Okay, so I had this idea to make a fire alarm that could also show me what was going on. You know, just in case something actually happened, I wanted to see it with my own eyes. So, I started messing around with this project.
Getting Started
First, I grabbed a regular smoke detector. Nothing fancy, just the basic kind you can pick up at any hardware store. Then, I got my hands on a small camera module – the kind you might use for a little DIY security project. I also needed a microcontroller, so I went with an Arduino because I’m kinda familiar with those.
Putting It Together
I started by carefully taking apart the smoke detector. I wanted to see how it worked and figure out where I could connect my stuff. I located the sensor part and the buzzer, which was pretty straightforward.
Next, I wired up the camera module to the Arduino. This took a bit of fiddling, looking up pinouts, and making sure I didn’t fry anything. I connected some power and ground wires, and then the data lines to some digital pins on the Arduino.
The Coding Part
This is where things got a bit tricky. I’m not a coding expert, but I can usually figure things out. I wrote some code for the Arduino to do a few things:
- Listen for the smoke detector to go off. I connected a wire from the smoke detector’s buzzer circuit to a digital input pin on the Arduino.
- Snap a picture when the alarm triggered. I used a camera library to make this easier.
- Do something with the picture, which, I think, is sending it to an email account, or storing pictures on a cloud or something, I’m not too sure about this part yet, but I’m thinking of some solutions.
Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3
I did a few test runs. I used one of those smoke detector tester sprays to set it off (don’t worry, I did it safely!). And guess what? It worked! The alarm went off, and the camera snapped a picture. I am able to successfully make it!
It’s still a very rough prototype. I need to figure out a good way to send the picture somewhere useful, like maybe to my phone or a cloud storage thing. Also, I need to make it all fit neatly into a case, and the wires are all over the place right now. I might use some tape and get creative for now. But I hope I can make it soon.
But, for a first try, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It’s a good start to a project that could actually be pretty useful someday! I want to figure out other ways of using it too!