Ocram

Inspiration

Our inspiration came from our own shared experiences with porch piracy. Throughout the past couple years, we have noticed that there has been an influx in small packages being stolen off porches. Inspired by Mark Rober, we decided to build a security mailbox that kept packages safe until the recipient of the package was ready to pick it up.

What it does

It is directly connected to a guardian server, with a pretty website frontend in which it displays the status of the box through the use of a lightweight TCP protocol, with data from a potentiometer, which is used to tell if the door is open or closed. The user can then decide to unlock or lock the box through the website. The protocol has support for zero-allocation image transfer for future upgrades.

How we built it

For the enclosure of the box, we used eucalyptus wood which was cut using the laser cutter, the lock and its components were 3D printed, the electronics were directly provided by IEEE. The code and the circuit were built by the team leader, Marco.

Challenges we ran into

There were multiple challenges we ran into throughout the 24 hours design spree. In the beginning we had trouble getting the correct dimensions for our box and the 3D prints. All throughout the project, we ran into problems with the components especially with connecting it to the micro controller. Another big issue was the lack of resources available to us, there were multiple times where we needed a specific tool for our build but was not available to us.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Being able to complete portions of the envisioned product. Even if we weren't able to fully accomplish everything we initially desired, we're extremely proud of what we've been able to accomplish. We are also proud of the things we've learned

What we learned

We learned how important it was to have a plan and to efficiently allocate work to other team members. Individually we learned how to operate the laser cutter and other machinery here at the Makerspace, working with CAD and 3D printing software, and being creative when running into a technical or design constraints on the project.