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Knock Controlled Night Light

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and stumbled around trying to turn on your light only to end up painfully bumping into things? With this project from Peter Javorsky you can build your own night light which will turn on with a simple knock.

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The project uses a piezo sensor to detect a knock and power a white LED strip meaning you can quickly and easily turn on or off your night light! The project comes with full schematics and code examples so there is nothing to stop you getting started.  This would be a great addition to your smarthome. Checkout this link to find out more.  

If you’re looking for a piezo module to use in this project the team at SuperHouse Automation recommends the Freetronics Piezo module. For more information and to order, visit the product page.

Want to learn more about awesome automation hacks like this? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Have an idea for a project you would like us to feature? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

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Arduino Oscilloscope!

An oscilloscope is a must have tool for any electronics enthusiast, however, they are typically extremely expensive ($600+), so price can be a real barrier to owning your own. With this fantastic project from BramMylemans you can use an Arduino to create your own oscilloscope very cheaply!

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Not only is it great to be able to build your own oscilloscope, but this project will cost next to nothing as it only requires an Arduino Leonardo and a few capacitors, diodes and resistors. Furthermore, when you are working on home automation projects having an oscilloscope can really go a long way to helping you design and debug your system. To get started building your own oscilloscope check out the following link.

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If you are looking for an Arduino Leonardo compatible board the team at SuperHouse Automation recommends the Freetronics LeoStick. The LeoStick is very similar to an Arduino Leonardo, however it comes in a compact, convenient USB stick style format! Checkout the product page to find out more.

Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Working on your own home automation projects? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

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Arduino WiFi Rebooter

Does your WiFi router frequently drop out and need rebooting? This can be a very frustrating problem! However, like many problems, it can easily be solved with Arduino. This awesome project from Sameer sets up an Arduino which monitors your wifi connection, whenever the wifi is down a warning buzzer sounds and then a relay turns the router off and boots it back up again a few seconds later, just as if you had rebooted it yourself! If you have a home full of IoT devices, having the WiFi go down can be a huge problem and this project goes a long way to overcoming that! This is an extremely useful project, and best of all it shouldn’t be too hard either. To get started checkout the following link.

Wifi Rebooter

If you’re looking for a buzzer module to use in this project the team at SuperHouse Automation recommends the Freetronics Piezo module. For more information and to order, visit the product page.

Want to learn more about awesome automation hacks like this? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Have an idea for a project you would like us to feature? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

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Joystick Controlled Labyrinth

Does your “labyrinth” game sit unused collecting dust on shelf? Is it too good to throw away even though you never use it? Why not bring your “labyrinth” into the 21st century! With this fascinating project from instructables member tripletray you can control your labyrinth using your Nintendo Wii controller and an Arduino (you can read more about using a Wii Controller with your Arduino here).

Labyrinth

At a basic level the Arduino reads inputs from a game controller which are converted into movement of the labyrinth plane using some servos. Not only does this project allow you to control your labyrinth using your Wii Controller, but it also includes a solenoid which automatically reloads to the ball to the starting position in the event of a (likely) unsuccessful run.  You can find full code examples and read about this project at the following link.

If you are looking for an Arduino board to provide the brains for your labyrinth, the SuperHouse team recommends the Freetronics “Eleven” Arduino Compatible Board, click on the link to find out more.

Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Thought that this was a cool project? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

 

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Magnetic Stripe Decoder

Have you ever wondered if it was possible to use a magnetic card reader in your Arduino projects? Having control over a magnetic stripe reader opens up lots of possibilities such as adding swipe card access to one of the doors around your home. Instructables member powerpants has put together a fantastic guide which details every aspect of using a magnetic stripe reader from the wiring to full code examples. You can checkout the instructions here.

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If you are looking for an Arduino board to use in this project, the SuperHouse team recommends the Freetronics “Eleven” Arduino Compatible Board, click on the link to find out more.

Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!

Thought that this was a cool project? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

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