Building a HomeKit compatible laser trip wire with #CircuitPython @particle @adafruit @_1enin_
Via Moving Electrons comes a really nice laser trip wire which provides status via WiFi. And the project is programmed easily in CircuitPython. But the project really had us ar “laser”.
As opposed to the more common infrared motion detection, there aren’t many options for detecting movement by interrupting a line of sight between two points. There are some alternatives that use infrared diodes, but those are limited by a maximum distance of just a few inches/feet between the emitter and the receptor.
This project attempts to solve that limitation by using a regular laser emitter and a photo transistor as a receptor, so that the maximum distance is only dependent on the laser’s output power and your ability of aiming it to the photo transistor from afar. Once motion is detected, a notification is sent to Apple’s HomeKit framework via Homebridge, through a WiFi connection. That way, iOS devices can be setup to receive a notification through the Home App.
See the blog post for details and the CircuitPython code. A video of the project is below.
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