Pressure Triggered Zen Sanctuary

2 Large Sheets of Cardboard or wood

Aluminum Foil or metal

TapeSeveral Feet of Insulated Wire

Lights/Any decorations you'd like to add

Tools:

Wire Strippers

A Sharp Knife

10K Resistor

Soldering Iron

Extension Cord

Step 1: Personal Touches

My personal touch was 3 different sized folded lanterns, one salt lamp, one butterfly nightlight, a small waterfall, a zen garden, some shakra stones, and other zen decorations(plants, candles,etc). Included in the photos are more individual zen sanctuary ideas.

Step 2: Making the Pressure Plates

Attach aluminum foil or 2 pieces of metal to your wood/cardboard plates. Then attach any form of cushioning on either side of the metal to keep the plates from touching when there is no pressure. Make sure whatever mesh, cotton, or plush piece of Styrofoam you use is squishy enough that the weight of a person on the plates will make the 2 metal pieces touch.

Step 3: Wiring Pt 1

Take one wire and strip about one inch of insulation off of the end. Then lay it on the first sheet of cardboard so the the bare end of the wire is touching the aluminum. Apply some solder or a piece of copper tape on top of the wire to hold it in contact with the foil(or metal). Repeat this with the second wire and the second sheet of cardboard. When you press on the center of the cardboard, the two foil sheets will make contact and complete a circuit just like a regular switch. Split and strip the extension cord wire.

Step 4: Wiring Pt 2

Connect one wire to the GND pin. Then take the other wire and connect it to an input pin and also connect it to the 5V pin with a 10k resistor.The resistor acts as a pull-up resistor. It will make the input pin read HIGH when the button is not being pressed. But when the button is pressed the switch connects the input pin to GND and the input will then read LOW. You can then use this signal to activate any kind of sequence that you like. Attach the Resistor between the wires connecting to the arduino and the wires connecting the extension cord.

Step 5: Wiring Pt 3

After you plug in the coding included in the photo and in the description, you'll wire your arduino to your breadboard and your breadboard to the power strip to create a pressure switch or "button". This is a copy of the coding that I plugged into my arduino:

const int buttonPin = 2;

const int ledPin = 11;

int buttonState = 0;

void setup() { pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);

pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT); }

void loop()

{ buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);

if (buttonState == HIGH) {

digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); }

else

{ digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); }}

Step 6: Finalizing

Place your pressure plate under your yoga mat and connect whatever lanterns, lamps, and sound machines you want to have turn on and off. Set up blankets and other zen trinkets to create a portable automatic zen sanctuary anywhere! When you sit down on the pressure plate strategically hidden under the mat, everything illuminates creating sounds, smells and sights to transport you to a more relaxing almost tropical zen getaway anywhere anytime. The possibilities are endless!