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…