SmartTrash

Ultrasonic sensor
Load cell
Load cell Amplifier
Photon on breadboard
Wooden plates

Inspiration

We did some brainstorming and we were trying to think of objects we could add IoT technology to that would maybe be useful and profitable. We came up with the idea of connected garbage bins and went with that idea because it could also contribute to the sustainability objective.

What it does

The garbage bin contains two sensors: an ultrasonic sensor to test when it is full and a load cell to sense how much the garbage in the bin weighs at that moment.

How we built it

We connected our two sensors, the ultrasonic sensor(HC- SR04) and the load cell(HX711) to a Particle Photon. We added two wooden blocks to the load cell for support and to mount two wooden plates to it. We mounted the sensor near the top of the garbage bin. For the software side of things, we then programmed the Photon to collect this data and send it back to the Particle Cloud, then from there to a Google Spreadsheet.

Challenges we ran into

Initially, we were going to use an Arduino and the Photon together to connect the sensors to the Arduino and then send the information through the Photon, however this turned out to be a mistake since the way the Arduino and the Photon communicated was thought the computer which we knew could not be viable for the design. The challenge was to rewire and recode everything for the use of the Photon as the main module.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have a final design that we can demo and use, and we are proud that we can collect proper data.

What we learned

Always test things the second you implement them. Conducting research before implementation is also key to save on time. We also learned how to adapt when things go south in the building process.