I wanted to make a SAFE WAY to make everyday plugin household items around my room turn on and off with my voice with commands such as: Desk Lamp..... Off.
Would the Easy Vr be the best for this? I'm a college student so I don''t have much money so I gotta make sure the pieces I buy can actually work.
Also more importantly, how should I wire the 120v coming out of the wall into the arduino and then into the lamp/household device?
Buy a clapper switch from the tv?, use it's plugin pronges and hack into it "clapping" on/off switch?
Eventually I'll be living in the College dorms and I want to be able to transfer this idea over and not have to worry about getting back off my bunk to turn off the light when I'm in bed...
I love electronics (I'm a mechancial eng major) but am a bad self taught learner because I get stuck immediately and never have anyone to ask. This is a life long dream I'm trying to make a reality. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
You'll hear this a few times but I'll say it first, be extremely careful dealing with the mains electricity. What you'll need is a relay for switching the power to your household item on and off. For powering your arduino you'll want to use either a 9V battery or a 7-12v wall wart. You're also gonna wanna get an enclosure for you relay and the arduino.
Opto-isolated relays would be a good idea. People have mounted a 2-relay board like these (http://goo.gl/BDzcp) inside an outlet box, split the duplex receptacle (little tabs break off) and had 2 controllable outlets.
BUT you have to be very careful that all 120V power connections are enclosed and cannot be touched.
Haha no you dont understand since i can remember i have always build mechanical contraptions but never had anyone to help me with any electrical projects. Now i feel like i need to start and learning this can be the start of something great and awesome when you think of the applications, voice controlled homes, car Accessories, etc. so i just need to start somewhere. This is what i love to do and can spend all night doing without so much as a yawn.
Terryking,
Thanks for your post but i started thinking About safety and i dont want to mess to much with tje receptacle and was thinking of hackinga clapper to ensure safety http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0000CGKLR
Or is there an easier way where i font have to deal with the 120v in the wall?
Or is there an easier way where i font have to deal with the 120v in the wall?
You might want to consider using the x10 products as they are generally approved for controlling 120v devices. You can search the forum for x10 firecracker.
