UNO

Photo resistor

Jumper wires (generic)

Resistor 47.5k ohm

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Microsoft Visual Studio 2015

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Hot glue gun (generic)

Story

The purpose of this project is find the direction and intensity of the light. When we got the direction and intensity, we can make an alert in specific intensity or direction. For example if the light emission in right side then do anything that we want. this project is a part of a more complex project that will publish soon "Spy Object tracker + Radar + Status Alert"

Step #1 - Materials

The list of materials needed is very simple and very cheap.

some photo resistor (I used 5)

resistor between 25K ohms and 50K ohms it depend to the environment. if you want to use the LSS this Dark place use 25K or less , use around 37.5K ohms for indoor and use more than 47K ohms for outdoor (as many as the photo resistor. and all the resistor should be the same kind I mean never use 2 47.5K ohms and 3 37K ohms)

Arduino

Step #2 - Design the System

Divide a circle to 5 parts and put your photo resistor there.

Step #3 - Setup the body

Find a heavy and movable thing for the main base. Webcam bases make for a good selection.

You can cut a cola bottle and make the head of the system.

Divide that into 5 parts and mark them. Then cut the marked places with a hot knife.

Place the Photo resistors.

Use hot glue.

Final result.

Step #4 - Circuit

Connect the wires like the schematic but I suggest that you do not use breadboards.

Just cover the connection points.

Use labels.

Step #5 - Design

Do whatever you want. It's all about your creativity ;-)

Step #6 - Upload the codes

Connect Arduino and run Arduino IDE, then upload the codes.

Step #7 - Run the Application

If you want to make your own app, just comment below and get in touch with me.

Schematics

Code

Code

  const int _A1 = 1;
    const int _A2 = 2;
      const int _A3 = 3;
        const int _A4 = 4;
          const int _A0 = 0;
void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
    Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  int R0 = analogRead(_A0);
      Serial.print(R0);Serial.print(",");
        int R1 = analogRead(_A1);
      Serial.print(R1);Serial.print(",");
        int R2 = analogRead(_A2);
      Serial.print(R2);Serial.print(",");
        int R3 = analogRead(_A3);
      Serial.print(R3);Serial.print(",");
        int R4 = analogRead(_A4);
      Serial.println(R4);delay(60);

}