Turn on lights

I'd like to make an ultrasonic switch for my light bulbs. Since the ground wire passes through the switch, how would I use an ultrasonic sensor or something like that to make it work? And would it need coding or a arduino?

I'd like to make an ultrasonic switch for my light bulbs.

What does this mean? Are you trying to get the lights to come on when you get close to them?

Since the ground wire passes through the switch, how would I use an ultrasonic sensor or something like that to make it work?

What switch does the ground wire pass through? Usually, the switch makes/breaks the hot wire, not the ground wire.

And would it need coding or a arduino?

Yes.

PaulS:

I'd like to make an ultrasonic switch for my light bulbs.

What does this mean? Are you trying to get the lights to come on when you get close to them?

Since the ground wire passes through the switch, how would I use an ultrasonic sensor or something like that to make it work?

What switch does the ground wire pass through? Usually, the switch makes/breaks the hot wire, not the ground wire.

And would it need coding or a arduino?

Yes.

Like attaching the sensor to the wall and when I slide my hand it turns on, and when I slide my and again it turns off.
Sorry, got my electrical wiring knowledge a little mixed up.
What kind of arduino I need and others components?

What kind of arduino I need and others components?

Any kind of Arduino, a sensor and something to switch the light like a relay.

You can try a close proximity setup, with either a IR distance sensor or ultrasonic sensor, just set the range from 1 inch to 3 inch, and latch the lights on when one pass is made and off when you pass again.

I don't know of any codes that will do this off hand but look for a sample button latch code, and adapt that to latch from the sensor.

If you have any code, please post it.

I'm still working into making the project a reality, so I didn't start to write code yet.

ok. do you have any parts already, the arduino, the sensor, some LEDs... anything?
Could you post a link of your exact sensor, that way we can see what you have.

HazardsMind:
ok. do you have any parts already, the arduino, the sensor, some LEDs... anything?
Could you post a link of your exact sensor, that way we can see what you have.

I'm thinking about using a arduino mini, and I don't know yet what kind of sensor and I would like some advice.

ARD mini is fine, but look at the specs, I think one is 5 volts and the other is 3.3 volts. Most sensors use +5 volts, so make sure you know what your getting.

The ultrasonic sensor look like it has 2 miniture cans on the front, and may protrude outwards. If you want something that be hidden easily, then go with the IR distance sensor. Both should work with the same code.

HazardsMind:
ARD mini is fine, but look at the specs, I think one is 5 volts and the other is 3.3 volts. Most sensors use +5 volts, so make sure you know what your getting.

The ultrasonic sensor look like it has 2 miniture cans on the front, and may protrude outwards. If you want something that be hidden easily, then go with the IR distance sensor. Both should work with the same code.

What ultrasonic sensor would you recommend?

Parallax

I believe one of these three sensors would work out. Wich one is the best? I chose the PING))) Ultrasonic Sensor, the PIR Sensor and the Si1143 Proximity Sensor. All of them from Parallax.

Si1143 Proximity Sensor

You can do multiple hand gestures and program the lights to do different things. It is much more expensive, but it all depends on what you are going to use it for. If you just want to turn the lights on and off then you can go with one of the others, but if you want to spice it up a little then go with that one.

Im not sure if the proximity sensor has its own code, because I know that the other two will work with the same code.

Lvothe:

HazardsMind:
ARD mini is fine, but look at the specs, I think one is 5 volts and the other is 3.3 volts. Most sensors use +5 volts, so make sure you know what your getting.

The ultrasonic sensor look like it has 2 miniture cans on the front, and may protrude outwards. If you want something that be hidden easily, then go with the IR distance sensor. Both should work with the same code.

What ultrasonic sensor would you recommend?

Would a ARD micro work? And how to connect it to the lights? And power?

Would the proximity sensor work with a grill in front of it? For design reasons. And could it be painted? I want this to be an definitive solution.

Yes, a micro will work, but as I said before, you need to know both the micro operating voltage and the sensor voltage. I think both work at 5 volts, if that is true then you are fine.

As for the grill... that you may need to test, because I really can't say.

If you want it east to hide, an IR source and detector LED pair can be hidden behind a piece of smoked plastic flush with the wall. The concept is pretty simple and may not need anything other than the diodes and a few resistors with the Arduino. The IR source and detector can be pretty much side by side as long as the detector doesn't "see" the source beam reflections off the back of the smoked plastic. THen when your hand (or anything else) comes close to the source diode, the IR reflects off it and back towards the detector which the Arduino can "detect" on an input pin and drive a relay to switch the light.

In another forum post, one person found this, I made a slight modification.

int on=0;
If(sensor==HIGH) { // this works

~on; // on !=on should work too

digitalWrite(lights, on ? HIGH : LOW);
}

This would be your simple latch.

The relay could be a mosfet? Also can i dimmer the lights? Usig the pwn output would work? Maybe using the distance as the dimming value?

Yea all would work.