Putting the first prototype together
To prototype some ideas, I took an old lunchbox in the shape of a well known toy brick. I cut holes in the base and in some some studs from the lid. The base I stuck on the office wall over the light switch. In the lid of the prototype i put a camera with fish eye lens, a 8×8 led matrix, a PIR motion circuit all connected to a Raspberry Pi. Sliding the lunchbox lid onto the base and connecting a USB power line , my first smart lightswitch box prototype was ready for testing.
So far I have test software that from a pi command line via ssh can…
- turn my hue lights on and off
- detect motion in the room including when i am sitting at a desk
- take fisheye pictures of the room
wall base
Mounted ( slide on/off base )
Prototype close up
Camera view
Next
Next on my todo list is a python script to act as logic to…
- turn the office light on in the evening when there is motion so i dont need to
- fade off when there is period without motion to save electricity
- blink the lights red to remind me to take a break when i am in front of the pc too long
- possibly record a short snippet of video at the start of each detected motion ( ie when i enter the room ) so that i have a record of activity
I’ve also been prototyping some 3D printed objects for
- Holding the camera, PIR,Matrix on the outside of the box
- Mounting the Circuits and Pi inside the box
I hope to have the 2nd prototype ready at the start of July…