Annoyer

Story

The story behind this project, is very simple... it is a prank... it makes annoying sound when the victim is try to sleep... Once the light is switched off the noise starts like an annoying nocking and as soon as the light is switched on, it stops.

The sound is made with a linear solenoid, which is extremely annoying since it sounds like an animal knocking or moving....

But, the most interesting part is the material used for creating the enclosure, which is a thermic polymorph plastic like, it can be used as a quick alternative to a 3d printer.

Enclosure

Because I was in lockdown and my 3D printer was not working, I had to find a new way to build the enclosure.

So, I decided to try a new material, the Polymorph with a fusing temperature of around 60˚C, which can be moulded into almost any shape when submerged in hot water. Upon cooling, it becomes a very tough, nylon-like polymer. As it is a thermoplastic, Polymorph can be re-heated and thermoformed numerous times.

Its use is very simple, put some amount of material into a glass full of water, warm it up in a microwave for a couple of minutes (until it becomes transparent).

Then just take it out of the water and start to mould it into the desired shape.

While the material is still malleable, create the enclosure around the electronic components. You can wrap all the circuit components adapting the shape.

You can add other colours to the material very easily and create the colour composition that you need/want. Once you are happy with the final shape, just cool it down until the transparency is gone and it turn into a solid white colour.

Electric Circuit

The electric circuit is quite straightforward, it is based on the microcontroller Arduino Nano.

The sensor of the light is a standard photo resistor, while the sound is based on a rapid activation and deactivation of a linear solenoid.

All the code is available on the attached session.