Categories: Electronics, Mechanics
| Year: 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
- Compares two photoresistors to determine on/off state of fluorescent fixture
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
