Month: September 2022

Objectives

• Integrate fluorescent light fixture into smart home system
• Device should work consistently

Process

• Tested pulling light chain with servo motor
  • Added spring to give the device more pulling power
  • Adjusted servo moving distance to pull the chain correctly
• Modified lightbulb example from esp-homekit-sdk to control servo
  • Runs on ESP-32 development board
• Added light state sensor
  • Compares two photoresistors to determine on/off state of fluorescent fixture
    • Two photoresistors allow the sensor to be accurate regardless of external light levels
  • Interfaced sensor with esp-homekit-sdk to display state of light in smart home app

Conclusions

• Successful project- is used daily
• Fails to fully pull the chain occasionally
  • Sensor allows this error to be noticed by the user so they can try again
  • Adjusting servo travel distance may help with this issue, or using a stronger actuator
• Chain gets disconnected from servo arm sometimes, but it can be reattached