Team SJW: William Louis, john papanicolas, Sean O'Brien

Published November 26, 2016 © GPL3+

DIY Home Motion Sensor Light

This motion light will automatically tell if it is day or night, and will only activate itself if there is motion and the sun is down.

BeginnerFull instructions provided4 hours1,478

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Photon

PIR Motion Sensor (generic)

Servos (Tower Pro MG996R)

Resistor 221 ohm

Photo resistor

Story

Having a large backyard was a big plus when I moved into my house. It is great for the dog and the back deck allows us to have cookouts and socialize with friends. The drawback is that our exterior lighting is very poor. This was fixed when a floodlight was installed and brightened the entire back yard. The person who installed the switch however thought it was a good idea to put the backyard flood light switch in the garage which is all the way on the other side of the house. This was a great inconvenience but a problem we thought we could fix. This project explores the use of 3 particle photons, a motion sensor, photoresistor, a servo, and IFTTT to make the flood light an automatic, motion sensitive light.

Project Informational Video

The Light

This is the light we wanted to control. It is located in the back yard, but the switch is on the complete other side of the house which makes it a pain to go turn this light on when we need it. To expedite this process we put in a motion sensor near by to be the first step in the project.

Flood Light we desired to control

PIR Sensor

To detect the motion of something passing by we used a particle photon connected to a PIR sensor to detect the motion of a person, pet, or intruder. The whole configuration was placed inside a weather resistant container to keep the outside out of all our electronics. Placement for this sensor as we wanted it to be in a location where there would be high foot traffic so then we would not have to go trigger the sensor after it automatically resets. This particle communicates with the second particle in the system when motion is detected.

PIR sensor on stairs waiting for motion

Photoresistor

When the PIR particle sends the message to the second particle verifying that motion was detected. This particle follows up by sampling the intensity of the light from outside and determines is the sun is out or not depending on the value it reads from the photoresistor. The value is high enough that inside light will not interfere with the reading by the particle. Placement for this sensor was also important because you must have it either outside, or next to a window so that it is reading the light outside.

Particle with Photoresistor

Depending on how much light is out the particle will publish one of two commands, that the sun is out or that the sun is down. These will be used by the servo and IFTTT to make the last step in the control.

The Servo

The only time we want the servo to activate the switch is when the PIR detects motion and when the sun is down. To do this we subscribed the particle to the event where the photoresistor reads that the sun is down. This is to prevent unintended triggers and will save money on power. The particle and servo are mounted on the wall and we created a face plate for the light switch to prevent the servo from slipping.

Photon with servo

Servo with wooden cover

The servo arms are placed on either side of the light switch to allow for the control of the light. We encountered a lot of trouble with the switch as pushing it up was harder for the servo than pushing it down, so we established a lower mechanical limit for the switch. This could also be accomplished easier by either purchasing another switch which flips smoother than this one.

IFTTT Integration

Like it was said before the photoresistor publishes two different strings depending on the state of the sun. Only one of them goes to the servo, but both of them are sent to IFTTT. We used IFTTT to send us push notifications when motion was detected in day or night. This acts like a security feature so that if you are away or not expecting someone in your yard that you will receive a notification that tells you motion was detected. This can also be turned off in the event that you are expecting a lot of motion in this area so that your phone is not bombarded with push notifications.

IFTTT "nosun" event

IFTTT "sun" event

Code

/*                          +-----+
 *               +----------| USB |----------+
 *               |          +-----+       *  |
 *               | [ ] VIN           3V3 [*] |<-------Power To PIR Sensor
 *               | [ ] GND           RST [ ] |
 *               | [ ] TX           VBAT [ ] |
 *               | [ ] RX  [S]   [R] GND [*] |<-------Ground for PIR Sensor
 *               | [ ] WKP            D7 [ ] |       
 *               | [ ] DAC +-------+  D6 [ ] |       
 *               | [ ] A5  |   *   |  D5 [ ] |       
 *               | [ ] A4  |Photon |  D4 [ ] |     
 *               | [ ] A3  |       |  D3 [ ] |
 *               | [ ] A2  +-------+  D2 [ ] |
 *               | [ ] A1             D1 [ ] |
 *               | [ ] A0             D0 [*] |<-------Signal from PIR Sensor
 *               |                           |
 *                \    []         [______]  /
 *                 \_______________________/
 */
int PIR = D0; //sets PIR equal to pin D0
void setup() {
    pinMode(PIR, INPUT);
    //sets pin D0 as an input
}

void loop() {
    if (digitalRead(PIR) == HIGH) {
        Particle.publish("office-motion");
    delay(10000);
    //if the PIR pin reads a High signal then it will trigger the publish command
    }
}

