Tired of getting up to open the door everytime you have a guest? we have the best solution for you!

Our project is here to make your life much easier...

we developed a "quick and easy" way to open the door without having to get up from your couch at all!

When a guest arrives at your door- they ring the doorbell, you get an email that they arrived. then all you have to do is send an email that says "open"- and we will teach your amazing dog to open the door! (with some help...)

your guest will even enjoy some music and lights while they're waiting :)

want to know how we did it and do it by yourself as well? check this instructable!

project was made by: Alon Lesman, Kim Walfisz, Naama Berger

Supplies

General:

Make.com Account
Blynk.cloud Account
Arduino Software

Hardware:

CPX (Adafruit Playground Express)
ESP8266 (Wi-Fi microchip)
Power supply
2 aluminiom wires
doorbell

Rube Goldberg machine:

Dog food bowl
Dog food (better be tasty!)
Dog's favorite toy
Dog Treats
Rope
A dog !

Step 1: Connect the CPX to ESP8266

The ESP8266 is an low-cost microchip that provides Wi-Fi connectivity and includes built-in TCP/IP networking software. By connecting the CPX as shown in the picture above, the CPX can now connect to Wi-Fi. This capability allows for wireless communication and the exchange of data between devices.

Step 2: Connect Your Doorbell to the CPX

connect the 2 aluminium wires to the doorbell as seen in the attached figure, than connect the wires to the CPX board using the GND and V1 analog pins.

Step 3: Creating "Make" Scenarios and Connecting to Blynk

First, using the blynk webstie we created a template and used 2 datastreams.

We created a webhook at the blynk website as seen in the figure attached.

Then we created 2 scenarios at the "Make" platform- one uses the webhook created in blynk and one using an HTTP request.

you can see the description and details in the figures.

Step 4: Write the Code

In the following code, several functionalities were incorporated:

The Blynk app was connected to Make (formerly known as Integromat) functions using webhooks and HTTP request.

When someone rings the door bell, the following happens:

BellRing() function-

The CPX, who is connected to the doorbell and to the "Make" platform as mentioned above, sends an email to the householder upon a ring in the door- notfying that someone arrived to the house and the door needs to be open.

BLYNK_WRITE(V2) function-

when the houseowner sends an email with the word "open" as a subject- the Make platform sends an IOS push notification to his sister to feed their dog and simultanously the waiting music for the waiting guest starts and then the waiting lights are turned on for the guest.

Step 5: Building the Rube Goldberg Machine

We wanted to use physics and gravity rules in order to help us reach our final goal - to open the door to our guest!

First, we used rope to connect our door handle to our dog's favorite toy.

then, we used another rope to connect our toy also to the dog's food bowl using a weight- as seen in the attached video.

when emma our dog will finish her food, the weight of the bowl will be lighter and it will release her toy.

Once the you falls, our emma will play with it and by pulling it the door will open to our guest!

So, this is it! we hope you enjoyed our project and hope you will use it at your own house- for more questions feel free to ask us in the comments!