Inspiration
Our isnpiration came from the Tropo prize announcement for the best use of their API. Our first goal of the project was to make a full fledge security system to notify users about any intruders or potential dangers around the home, in a cheap and effective way using Arduino's sensors. We had to make due wit what little variety of hardware that was offered at the even, which was fun as it was a challenge.
What it does
The arduino, as the central unit of the project has multiple IR sensors which should be placed on key points on the home, when triggered will send data to the Tropo APi script to send a message or call to the owner of the home informing them of the triggered alarm system.
How we built it
Using the arduino, and the 1 sensor available at the hackathon to detect movement, we connected the IR sensor circuit to the Arduino and had the arduino programmed to return a numerical value in each of the IR sensors to tell the system which one was triggered for a better detailed report of what part of the home was breached. The IR sensors had to be built around resistors to prevent it from going up in flames, which we forgot at first and burnt one up, but we had very limited supplies as the resistors all disapeared a couple hours into the event, but luckliy someone carried their electrical circuits project from the university for some reason, and they had excess resistors. Give or take the resistors were not the correct resistance we needed, we ended up doing the math with multiple resistors to figure out the chain of resistors we needed for each resistor, whether it was putting them up in series or parralel to get the proper resistance we needed. After that, we connected the serial cable to the arduino and a laptop in order to send the data from the arduino out to the Tropo API. As there were no WIFI sheilds provided at the hackathon, the only way to send up the data to the tropo server would be through a computer, which we also wanted to swap for a RaspberryPi but we did not carry one with us,
Challenges we ran into
Lack of hardware for our big detailed idea of a project, so we had to cut things back, remove ideas, remove parts of the project.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Managed to complete the majority of the project given the materials we had available.
What we learned
IR sensors and arduino code as well as API integration with python as we had never worke with these.
What's next for DIY security
A better implementation of the project using proper sensors and wireless connectivity. Modification of the api code to allow better automation of what to do in the event the user is not able to respond to the report sent out by the system.
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