Drip Detector

Inspiration

We are roommates, and on our first day of college we were disappointed to walk into our room in the quad only to find the carpet pooled with water. We had a leaky pip above our ceiling! It took facilities 2 months of trial and error before they were able to fix it.

What it does

If the moisture sensor attached to the Arduino detects water, a text message will be sent to the user notifying them, and the LCD screen will display the status.

How we built it / Design Process

The Drip Detective was built using the Arduino MKR WIFI 1010, an LCD screen, and a moisture sensor. The IOT component function using ThingSpeak and Twilio. The design process was greatly helped with a wide range of advisors, most notably James Steeman, Katie Zhang, and Natalie Yee. The initial step was to start with the simplest hardware (being the lcd screen) and then gradually add in the more complex pieces (the water sensor) and the IOT component. After each new component was added, the software was updated in order to integrate that new component. This was done in order to make debugging easier and the overall process smoother, leading to a higher quality final product in a more efficient way.

Challenges we ran into

There were two main challenges that we ran into through the design process. The first was that we initially wired the sensor and lcd screen into an Arduino UNO, however this is not able to connect to the internet. We had to rewire and format the placement of the hardware so that everything worked on the Arduino MKR Wifi 1010. This was time consuming but would allow us to connect to the internet. The second big challenge came with the IOT component of the project. After great effort, we were able to successfully connect our project to the internet, however ThingSpeak's servers were unreliable and the IOT component was unreliable as a result of this.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The accomplishment that we are most proud of is successfully connecting our project to the internet. This was a massive hurdle to overcome, as there were countless software issues to debug, as we pooled code from multiple examples online in an effort to make our product work. Learning how to work with the Arduino MKR WIFI 1010 was a challenge, but taught us about the backend of how things connect to the internet.

What we learned

The biggest learning experience for our group was that careful design can make a big difference. This was something that we were able to reflect on with TA/Project Advisor James Steeman, as he was able to point out certain aspects of our build process and what could be made efficient. Furthermore we learned more about proper debugging, and how to fix a problem in a complex system by looking at one piece at a time.

What's next for Drip Detective

Drip Detective is the first of many great ideas to come. Small scale projects like this serve as a framework for larger more impactful products of services. What will remain constant, is our love of technology and finding ways to make people’s lives better.

Built With

• arduino
• iot