Intention
My room-mate is likes to keep his window open since he feels that his room lacks oxygen and is not well ventilated. He has complained multiple times that his bed got wet because it rained when he was not home. I want to help him by designing a device that senses and informs him that its raining. Sometimes the rain is mild and the wind may blow
the rain droplets
away from the window. However, he is not always that lucky.
Process
I am going to approach this problem with a elegant, simple solution. My initial idea was to make have a humidity sensor that sends an electric signal to breadboard that recognizes its raining and tells the motor to close the window. However, given the time constraint, I will scrap the automatic window closing mechanism. I will program the arduino to send a text saying "it is raining" to both me and my room-mate. Since I am not in his room, a visual output would be useless and a sound output unless it is really loud is useless too. It should be able to inform us where ever we are. It would be ideal to have a rechargeable battery pack so that the system wouldnt have to be connected to a laptop to work but that may not be possible for this project.
Inspiration
https://www.hackster.io/user462411/dps310-based-storm-window-cdcf5e
https://www.hackster.io/KaustubhAgarwal/rain-warning-display-on-mobile-for-your-home-garden-86c691
https://www.hackster.io/LaurenceHR/beagle-rain-detector-9e6f19
Product
Bill of materials:
* Breadboard
* SHT31D, temperature and humidity sensor (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2857)
* Particle
* Switch
* Resister
* Particle
Reflection
The project was a first attempt to make an IOT device. I had the purpose, design and functionality laid out and clear. However, I ran into a lot of problems with the coding aspect of things. I learned that coding can be tough for someone without any coding background; however, with help it is possible to learn and implement.