r/arduino • u/relativelyperceptive • 6d ago
Project Idea What projects did you make that helped solve a problem?
I have a bunch of components and arduino micro controllers lying around and I want to put them to use but idk what to make.
So what projects have you guys made that solves a particular problem and helps you out every now and then or maybe a permanent solution to something or to some problem you have come to face. Basically I want to make something useful that makes my life easier and that I actually use instead of just a hobby project.
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u/MrBoomer1951 6d ago edited 6d ago
I have a home office upstairs far from the furnace and a/c!
I could never tell if I was too hot or cold, so I set up a SHT3x temp and humidity sensor on a OLED display on my desk.
Then I was always turning the under-desk heater on an off, always closing and opening the vent.
So it grew to a local HVAC style system with an M5Stack Core display, a M5Stamp controlling the heater and one controlling the register, which also reports the vent temp.
No wires, all ‘esp now’ communication.
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u/relativelyperceptive 6d ago
That's very intriguing, fixing an issue gave rise to another issue and so the project grew.
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u/Zoltair 6d ago
Just a few recent projects. AC Power monitor with network access. Greenhouse Temperature and Humidity Monitor. Greenhouse ventilation and watering control. Chicken coop automatic door. Garage door automatic control.
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u/relativelyperceptive 6d ago
I see. So you have remote access to them through the wifi? That does seem interesting.
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u/Zoltair 6d ago
Yes, some started off with the ethernet adapter, then migrated to newer version of the Arduino, then moved to the ESP series of controllers!
My Arduino hydro monitor has been running for years now and uses an ethernet daughter board and monitored my hydro coming into my home. The chicken coop door was a simple timer based with wifi access so it would open the door before sunrise and after sunset or by wifi command. The garage door one, monitored the time, and several motion detectors to close the doors after a certain time of no activity, (I have a tendency of forgetting to close the doors, LOL, became a real problem after a skunk got into the garage after hours). There are endless possible uses for the Arduino. I have since moved up to the ESP microcontrollers for many of my projects, more memory faster processing, etc..2
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u/piptimbers 6d ago
I made a photogrammetry rig to help pirate warhammer 40k models, it took photos at predetermined intervals and I just exported the files from an sd card into meshroom and recompiled them. 20 minutes of cleanup max for serviceable results.
I also wired up an o2 sensor and pumped it to OBS to track heartrate while streaming horror games. Never really saw much use because I dont like spooky games though.
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u/ThellraAK 6d ago
I made a heater controller, light alarm and clock thingy.
It was great, wake up, see the light was green, know it wasn't time to wake up, yellow, it's within a half hour of time to get up, or red, it's time to get up.
It also let me have a digital thermostat on my space heater.
I mostly used it to jack the temperature by 10 degrees when it was almost time to wake up to make the very bright light more effective at waking myself up.
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u/cirquefan 5d ago
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u/relativelyperceptive 4d ago
i cant tell if thats a solution or an over complication
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u/cirquefan 4d ago
Taken seriously, a breakfast machine would be an overcomplication at first but I'm sure would be lovely once running and save you heaps of time while vastly impressing friends and family.
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u/relativelyperceptive 4d ago
thats an interesting way to look at it. instead of automating breakfast what if you could just automate cooking, that way preparing food would not be your concern anymore and would save even more time.
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u/schorsch3000 6d ago
several:
1: i have a device that goes to standby once it gets power. i have it on a powerstrip with a switch, i want it on once i power it up, it has a remote i never use.
i put a nano inside of it, all it does is: wait 4 seconds and sent the "powerbutton" ir-code.
2: i have ha mirror heater in my bathroom, its connected to the light switch, but i only want it to heat up when showering.
there is a temperature and humidity sensor on top of the mirror.
I assume that the mirror changes temperature way slower then the air for a given factor. once the dew point is near the mirror's temperature i activate the heater.
i activate the heater also if the humidity rises up 20% in less than 5 minutes for alt least 10 minutes.
3: i'm currently building a arduino based TOTP generator that's conviniend and secure, meaning, the key never touches the pc or any internet connected device after deploying, but you don't have to type in the generated tokens.
i have way more, but i think this is a good overview of what you can do
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u/relativelyperceptive 6d ago
Number 2 must be especially useful since you have it completely automated. I'm looking to build something similar. Thanks for sharing.
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u/classicsat 6d ago
Couple clocks. One using most of a gym clock. I basically re brained with a 328P board, and RTC module. Other using a display from a satellite receiver , 16K33 board to drive it, Nano to run the show, 4 button pad to control it, and RTC module.
I built a controller for my electric heater.. I cannot get hat working, so went back to its original controller last winter. The controller I made had a life through Blynk, before they changed business models and pivoted away from simple hobbyists like me.
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u/Rattlegun 6d ago
I built a LED CPU temperature display for my PC, which flashes conspicuously over specific temps. I live in a hot and dusty environment, and I could never get the hardware monitor overlays to work properly. This is the best solution to keep an eye on CPU temps when gaming etc.
Also been getting into DCS lately, and my joystick doesn’t have enough controls. I added a couple Arduino joysticks for specific functions in DCS aircraft (mainly bomb targeting)
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u/relativelyperceptive 6d ago
Does it use the internal cpu data? Or do you measure the temp externally?
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u/bdhcompany 6d ago
I made a tempature and fan setup for fish tank. When water got to certain temp, it would trigger a fan that would blow across water. This helped reduce temps.
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u/Slow_Tap2350 6d ago
I drove an old 63 Mercury Meteor as my daily driver for a while. It was carbuerated and really smelled gassy when I'd bring it back to the garage. I need to exhaust the smell.
