The Trash Tracker

Avoid roommate arguments about who needs to take out the trash and when with The Trash Tracker, a new way to manage chore turns as well as levels of trash.

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Inspiration

Our inspiration was making roommate situations less inconvenient by creating a tracker that makes each person accountable for their turn in taking out the trash and also keeps track of how much trash has been taken out so that the members of a room can be aware of their waste production and try and be more eco-sustainable.

What it does

As more trash is thrown into the trash bin, a light corresponding to a member of the room grows brighter and brighter until the trash is full and it's time to throw it out. The quadalpha numeric display shows the initials of each roommate and the total amount of times the trash has been taken out (up to 100 where it resets).

How we built it

We used an Arduino board, buttons, RGB LED lights, and a quad alpha numeric display. The ultrasonic proximity sensor senses how high the trash level in the trash can is and corresponds to respective values of the RGB lights, which get brighter as the trash level gets higher. The three buttons are used to set the initials of the users, hit enter to go to the next setting, and to press after someone has taken out the trash to cycle to the next roommate. We also 3D printed a clip to attach the device to a trash can.

Challenges we ran into

We struggled with the precision of the ultrasonic proximity sensor and knowing what threshold to use, as well as setting a delay that was long enough for the Arduino to register the button be pressed but not long enough for it to be able to ignore significant changes in trash level.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The RGB lights were really bright at first but we 3d printed 'lampshades' to cover them and diffuse the light. The user interface is also very accessible and simple to use and it instructs you on what to do.

What we learned

We learned a lot about how to make more efficient wiring to minimize soldering as well as some 3D printing.

What's next for The Trash Tracker

A couple things that could be improved for next steps would be more personalization like setting the amount of roommates (right now it defaults to three), the color of LED, or also a more precise sensor and more intricate diaply.

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