GMU:The Conceptual Sensor/Meike Halle

Modern Housing

The Idea

Since i was primarily working on a light- control- circuit for another Modul while we where in the course, i thought about doing this also for my last projekt in our electronics class. After i tried for a month my best to get my intended light- controlling- system working with just "hardware" and without any programming involved i had to gave up and just programmed it instead. But with this, 2 weeks befor our initional presentation date for the electronics class, i had nothing to show, since i didn't wanted to show some programming in such an electronics class.

And since each man should "make a child, plant a tree and build a house"in his lifetime, i took the experiences i gained from experimenting with the light- controling- system and used them to fullfill this saying.

How to build a house in less then 2 weeks

Bevore someone could possible plant trees or get a family you propably should first build the house since it will be the home for everything.

So...how could i build a house? And not just any house, i wanted a cool house. But...not to big at the same time, my housekeeper would kill me if there would be a new house standing in our garden...and i somehow had to transport it to weimar to show it there... So...it had to be small, cool looking and packed with nice features.

After thinking about LEGO, paper, little rocks and wood sticks i finally came to the concluson that i don't have enough time left to experiment first and i also wasn't really happy with me ideas before. So i went to my cupboard of wonders as i like it to call since there i store nearly everything. From broken and working electronics, to crafting material and just stuff i thought " you could need this later on" and searched there for something useful. What i found was a model construction set for a little house, some plastic foil and some LEDS and electronic componements.

So first i buit the outer walls of the house and got the window frames it the modell and used the plastic foil as windows. The doors and one of the ceilings i left open since i still had to install all of the electronics.

How to make your house a cool house

After building the construct of the house i thought about what to actually install in it. In the end i decided for 4 major componemets each modern house should or would have and one little extra, since our presentation date was shortly before christmas. 1. A door bell 2. An Alarm for the back door 3. A working chimney 4. Lighting 5. A christmas tree

I also decided to make the circuits for all of them on 2 seperated bread boards and to power each of the boards seperately with a 9V battery. First to make it a bit easier for the batterys and that they will life a bit longer and second that i wont get any interfereance and "bugs" with the 2 boards. Then i also thought that putting the both sound producings circuits on one and the other 3 circuits on the other board would only be logical and so i did it.

this is the circuit digramm of the both sound circuits. On the left is the circuit for the alamr bell. Basically its a simple 555 timer in astable Mode and i used the different Resistors to get a low humming sound pretty similar to some older door bells. after making the circuit i also installed a bell-button next to the front door of my house. therefore i drilled a small hole and made a normally open switsch wich u can close by pushing the bell button with your finger.

The other circuit on the right is a sound modulation with 2 555- timers to get a loud and high pitched alarm sound as an alarm system for the back door of my house. I also installed a switch with 2 open wires, which would be closed if someone would open the back door.

This is the digramm of the second bread board on wich are on the left top the little circuit for the christmas tree. Basically a little tree with some LEDS, in row and a resistor,in it to let it glow up.

On the left bottom we have the circuit for the working chimney. First I thought about some kind of some moving cotton coming out of the chimney but then i found some glitter in my cupboard of wonders and liked the idea of throwing glitter around in room 201 much more fun then just some lame cotton. So i first made the circuit for a 555 timer in monostable mode. Then i installed 2 wires on the balcony of my house where one later could pour water on the balcony to activate the circuit, which then would activate an airpump inside of the chimney to blow out the glitter stored in the chimney.

Last we have on the right the circuit for the lights of the house. I wanted that the windows of my house would lit up automatically when its geting dark outside, just like one would expect from a normal inhabited house. So i made a darkness sensor with a photocell i installed in the ceiling of my house and a hanging LED inside of my house. I also glued some aluminium foil on the inside of my house to strenghten the light effect of the little led i put in it.

How to make a garden and plant a tree

After installing all of my electronics i asked myself how to make a stand and a nice environement for my little house.

So i went again to my cupboard and found some old aluminium plates which i then cut into a round plate to place my house on and a long strip of aluminium which i then folded into a stand in which i also could hide the electronics. After i put the stand together i cut out some modell gras to cover the aluminium plate.

I also bought some modell gravel to make a nice little path to the doors of my house.

After that i made some modell trees and installed the LEDS in one of them to make my christmas tree and glued all of them to the gras of the garden.

Somewhere i would love to live

This is the finished product and i have to admid, expecialy in the evening when the house stands next to you on your desk and loghts up it looks just so cozy i would love to live in it.