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Home Automation

  • Capacitive Desk Top

    Capacitive Desk Top

      In the not-too-distant-past, I modified my desk top into an infinity mirror.  The top glass over laps the ends of the lit area.  I don't want to waste the space so I had the idea of adding some backlit capacitive buttons.  The buttons will control some low-level items like a desk lamp, soldering exhaust fan, and my Infinity Mirror Desk. 

      Here's a list of materials I used:

    # Part Company Link Quantity Notes
    1 EL Panel Sparkfun Sparkfun Page 2 Panel is 5"x5" Cut Down
    2 Capacitive Controller MPR121 Larry the Bird @twitter
  • Pneumatic Door Control

    Home Automation

      If you have read and followed my other projects, you would know that I am a Star Trek fan.  I was always fascinated by the automatic doors and the 'air' sound they made.  I have some pneumatic components that are left overs from another project.  So, I will be documenting my progress here.   I'm not saying that is going to be an exact replica of any of the Enterprise's doors, but just a simple system to automate a regular door.

     I wanted the door to be able to open, close and lock, unlock with just a key press.  Also be able to control via phone through bluetooth, and some push buttons for redundancy.  So won't be going into details and tutorials since there is a ton of those across the net.  If there is some interest in a certain feature, I might write up a tutorial about that feature.  I'll list the features, components, software for your use if you choose.

     

    For the pneumatic components, you can find a lot of these used on Ebay. The cylinders were $10-$20 each. The electronic valves were the expensive part. For the air lines, I'm using 4mm plastic tubing along with 4mm push fittings. Then you need an air compressor and tank. The compressor I have is a cheap $20 air pump that I found on Ebay a while back. To regulate the pressure, I'm using a electronic pressure switch from Amazon.