I am a huge sci-fi geek. A nut. Obsessed some might say! As my home evolves into a true ‘smart’ home I wanted something other than an old fashioned light switch, and about the same time, I found a model on Thingiverse for the Stargate Atlantis door controller – in theory these work by waving your hand in front to open the doors. Well, I don’t have any motorised doors (yet!) but I thought I could use this as a light switch instead 🙂
Printing the controller was pretty simple – I used black PLA for the main body and translucent PLA for the crystals (others have laser cut the crystals from acrylic for a more polished look)
So that done, now the fun part!
for the gesture control, I used one of these and to illuminate the crystals I used these leds
To fit the sensor, I drilled a 13mm hole in the front plate of my print, and another through to the back to thread the wires for the sensor and the LEDs through.
The control modules for the sensor and the LEDs were mounted in the back of the box and will be held in place with some hot glue.
The only downside here is that the LEDs require a 5v feed, so its an extra cable to run – not an issue for me for where I was mounting this, but bear it in mind – you may want to try [amazon_textlink asin=’B07Q9LK7L7′ text=’these ‘ template=’ProductLink’ store=’digit073-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’e5139dc8-1cb1-4b93-ac60-af7ee975c191′]instead.
***DISCLAIMER*** PLEASE always ask a competent electrician to help with any mains wiring – the module comes with instructions, and I am not going into details how mine are wired as every home will be different, and I do not want to be responsible for someone damaging their electrics, causing fires or even serious injury by attempting to emulate my wiring! Always check, double check and recheck your wiring!
Now I just need to work on an IFTTT function to change the colour of the LEDs when the lights come on. My lights are all hue lights so this shouldn’t be too hard to do.
Finally, a video of it in action: