This is a little project I did out of necessity. To get into my workshop, I have to walk around to the back of the house and unlock the door in the dark, and very quietly so as not to wake or disturb my housemates. The front of the workshop has a sliding door which would be SO much easier, if only it had a lock that I could unlock. Rather than replace the sliding door with an outside lock, I decided to hack a wireless method that I could control from my smartphone.
The whole setup is pretty simple. This was my first venture into the world of android smartphone apps, but I used the basic bluetooth example to communicate with a bluesmirf that I picked up from sparkfun. The app basically sends two commands, "lock" and "unlock." When the PIC16f690 receives one of the two commands from the bluetooth module, it outputs the corresponding PWM for the servo motor to lock and unlock the door.
The servo connection was a little tricky. The servo needed to be mounted to the door to be able to access the latch. The easiest way I could think of was to use spring probes to make a reliable connection. I 3d-printed a housing for the probes with a cover to protect the pins. I printed a matching housing for the pads that would eventually get mounted on the stationary "wall" side. When the door was closed, the connection was made and the microcontroller was able to command the servo.
The whole setup is pretty simple. This was my first venture into the world of android smartphone apps, but I used the basic bluetooth example to communicate with a bluesmirf that I picked up from sparkfun. The app basically sends two commands, "lock" and "unlock." When the PIC16f690 receives one of the two commands from the bluetooth module, it outputs the corresponding PWM for the servo motor to lock and unlock the door.
The servo connection was a little tricky. The servo needed to be mounted to the door to be able to access the latch. The easiest way I could think of was to use spring probes to make a reliable connection. I 3d-printed a housing for the probes with a cover to protect the pins. I printed a matching housing for the pads that would eventually get mounted on the stationary "wall" side. When the door was closed, the connection was made and the microcontroller was able to command the servo.
mcu | |
File Size: | 305 kb |
File Type: | zip |
android | |
File Size: | 1252 kb |
File Type: | zip |