/*                                            +-----+
 *                                 +----------| USB |----------+
 *                                 |          +-----+       *  |
 *                                 | [ ] VIN           3V3 [ ] |
 *         Resistor Lead---------->| [*] GND           RST [ ] |
 *                                 | [ ] TX           VBAT [ ] |
 *                                 | [ ] RX  [S]   [R] GND [ ] |
 *                                 | [ ] WKP            D7 [ ] |       
 *                                 | [ ] DAC +-------+  D6 [ ] |       
 *         Photoresistor Lead----->| [*] A5  |   *   |  D5 [ ] |       
 *                                 | [ ] A4  |Photon |  D4 [ ] |     
 *                                 | [ ] A3  |       |  D3 [ ] |
 *                                 | [ ] A2  +-------+  D2 [ ] |
 * One end of the                  | [ ] A1             D1 [ ] |
 * Photorisistor and Resistor ---->| [*] A0             D0 [ ] |
 *                                 |                           |
 *                                  \    []         [______]  /
 *                                   \_______________________/
 */
 
int photoresistor = A0; //Sets pin A0 as the photoresistor
int power = A5; //Sets pis A5 as power
int analogvalue; //declares the variable analogvalue
void setup() {
    pinMode(photoresistor, INPUT); //makes pin A0 an input to receive a signal
    pinMode(power, OUTPUT); //sets pin A5 as an output to provide power to the photoresistor
    digitalWrite(power,HIGH); //sets the output of pin A5 to go High
    Particle.variable("analogvalue", &analogvalue, INT);
    Particle.subscribe("office-motion", photoresist, "260046001047353138383138");
    //subscribes this particle to the PIR sensor particle
}
void photoresist(const char *event, const char *data) 
//triggered when the event this particle is subscribed to is triggered
{
  analogvalue = analogRead(photoresistor);
  //reads the analogvalue of the photoresistor
    delay(100);
    if (analogvalue <= 250){
        Particle.publish("nosun1234567");
        delay(10000);
        //if the value is less than 250 the particle publishes that the sun is not out
    }
    else if (analogvalue > 250){
        Particle.publish("sun1234567");
        delay(10000);
        //if the value is greated than 250 the particle publishes that the sun is out
    }
}
void loop() {
}

/*                          +-----+
 *               +----------| USB |----------+
 *               |          +-----+       *  |
 *               | [ ] VIN           3V3 [*] |<-------Power To Servo
 *               | [ ] GND           RST [ ] |
 *               | [ ] TX           VBAT [ ] |
 *               | [ ] RX  [S]   [R] GND [*] |<-------Servo Ground
 *               | [ ] WKP            D7 [ ] |       
 *               | [ ] DAC +-------+  D6 [ ] |       
 *               | [ ] A5  |   *   |  D5 [ ] |       
 *               | [ ] A4  |Photon |  D4 [ ] |     
 *               | [ ] A3  |       |  D3 [ ] |
 *               | [ ] A2  +-------+  D2 [ ] |
 *               | [ ] A1             D1 [ ] |
 *               | [ ] A0             D0 [*] |<-------Signal To Servo
 *               |                           |
 *                \    []         [______]  /
 *                 \_______________________/
 */
Servo myservo;
int pos = 0;
int moveArm;
int arnPosition;
void setup() {
//attaches the servo PWM control to pin D0
myservo.attach(D0);
//declares a function "moveArm" which will be used to set the position on the servo arm
Particle.function("moveArm",setPos);
//Subsctibing to the Particle which sends whether the sun is out or not
Particle.subscribe("nosun1234567", nosun, "34001d000f47343432313031");
}
void nosun(const char *event, const char *data)
{
    myservo.write(125); //writes the position to the servo to turn the light on
    delay(5000);
    myservo.write(0); //after the delay the servo goes back to its original position and turns off the light
    delay(100);
}
void loop() {
}
//declares the function "setPos" which relied on the string command from the user
int setPos(String command) {
    //if "on" is submitted the servo will rotate to 180 degrees
    if (command == "on") {
        myservo.write(125);
        delay(100);
    }
    //if "off" is submitted the servo will rotate back to 0 degrees
    else if (command == "off") {
        myservo.write(0);
        delay(100);
    }
}

DIY Home Motion Sensor Light

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

The Light

PIR Sensor

Photoresistor

The Servo

IFTTT Integration

Schematics

PIR Schematic

Photoresistor Schematic

Servo Schematic

Code

PIR Sensor Code

Photoresistor read and publish control

Particle Servo Control

Credits

William Louis

john papanicolas

Sean O'Brien

Comments

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DIY Home Motion Sensor Light

DIY Home Motion Sensor Light

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

The Light

PIR Sensor

Photoresistor

The Servo

IFTTT Integration

Schematics

PIR Schematic

Photoresistor Schematic

Servo Schematic

Code

PIR Sensor Code

Photoresistor read and publish control

Particle Servo Control

Credits

William Louis

john papanicolas

Sean O'Brien

Comments

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