Hi guys!
So I landed on the Owl idea that uses the motion sensor.
The narrative around this is derived from my personal life and the problem of my sisters and friends never remembering to text me that they made it home safe from a night out. More times then not the conversations goes, “Text me when you get home so I know you made it safe!” and then they get home and forget and I stay up wondering if something has happened to them.
I’m evolving the Night owl plush nightlight into a “lookout device.” The owl will have a motion sensor device that will trigger a text message when someone walks in the door (alerting whomever that their friend made it home safe). I would love (if possible ) to include a “set on” or “look out” function where as my friends and I separate I or my friend can turn on the the sensor, and glowing LED light, so that it is only searching for a specific time frame that turns off when the person gets home.
Below is my Bill of materials:
Circuit:
- Feather Huzzah (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2821)
- PIR motion sensor (https://tinkersphere.com/sensors/738-pir-motion-sensor.html)
- (4) Neopixel mini LED’s (same kind used for halloween costume)
- Lithium Ion Polymer Battery -3.7v https://www.adafruit.com/product/1578
- 10k ohm resistor…?
**Does this need a breadboard or can I solder the circuit? having a hard time figuring out how to connect the powers and grounds with this feather Huzzah board but below is my initial thought.
Owl figure:
TBD…. not sure if i want to evolve it to more of a “hard object” home good or keep it a soft good. Based slightly on whether or not I need a bread board to make this possible.
THanks!
Stephanie
Sample circuit wit Resistor.
Hi Stephanie, looking pretty good so far. You should use a lipoly battery for this project, as coincells won’t last very long powering a wifi device. Also the feather has onboard charging, so all you need to do is plug in the micro usb cable to charge the battery plugged into the black JST port. Suggest one of these: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1578
https://www.adafruit.com/product/258 (or similar, they come in many sizes/capacities)
You can cut off the headers on your feather and use a solder sucker to clear out the holes you need, then solder a single wire to the pad, which then branches out into multiple wires with another solder joint. Or you can use a permaproto, it’s up to you: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1609
Where did you read that you need a resistor on your sensor’s ground line?
Hi Becky, Thanks for the feedback. I’ll prob go with the Lithium Ion Polymer Battery – 3.7v 500mAh. Does this need a “hard case” to avoid puncture issues? Thanks for clarifying the circuit in regards to how I would get all the powers and grounds from the single points on the board. I was hoping to keep the circuit relatively small so may try with soldering directly to the feather board and if it all fails… plan B fall back to the permaproto. As far as the resistor is concerned, I saw there was a resistor in the “PIR sensor” sketch on instructables, but i’m now wondering if I have it connected to the wrong line. Ground doesn’t really need resistors. would the instead go on the power line to the sensor? or is this in the below circuit for the LED? I think my LED’s have resistors in them so perhaps I don’t need to add another?
JK added the sample circuit to the blog post… cant seem to leave it in the comments. 🙂
Hi Stephanie, sorry I didn’t see your reply comment until now. The big resistor is connecting the microcontroller pin to ground so it’s not floating when there is no motion. Ideally yes you would protect your battery somehow, but if kids aren’t using it, it’s less critical.