RedOctober's Blog

After talkin with Mr. Kjeld we have found a solution that should work for us and get approved. A Button Style 240V-to-277V Photo-Control switch, this is essentially a dusk-to-dawn switch. This switch is made to turn the lights off at Dawn and on at Dusk. To make this work for us we could simply block it off to the rest of the light and had it see a simple LED and have the LED on when we want the lights to turn off.

After some research I have found that traditional ballast can work with a solid state relay with a random turn-on. So I think I have found one that will work with our light switch and that meets our budget: SSR. Mr. Jenson has to speak with the electricians but this is looking positive.

With a week left we are coming down to the wire with things. We have gotten the PIR sensor and Reed switches working a figured out. We are still working on getting the vibration sensor amplified because we are only receiving a small spike and to get that we have to physically move the sensor so that would not be practical for the table application. We are also struggling with how to get a signal to the light switch to get it to ultimately turn off. We have come up wit a few idea's X-10 module, Solid State Relay, and a Occupancy sensor; but we have to deal with the limitations of the building. This is a big problem because this is essentially the base idea for our project. We are also waiting for the information for the LED emitters from the Hall sensor group. All and all I think I have actually learned alot from this class and working with this project.

I just had to write out some of my thoughts from the final code.

for(;;){
  countdown--; //countdown to 0
  if(Reed_D1==0 && Reed_D2==0)
  {
     countdown= 5mins; //Resets timer
  }
  if(countdown==0){
    countdown=3mins;
    countdown--; //countdown to 0
    Room_Oc= FALSE;
    while(countdown !=0 && Room_Oc==FALSE)
    {
      if [(PRI ==1 && LED ==1) || (PRI ==1) || (Vibration > 0) || (LED ==1 && Vibration>0)]
      {
        Room_Oc= TRUE;
      }
      else
        Room_Oc=FALSE;
    }
  }
  if(Room_Oc ==FALSE)
      Lights Off;
}

After further consultation with Mr. Jenson we could easily control the light switch with a solid state relay. We think we believe that we have found the correct relay for the lights in the IEEE lounge: http://www.opto22.com/site/pr_details.aspx?cid=4&item=380D25 with this we should be able to switch the lights on and off directly from the Micro controller. We were also considering installing a spring loaded light switch that contacts every time it is switched and then return to a neutral state. The only problem with this is finding a product that is already in existence that can accomplish this goal and give off the appearance that no system has been implemented.

http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotics/?p=9