Ideas for a cool techie/spare time project

azibux1 said:
Will do! :) That reminds me I was somewhat planning / messing with an Arduino to make a pond water sensor in case the level drops / it leaks so I get an email straight away... But it didn't seem too accurate/reliable... may look into that again :)
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Odd, this is exactly what I've been researching the past few weeks on and off. I've always wanted to do an Arduino project but never got round to it.

My plan is to use an HC-SR04 ultrasonic range finder mounted above the pond pointed down at the water. I'd get a waterproof variant which is about £5. They can range 2cm - 4m to around 3mm accuracy :eek:. I'd couple that with an Arduino (£4 for an Uno R3 clone off AliExpress) and ESP8266 Wifi module (~£2 off AliExpress, and the ESP-07 variant which has an external antenna connection for better range) so I can hook it up onto the internet for real time alerts etc. I reckon I can build the whole thing for about £15.

I can post up my rather dodgy Fritzing schematic if you're interested later :)
 
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Why bother? Theres loads of automatic top of systems out there for fish tanks and koi ponds etc etc some with included low water alarms and it wont electrocute your fish :p
 
Pho said:
Odd, this is exactly what I've been researching the past few weeks on and off. I've always wanted to do an Arduino project but never got round to it.

My plan is to use an HC-SR04 ultrasonic range finder mounted above the pond pointed down at the water. I'd get a waterproof variant which is about £5. They can range 2cm - 4m to around 3mm accuracy :eek:. I'd couple that with an Arduino (£4 for an Uno R3 clone off AliExpress) and ESP8266 Wifi module (~£2 off AliExpress, and the ESP-07 variant which has an external antenna connection for better range) so I can hook it up onto the internet for real time alerts etc. I reckon I can build the whole thing for about £15.

I can post up my rather dodgy Fritzing schematic if you're interested later :)
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Sounds good post it up!

When I was testing it I was using a submerged sensor (was safe) but didn't find it reliable / accurate... May have been my code... Didn't look into it too much

Ultrasonic sounds cool!
 
TommyV said:
Thanks for making this thread OP, have been thinking the same myself the last few days and had no idea what would be a fun thing to get into.

Rasberry PI it is :)
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Raspberry pi is cool! Arduino also if you're more into the electronics side of things as well as programming
 
azibux1 said:
Sounds good post it up!

When I was testing it I was using a submerged sensor (was safe) but didn't find it reliable / accurate... May have been my code... Didn't look into it too much

Ultrasonic sounds cool!
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Breadboard:
Lxq59z0.png
(click for larger image)

Schematic:
TfuXqxh.png
(click for larger image)

I'm a software guy not hardware so this may or may not work! I complicated the schematic on purpose as it was more fun so you could remove the transistors and temperature sensor etc.

Here's what I posted when I asked on the Arduino forums:

I plan to power this from mains voltage rather than batteries but I figured I'd try and save energy where possible and make it more challenging so I've added two NPN transistors to let me cut the power to both the ultrasonic sensor/temperature sensor and wireless module individually. I read you should add a resistor to the gates so I have.

The ESP8266 uses 3.3V rather than the Arduino's 5V. The built-in 3.3V of the Arduino apparently can't provide enough current so I've used the 5V line with 3.3V regulator to bring the voltage down. Similarly, the TX pin of the Arduino needs to be shifted down to 3.3V for the ESP8266 so I came across a trick of using a voltage divider to do this. Voltage to ESP RX = 5V * (2KΩ/(2KΩ+1KΩ)) = 3.33V.
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  • Arduino Uno R3
  • HC-SR04 (datasheet) - ultrasonic distance sensor [I'll probably use a waterproof variant]
  • ESP8266 (datasheet) - wireless module [I'll probably use the ESP07 varirant with an external antenna]
  • TMP36 (datasheet) - temperature sensor [I don't really need one, but why not]

Enjoy!
 
Cool, will remember that cheers. I'm still building a list of bits to buy so it may be a few weeks until I get around to doing it :).
 
I spent WEEKS in college trying to get that sodding ESP8266 to work, I think it was a few weeks after it was released/available to buy cheaply and there wasn't much data about. Finally got it working at about 2am in the morning, with a joyous girly squeal when it worked.

Do you play video games? If so, how about a IR head tracker. I have one to build, just need the time and motivation to do it :p
 
Greg0986 said:
I spent WEEKS in college trying to get that sodding ESP8266 to work, I think it was a few weeks after it was released/available to buy cheaply and there wasn't much data about.
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The new AT firmwares are much better!

Either that or you can run NodeMCU/Arduino on them directly.
 
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