gluckc

I really couldn't say. This was supporting a 50lb kid -- and it worked well for several years. I think you'd have to beef it up for a 250lb adult. Maybe you could use a similar concept, but make sure you had enough bracing for the weight you're talking about.

Since publishing this, the connection with Alexa got flaky. So I found another method that still used the WEMO. If you go to sinric.com, there are instructions for downloading some code from github and modifying to what you want in order to connect your microcontroller with alexa. It's pretty similar to what I posted here. Since using sinric, I've been able to use voice-activation for the elevator for about a year now with no issues. It still is using "Alexa turn on elevator in kitchen' to activate it -- which is cumbersome -- but it works, so I am happy.

Thanks very much. I think I didn't explain it very well. The button is supposed to control the temperature, and the way it works is that when you press the button -- it turns on and provides full power to the carbon fiber strips. If you keep it at this level, it will both stay hot and drain the battery. If you press the button again, it changes color to let you know what level you are on. It then starts to cycle so that the power goes on/off to the carbon fiber. This actually will help the battery last a little longer -- and the carbon fiber cools down a bit between cycles. Does that make sense? I think you can press the button 5 times. I measured the temp on the lowest level and I think it hovered around 85 degrees or so inside my house with an ambient temperature of 73 or so....

Thanks very much. I think I didn't explain it very well. The button is supposed to control the temperature, and the way it works is that when you press the button -- it turns on and provides full power to the carbon fiber strips. If you keep it at this level, it will both stay hot and drain the battery. If you press the button again, it changes color to let you know what level you are on. It then starts to cycle so that the power goes on/off to the carbon fiber. This actually will help the battery last a little longer -- and the carbon fiber cools down a bit between cycles. Does that make sense? I think you can press the button 5 times. I measured the temp on the lowest level and I think it hovered around 85 degrees or so inside my house with an ambient temperature of 73 or so.So long as the battery is powering the carbon fiber strips, it is draining. It wouldn't matter if you kept the carbon fiber insulated. But, you are definitely right... when I layer this with a jacket, then the heat stays in and I can put it on a lower setting to save some battery.Thanks for the flap suggestion. :)

Thanks for your help--I was able to take your instructable and morph it to do what I needed. I was very excited to discover this :)

Looked forward to trying this... went through all the steps. Then realized that I accidentally bought a WEMO D1 mini LITE. I'll go ahead and get the D1 mini, but do you know if the LITE version can be used in the same way? I'm guessing it uses different drivers at least, since it wasn't recognized by the arduino IDE. I'm bummed. Now I have to wait to try again.

I thought of another thing I want to do with this. Here is an older post of mine that after looking at this project, I hope I can upgrade my project ...https://www.instructables.com/id/Voice-Activated-R...

This is exactly what I want to do, but with a solenoid. It seems pretty easy. I just wish your Step 7 "After programming with the code" was expanded :). You have several .cpp files included. How do you get these on the wemo? Is it possible to just copy/paste the routines in these files directly in the .ino? In my limited experience, I've only programmed through the *.ino file.

Thanks.... I am too :)

Thank you !

Arrgghh -- I'm following along your very easy to follow instructable. I'm using windows, though. You say that windows will have no problem recognizing it when I plug it in. Maybe that's true -- but in Windows 10, even though it recognizes it, it gives a driver error. Apparently prolific-usb-to-serial-comm-port-windows is not supported in Windows 10. Supposedly you can try to load an older driver to get it to work, but I haven't had success with that yet.

This is great, I like how it's low to the ground so you can be near the water -- I wish I could add an engine/joystick so my son could use it independently. I've posted some ideas, too, for building adaptive equipment with PVC. Do a search on Accessible Scooter with Putt-Putt Attachment.