Fridge USB-BULB -- IceBoxChallenge by rr2s

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

I am very pleased that this project is in selection 20 finalists out of 193 for the challenge IceBox Firstbuild / makerbot . I want to thank those who you vote for me. Winners will now be announced at CES2015 the week of January 5, 2015.
While looking for an idea for my first FirstBuild (https://firstbuild.com/rr/usb-bulb/), the question which always came back to me was “ how to supply my products in my fridge".
I needed a simple and long-lasting solution. I wanted everyone to develop their own apps and especially not deteriorate the insulation. This solution will allow everyone to change the possibilities of our fridge.
The system must be scalable with a USB port in order to supply a Raspbery, an Arduino...
First of all, it will allow to connect the LEDs to get the light lost by this change.
So I thought : “why not to use the power already existing in our fridge?”
Many of fridges use E14 lamps.
I had an lamp out of service. I decided to start from that basis.
Please find below the required equipment :
1 E14 lamp
1 Iphone charger
2 printed objects
2 stainless steel screws M3
2 stainless steel nuts M3
Tools: hammer, tape, plastic bag, soldering iron, resin or glue gun.
I chose to use a Raspbery for the project.
For the electronic part, I have set up the following objects :
a sensor photoresistor to turn the light on while opening the door, leds are therefore connected to Raspbery
a temperature sensor DS18B20
a humidity sensor
a buzzer
For the programming part, I installed, in my fridge, an apache server, mysql, php (node.js could be good as well) which is a web server that gets the temperature, humidity and anytime soon pictures. To complete, I also set up an email warning if a high temperature occures.
The graph of temperature and humidity allows to follow the evolution on my computer, tablet or Iphone.
As for the buzzer, It rings when the door is left opened too long with the photoresistor.
The project described can be improved by setting up (or options):
a webcam which takes a picture of fridge when light turns on (thanks to the Photoresistor). By the way, pictures could be very useful when we are in a supermarket doing our shopping.
a voice command
a barcode reader
a small lcd
a switch USB with support
an ionizer
An RFID reader : the future products could contain their name, expiry date … so as to order (automatically) from a list created by default. It will alert us when the product passes the expiry date
Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FHPkq20k5E
With this solution even the oldest fridges can be connected and I reckon that this project can be the basis for the apps development.