Automatic Blinds System (MEGR 3171 Fall 2017 Project)

This project uses two particle photons to control the blinds in your house. Flip a switch and the blinds will open or close.

BeginnerFull instructions provided5 hours1,876

Automatic Blinds System (MEGR 3171 Fall 2017 Project)

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Photon

Slide Switch

Adafruit battery holder

Futaba Servo Motor

Breadboard (generic)

Jumper wires (generic)

Software apps and online services

IFTTT Maker service

Google Sheets

Hand tools and fabrication machines

screw driver

wire cutters

Story

MEGR 3171 FALL 2017 IOT PROJECT VIDEO

Are you ever sitting down, about to start your favorite movie, and you realize that the pesky window next to you is creating a horrible glare on your screen? Now you have to move your popcorn bowl, and get up off the couch. You just got comfortable! Well we have solved that problem for you with the automatic blinds system. Utilizing two photons and the IOT capability, the photons communicate over the internet to open/close your blinds with the flip of a switch! This project uses one photon hooked to two slide switches to publish an event, which the other photon is subscribed to. Upon receiving the signal the photon triggers a servo motor to open or close the blinds, depending on which switch is slid. The open and closed signals are data logged through a google sheets plot using IFTTT, to view the status of the blinds. A text message notification is also used to monitor the status of the blinds. Sit back down on your couch, and read the rest of our project details, so you do not have to get up ever again to manually actuate your blinds.

Description of How it all Works

The particle photon that is used as a switch has two slide switches. Both switches are connected to ground and power (3v3 pin). One switch is connected to the D7 pin. The other switch is connected to the D6 pin. The D7 pin has a built in LED on the photon so we used this pin as the "On" switch. The D6 pin was used as the "Off" switch. When we want the blinds open, we actuate the switch that is connected to D7. The LED turns on and "BlindzOpen" is published. The second photon is subscribed to "BlindzOpen." The second photon actuates the servo in the clockwise direction for a certain amount of time when "BlindzOpen" is published from the other photon. The same process is done for closing the blinds except the switch that is connected to pin D6 is actuated. The servo connected to the other photon is turned counter-clockwise. "BlindzClosed" is the name that is published from the first photon. The second photon is subscribed to that event to actuate the servo. Multiple notification systems are also implemented (shown below) to inform you of the status of your blinds if you are not home at the time.

The plot above displays the status of the servo motor that actuates the blinds. IFTTT was used to change a cell in a google sheets plot depending on if the blinds are open or if the blinds are closed. If the blinds are open then a value of ten will be displayed on the graph. This type of graph was chosen because if you wanted to know if your blinds were open or closed when you were not at home, you could check the google sheets plot to see the status of the blinds. For this specific plot above the IFTTT application changes the B6 cell value to ten when the event "Blindz_UNCC" is published and the data is "BlindzOpen". This "BlindzOpen" data name corresponds to the servo motor being actuated clockwise thus opening the blinds. This plot is also useful for checking the status of the servo (i.e. blinds) after a long period of time has gone by. When the servo is actuated, a text message will be sent to my cell phone stating whether the blinds are open or closed. However, after a long period of time no other text messages are sent. Thus, this plot and the plot shown below will be able to show whether the blinds are open or closed at all times.

The screenshot above displays a text message that was sent to me when the blinds were opened. This was accomplished using IFTTT.

The screenshot above displays a text message that was sent to me when the blinds were closed. This was accomplished using IFTTT.

The picture above shows the switch that actuates the servo motor to effectively actuate the blinds.

The picture above shows the blind actuator system. It consists of a 4AA battery pack, a particle photon, a Futaba S3004 servo motor, wires, a cable for support, and a spare piece of wood.

The picture above shows a top view of the blind actuator system.

The view after the blinds have been opened via the blind actuator system.

Code

// These values below give variables to pin inputs
int led = D7;
int led1 = D6;
//The setup section below configures the pins as inputs
void setup() {
pinMode(led,INPUT);
pinMode(led1,INPUT);
}
//The loop below reads the pin input and publishes 
//the "data" to the cloud so that the other photon can subscribe to it
//The System.sleep keeps the loop from only publishing once to the cloud
void loop() {
if (digitalRead(led)==HIGH){
    String Blindz_UNCC=String(10);
    Particle.publish("Blindz_UNCC","BlindzOpen",PUBLIC);
    delay(2000);
    System.sleep(40);
}
else if(digitalRead(led1)==HIGH){
    Particle.publish("Blindz_UNCC","BlindzClosed",PUBLIC);
    delay(2000);
        System.sleep(40);
}
else{}

}

Servo myservo;
void setup() {
//the line of code below publishes to the event that the other particle photon published
Particle.subscribe("Blindz_UNCC", myHandler);


}

//The code below actuates the servo in either the clockwise direction or the counter-clockwise direction
//to actuate the blinds
void myHandler(const char *event, const char *data)
{

 if (strcmp(data,"BlindzOpen")==0) {
myservo.attach(D0);
myservo.write(110);
delay(4700);
myservo.detach();
}
 if (strcmp(data,"BlindzClosed")==0) {
myservo.attach(D0);
myservo.write(70);
delay(4700);
myservo.detach();

}


}