Introduction: Turn Off Light From Bed
Well my mom likes to wake me up for school in the morning my turning on my light, and I got tired of being blinded first thing in the morning and having to walk across the room just to turn off the light, so I decided to make a quick way of turning off the light from my bed. This is a fairly easy instructable (i think), i also thought it was quite fun to do. Note: this only works with the flip-style light switch.
Step 1: Materials
Parts:
old light switch cover
dc motor
project box (i used an altoids tin)
2 momentary push button switches
lots of wire
2 AAA battery packs (I used 1 AA and 1 AAA)
heatshrink tubing
hot glue sticks
a screw
Tools:
drill (not shown)
soldering iron
wire cutters/ wire strippers (not shown)
hot glue gun
Step 2: The Case
I drilled a hole in the side for the wires going to the motor to go out, then I drilled 2 holes in the top for the wires to the buttons.
Step 3: Build the Circuit
Follow the schematic below to build the circuit. But: DO NOT ATTATCH TO MOTOR YET! just twist the 2 ends together for now. Make sure to thread the wires out of the holes for the buttons before soldering. I hot glued the 2 battery packs to the bottom of the case and hot glued the 2 buttons on top to hold them in place.
Step 4: The Motor
For this step, I held the motor against the light switch to figure out where to position it and marked with a pencil. now take off the faceplate for the lightswitch. I drilled a hole for the screw to come up to help hold the motor on the plate, then I hot glued the motor onto the faceplate. you may have to loosen or tighten the screw to get the motor to turn off the light efficiently.
Step 5: Final Touches
now solder a wire to each of the ones you twisted in step 3. (there should only be 2, both have a positive and negative twisted together) then thread the 2 wires out of the hole in the side of the case (put a knot on the inside to prevent the cable from pulling out). now solder the other ends of the wires to the points on the motor. now just screw the faceplate back on the wall. finally figure out which button turns on the light and which one turns off the light (I made a label). and test it out to make sure it works.
Step 6: All Done!
below is a video of me using my switch. please comment and rate. I hope you enjoyed this Instructable. thanks for viewing :)
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27 Comments
Question 3 years ago
Could it make it easy
7 years ago
You can also induce a short circuit to switch off all lights - you just need a plug socket...
youtu.be/A4ci7fRyh1Y
11 years ago on Step 6
Great work here!!
Reply 11 years ago on Step 6
Thanks! I'm glad you like it!
13 years ago on Introduction
where'd you get the motor?
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
out of an old rc car
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
100x better than mine mine is just mechaical
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
Sounds like you could maybe use the wireless guts of the car to make this wireless too.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
i was going to try and do that but the circuit was fryed somehow and about the only thing i could use was the motors, but if i can find another rc car and some other parts im going to make a second version of this
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
ohh this is a sick idea though
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
thanks :) and you could probably go to an hobby shop and get a servo instead of that motor btw.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
You could do this with a servo, but please note that it would require modifying the servo or building some more advanced circuitry.
The servo modding would basically be ripping out all the internal electronics and only using the motor and gearbox. The motor should be good to run from 4.5-9 volts, but remember that the output shaft cannot turn 360 degrees and that stalling is bad.
The more advanced circuitry isn't really very difficult, just more advanced than switches. You need to send signals to the servo which could easily be done with 555 timers. Remember to use 4.8-6 volts.
That same hobby shop has some multispeed Tamiya gearboxes.....
13 years ago on Introduction
Is it wireless?
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
no, 2 wires go from the motor to the case.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
Aw, it'd be perfect if it was.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
i was thinking that too, but i couldn't figure out how to do it, so this was the best i could do
13 years ago on Introduction
Hmm... good. If you could only rig a DPDT switch and a few diodes...
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
whats a DPDT switch?
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
A switch with 2 poles, so you wouldnt need 2 battery packs.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
oh ok, i didn't know thats what they were called. actually i didn't even think about that. thanks for the idea (: