INTRODUCTION (Aka the Boring Part! ;P)

What does SpiroCandy even mean?

SpiroCandy comes from two words- Spirometer + (well, you guessed it right!) Candy. It is an Incentive Spirometer designed especially for (very stubborn) children.

So what is a Spirometer?

A spirometer is a device used for measuring the air capacity of lung- related problems like asthma. It can be used at home in form of an incentive spirometer to improve the functioning of lungs by practicing on it. These incentive spirometers are usually pretty cheap and easily available at your chemist.

But the major problem is, that more often than not, people find it extremely difficult to get children to use it. Hence, my team and I came up with a solution to create something happy and cheerful which will attract children and make the spirometer seem like a game!

This is my second instructable so pls do post any changes that you would require.

Follow these simple steps below, and you will be able to hack up a spirometer which will give you a whole new way to make your children, brothers or sisters practice their breathing exercises daily!

Step 1: COMPONENTS

(The necessary part!)

1. Arduino

2. Servo Motor (9g)

3. Pressure Sensor or a Sound Sensor (whichever you find comfortable to use)

PS: I have used a piezo which u will easily find in a buzzer (Check out the pic)

4. Candies!!!

5. Some creative designs for your model and material you want to use.

6. Lots of lights (or a 3*3 LED Cube like the one I have used)

(Basically anything to add a lot of light and colour to your model, the more attractive to children , the better)

4. Basic stuff like jumper wires, wire cutters, single strand wires, any stuff that you'd like to add on; like a cool LCD display which will motivate the user even further, do whatever man its all upto you!

Step 2: What the Hell Are We Even Building Here?

To answer this question, You need to get my vision first.

So what we are building is a completely, whole new spirometer but unlike the ones existing in market (like the one in the picture), it is completely digital.

Once you've got a hang of this concept, what we further want to understand is that all the lights and the candies and all your innovative add- ons are simply used to give "inventives" in the incentive spirometer, keeping in mind that we are talking about very stubborn, reluctant and extremely cute children.

Without further delay, I'll take you straight to the prototyping part (Sorry to bore you this far! I know its too much literature!!!)

Step 3: Build It!

Once you've got all your components at hand, its easy- peezy- sleezy awesomesauce from here.

Burn the code (given below or the one that you've created) onto your arduino.

You'de want to try out your servo first(if this is the fist time you are using a servo). It will give you problems to work continuously as soon as you'll add some more lines of coding or some other components onto your board. All you need to do in this case is pull the shaft up to the maximum (180 deg) position and let it go. It will reset to continuous movement itself!

Servo here is being used to create the gate from which the candies will flow out. (YUMMYYYYY CANDIEESSSS)

Once your servo has been sorted, start working on your blowing part.

For this, you'll have to calibrate your sensor (whichever sensor you choose to use- piezo, flex, pressure, sound, whatever). So if you're familiar with an incentive spirometer, you know well that there's a side tube which has a yellow colour ball. When you blow into your spirometer, that yellow ball oscillates between "Good, Better and Best". And that is exactly what my 3*3 LED cube is doing (LIGHT-BULLLLBB!!!!!)

Now what exactly is happening here you ask?

Good question!

So what I'm trying to do here is to set atleast 3 threshold values in the sensor which correspond to my good, better and best air capacities and send that result to my LED Cube, just to show an output display.

I hope you've got this so far! And I really do hope that you're not confused to your brains rightnow! (Pls have some candy and relax! :C )

But if you've got a hang of the project so far, then there's just one last thing left to do now!

And thats to add on some of your own creativity!!! (And then comment below to let me know what you've added so that I can feel all stupid and not-so-creative :P )

Step 4: For the Code

The logic has to be improved a little bit as of my code (The reason why my prototype is working in the video never-the-less is because I have done something called a "jugaad" as said by us Indians.) Once my code is perfect, I promise to put it up (very very very soon). Until then, do play around with the example codes in your Arduino IDE examples (Like Servo--Sweep, Crystal Display, or make a teeny- tiny modification to your LED Blinking code to light up your LED Cube or Led array, etc.) Very simple if-else logics and you're all set!

Best of luck and do wait for my code!