Smarter Blinds

Smarter Blinds

Team Members

• Elizabeth Saliba
• Liza Kaniewski
• Michael Williams (TA)

Links

Smarter_Blinds_Log

Budget: Nite Light & Smarter Blinds

Overview

New technology has allowed society to make improvements to daily items including thermostats and other objects around the home. Fascinated with this idea of do-it-yourself home improvement projects and the wide breadth of tasks that can be accomplished we have decided to make Smarter Blinds. We will be creating blinds that move according to user input. By incorporating aspects that allow the blinds to move according to sunlight and temperature in the room to eliminate the use of air conditioning or heating we hope to make our blinds energy efficient. This way, our hope is that energy consumption in the home will be reduced through our creation of Smarter Blinds.

Objectives and Goals

• Have the blinds open from being completely closed to open over a period of time set by the user
• Make the design efficient and compact so that it could work for more than one type of blind
• Have a user inputted preferred light intensity so that the blinds move throughout the day according to desired intensity.
• Make eco-friendly functions that increase/decrease the amount of light let in, which lessens the need for air conditioning/heating
• Find a suitable power source for the blinds such as lithium batteries or potentially solar power
• If time allows, develop a way for the blinds to be controlled on your mobile device via Adafruit App

Challenges

• Learning and effectively using Arduino
• Learning CAD and 3D printing skills with the goal of printing as many parts as possible to be cost effective
• Generating enough power to operate the blinds
• Determining the relationship between temperature, luminous intensity and blind angle
• Making sure the motor is strong enough to turn the blinds
• Creating a design that can be used on various blinds
• Designing a user-friendly app that connects to the blinds via bluetooth

Budget

• Adafruit UNO
• Digital Light Intensity Sensor Module for Arduino, $5.49
• RGB LCD Shield Kit for Character Display, $23.95
• LM35DZ Temperature Sensor, $1.23
• Solar Panel, $5.69
• Stepper Motor, $8.30 *Potential Purchase
• KOOKYE 2 x 28BYJ-48 DC 5V Stepper Motor + ULN2003 Driver Test Module Board for Arduino, $8.59
• Adafruit Bluefruit LE UART Friend - Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE),$17.95
• Adafruit App, $0
• Estimated Total Budget: $80.1

Gantt Chart

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10uzT7YQ7MJU3zTquifuFkcKUptFDYlntzzncpx78SI4/edit?usp=sharing

Resources

• Past Projects

https://classes.engineering.wustl.edu/ese205/core/index.php?title=Smart_Blinds https://www.hackster.io/Froz3nArcher/smart-blinds-573548

• Stepper Motor and Arduino

Arduino Modules - L298N Dual H-Bridge Motor Controller Controlling DC Motors with the L298N Dual H-Bridge and an Arduino

• Bluetooth Connection

Adafruit Bluefruit LE UART Friend - Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit Overview

• Soldering

Soldering YouTube How to Solder