Description
"Dusk Houseplant" is a system embedded into a houseplant (already an ambient piece of many home and office decor). Intended for use in my lab/office, "Dusk Houseplant" ambiently informs people in the lab when it is nighttime (and perhaps, when they should think about not working, going home, and having some dinner). It uses the photosensor to detect the light levels (which can be adjusted using a global variable... for changing seasons), which simulates the plant's "photosensors" that it uses for photosynthesis. As the light level dies down, the "moon" LED grows brighter, illuminating the plant and its pot. Eventually, "crickets" begin to chirp from inside the plant, signaling to the people in the room that yes, it is dark outside and yes, they should think about going home.
Future work would use a CO2 sensor instead of a photosensor, to allow the plant to interact with the system, letting the people in the room know when the plant was not "working" (aka photosynthesising) as much, and therefore suggesting a time for people to go home.
Materials
- LEDs (2, one for the moon and one for the cricket)
- Photosensor
- Breadboard
- Resistors
- Houseplant (relatively large so it can fit the Arduino and breadboard)
Code
/* Dusk Plant
* BY: Lora Oehlberg
* Adapted From:
* Play Melody
* -----------
*
* Program to play melodies stored in an array, it requires to know
* about timing issues and about how to play tones.
*
* The calculation of the tones is made following the mathematical
* operation:
*
* timeHigh = 1/(2 * toneFrequency) = period / 2
*
* where the different tones are described as in the table:
*
* note frequency period PW (timeHigh)
* c 261 Hz 3830 1915
* d 294 Hz 3400 1700
* e 329 Hz 3038 1519
* f 349 Hz 2864 1432
* g 392 Hz 2550 1275
* a 440 Hz 2272 1136
* b 493 Hz 2028 1014
* C 523 Hz 1912 956
*
* (cleft) 2005 D. Cuartielles for K3
*/
int photoPin = 0; // select the input pin for photo sensor
int moonPin = 11;
int cricketPin = 13;
int speakerOut = 7;
byte names[] = {'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'a', 'b', 'C'};
int tones[] = {1915, 1700, 1519, 1432, 1275, 1136, 550, 600};
byte melody[] = "1C1b1C1b";
// count length: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
// 10 20 30
int count = 0;
int count2 = 0;
int count3 = 0;
int MAX_COUNT = 10;
int statePin = LOW;
int i = 0; // delay system
int moon = 0;
int sun = 1;
int val = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the sensor
int sun_threshold = 3;
// adjust based on ambient light levels
int sun_max = 40;
int sun_min = 0;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(cricketPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(speakerOut, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
for (i=0; i<1000; i++){
// Serial.println(i);
sun = test_sun();
moon = 255/((sun+1) * 6);
Serial.println("MOON:");
Serial.println(moon);
analogWrite(moonPin, moon); // analogWrite (dimming the LED) can be between 0-255
if ((i == 999) && (sun < sun_threshold)){
Serial.print("go team!");
i = 0;
digitalWrite(cricketPin, statePin);
chirpchirp();
delay(350);
chirpchirp();
}
}
}
int test_sun(void){
val = analogRead(photoPin); // read the value from the sensor, 0-1023
// Serial.println("SUN:");
// Serial.println(val);
return val;
}
void chirpchirp(void){
digitalWrite(speakerOut, LOW);
for (count = 0; count < MAX_COUNT; count++) {
statePin = !statePin;
digitalWrite(cricketPin, statePin);
for (count3 = 0; count3 <= (melody[count*2] - 48) * 30; count3++) {
for (count2=0;count2<8;count2++) {
if (names[count2] == melody[count*2 + 1]) {
digitalWrite(speakerOut,HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(tones[count2]);
digitalWrite(speakerOut, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(tones[count2]);
}
if (melody[count*2 + 1] == 'p') {
// make a pause of a certain size
digitalWrite(speakerOut, 0);
delayMicroseconds(500);
}
}
}
}
}
Photos
Dusk Houseplant: Top View: A view down below to the chirping houseplant.
Dusk Houseplant: Front View: Full view of Houseplant + Electronics.
Dusk Houseplant: Close Up: Close-up view of electronics and breadboard for the Dusk Houseplant
