Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Weekend Projects – Mini Blind Minder”.
Hi, I’m Sean Regan technical editor with make the Sun can be a useful source of free heat for your home on those cool winter days. Unfortunately, it can also be a troublesome source of free heat for your home on those hot summer days. Many people use many blinds to help regulate the Sun. It works, but it’s a manual process.
That’S not exactly an ideal solution. If only there were a way to automate your blinds. Well, in today’s weekend, project we’re going to be using our favorite little microcontroller, the Arduino to do just that with the mini blind minder by Steve Hofer.
The Arduino uses a temperature sensor to read the room, temperature and activates a servo motor to open the many blind slats if it’s too cool or close them. If it’s too warm, it has an adjustable thermostat. So you can set your own comfort zone and it can also be operated manually, so you can open or close your blinds with the push of a button. You can pick up almost everything you need to build this project at your local radio shack, and it only requires a moderate amount of soldering, so you can easily build it in a day.
You’Ll also need these tools. We’Ll start this project by modifying the project enclosure for the various buttons switches and components that we need for this build all the details can be found on the project page. Next, we will pre wire all the components that are located on the outside of the enclosure box. It’S a good idea to heat shrink, all the bare wire connections to help prevent any electrical shorts, we’re going to be building our own custom shield for the Arduino.
It’S not as hard as it sounds, and it’s a great way to get exactly what you need for a custom project like this one. The only critical part of building the shield is the alignment of the pins that are connected to the Arduino. You will need to bend a header pin or two to get an exact fit, take your time and make sure everything lines up nicely. Now we can add all the components to our custom. Arduino shield start with the 10 kiloohm potentiometer, then add the 100 ohm resistors to 10 kilo, ohm resistors, the 3 pin header for the servo and finally, the jumper wires needed to connect all the components. Follow the schematics from the project page soldering, each component to the board as needed after you verify.
Everything is soldered in correctly place the shield on the Arduino and connect the servo. Now you can connect the Arduino to your computer and download the mini blind minder code. As a zip file, a link to the file can be found on the project page. There are two programs that you’ll need to run prior to the final code for the mini blind, minder.
First upload the calibrate servo code to the Arduino once uploaded adjust the screw on the side of the servo until the servo stops. Turning next upload the test servo code, the servo should oscillate between turning clockwise and counterclockwise, with a one-second pause between, if not double check. Your connections and recalibrate the servo, if it all works, you can upload the final code called mini blind minder to your Arduino.
Now that the servo is calibrated, we’ll disconnect it and install all the external components to our enclosure start by attaching a servo to the case. With the four self-threading screws next secure the switch buttons and power plug in place with their retaining nuts attach the LED with a dab of hot glue. The temperature sensor is also installed using hot glue and it should stick out the bottom of the case a bit. So we can get an accurate temperature reading from the room now we’ll connect the remaining parts of the build solder, the manual override switch up button and down button to the shield next wire up the LED and ground connections. Now you can solder the power connector and the wires from the temperature sensor and then reconnect the servo to the Arduino.
Next you’ll need to do a few calibration tests for your specific mini-blinds. It’S really easy. Just follow the steps found on the project page and you will be ready to go in just a few minutes to permanently install your project, attach the case to the window frame with two wood screws, positioned it vertically, so that your blinds wand fits between the spokes Of the servo horn but doesn’t hit the top of the servo next make a simple slip: clutch by looping, the rubber band around the wand and two of the spokes of the servo horn. This will keep the servo from damaging anything in case.
Something goes wrong power. It up and watch the magic you can adjust the temperature, the mini blind minder in one degree increments, to suit your needs. The LED will show you if it thinks the room is too hot or cold. Now, whenever the temperature changes, your blinds will respond accordingly and without any human intervention.
This is really just the beginning of what could be a whole house automation system. The basic concept is reading a sensor and performing a task. You could easily add a motion sensor to keep unwanted eyes to themselves or use the same basic concepts and different sensors to automate almost anything in your home. You .