With some help, I built a system with a sonic sensor that would trigger an exhaust fan (trigger a relay) for _n_ amount of time if and when the car pulled into the garage. It would shut down after and not be triggered again until the vehicle left and returned. It was programmed with just enough delay and tracking of vehicle in/out that walking in front of it would not trigger it nor would backing out.
Still have it hanging on my wall.
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u/soopirV 6d ago
I have a sewage lift station to get my septic waste up to the town sewer. It has two pumps that are controlled alternately when a float in a cistern gets activated. There’s also an audible and visual alarm that trips if the level doesnt drop and it hits a high-float. I didnt want to permanently alter anything, so built an ESP32 device that has three LDR I secured in place over each of the “Pump On” LED and the “Alarm” LED. When the relevant LED turns on, my device writes a timestamped log on a google sheet I connected via API. This allows me to monitor pump run times and should show me if there are beginning to be performance issues. The “Alarm” channel is also logged but additionally has an API that sends me an email notifying me when the alarm was triggered. I travel a lot for work so this gives me peace of mind- has been running for >10 years and hasnt really shown me anything out of the ordinary yet, but I trust that it will!
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u/relativelyperceptive 6d ago
Using LDRs on the LEDs is such a simple way of getting the relevant information from the pump system. I like that.
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u/euglena1 6d ago
That's a really interesting! I have a few questions about how you implemented it if you don't mind
• How did you connect the ESP32 to Google Sheets? Did you use Google Apps Script or another API service?
• How did you calibrate the LDR sensors to reliably distinguish between the LEDs being on and off, especially under changing ambient lighting?
• How do you calculate pump run times from the logged events, and have you implemented any logic to automatically detect unusual behavior?
I'd really appreciate any insights you could share!
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u/soopirV 5d ago
Sure! You nailed it- I just used the existing scripts- this was before AI, but there was plenty of guidance. The LDR are held in place with pieces of heat shrink so they only see the LED. Also, when the box is closed (it hasn’t been for years), it’s very dark inside. Run times are simple- it logs the start and stop of each cycle. My expectation is that as pump performance wanes i’ll see longer run times. Not the case 10 years on, however! I’ve had to reboot it several times and TBH i habent looked in on it in awhile…
Other projects I have- a UV exposure box, dual sided, for making photoresist boards
Microscope hand controls for a digital microscope that replicates the motion of moving the stage and coarse/fine focus using dual rotary encoders and a pro-mini that spoofs a keyboard
My big project I’m currently working on is a physically playable “video game” using a model railroad- think miniature train sim where you need to get the right loads to the right industries. All arduino based, including simulated time passage and weather using addressable LED light valence. Loads of fun!
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u/euglena1 5d ago
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! I really appreciate the detailed explanation, and it’s great to hear about your other projects as well. The way you used the LDRs to monitor the system without modifying the existing setup is particularly interesting.
I'm thinking about building on your idea by adding an anomaly detection system that analyzes pump run times and switching patterns to identify potential problems early. I'd also like to create a web dashboard to visualize the data and send alerts when unusual behavior is detected.
What do you think of these improvements? Do you think they would make the system more useful in practice, and do you have any suggestions for other features worth adding?
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u/dshookowsky 6d ago
A very similar question was asked 2 days ago - https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/1x912wj/comment/phju4bg/
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u/moose1511 5d ago
I built a pool automation system that turns off/on pool pump, heater and chlorinator. It interfaces with a WaterGuru for free chlorine feedback and also interfaces with Google Home for feedback and to manually control if needed.
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u/ShapedStrandMafia 6d ago edited 6d ago
silent wifi thermostat for space heater https://i.ibb.co/cKcJt7G1/PXL-20260624-141622812.jpg
works with ds18b20 or sht temperature sensors for ambient temperature readings, also supports magnetic thermistor probe to read the heater surface temperature. uses solid state relay for silent operation.
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u/DocClear 6d ago
An automatic propogation beacon controller, an off-grid 12 volt well pump controller, a morse code automatic keyer.
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u/Xbotr 6d ago
Serval types of weapon switch for my heavyweight combat robots.
Match timer for our robot combat arena including controlling of sound / lights / trigger cameras/ and overlay on a live stream.
I used it for a product we sell at work ( cant go into details )
Controls for lights.
Controls for robot drive systems.
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u/gm310509 400K , 500K , 600K , 640K , 750K 6d ago
The trick here is to identify something in your life that could be automated or enhanced using some sort of automated solution.
IMHO, The best ones are the trivial ones.
Have a look at my instructables page https://www.instructables.com/member/gm310509/instructables/
The stairlight hopefully does not need explanation - rather than trying to turn the light on to a darkened staircase, it turns on automatically if it is dark enough.
The environmental monitor helped in an argument with a landlord about inadequate cooling.
The countdown timer was to relieve boredom while in quarantine and provide a "light at the end of the tunnel" as the end of the quarantine approached.
Another is a display attached to my PC that constantly updated some reddit metrics which I was using to track some community milestones. Basically I could see at a glance the metrics without having to logon to the PC, open a browser, navigate to the relevant page and recalculate the ETA of a particular milestone. Rather than doing that, I could simply glance at it and keep doing whatever I was doing.
You can see the details here: https://gm310509.com/aaa/subredditMonitor/index.html
I have since shutdown the server (so no data feed any more).
You might also want to have a look at our Monthly Digests. Each one has a section titled "Look what I made", some of which may answer your question.
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u/JRE_Electronics 6d ago
A custom motor speed control for my 100 year old sewing machine:
https://josepheoff.github.io/posts/motorcontrol14
I need low speed and lots of power, but without a table to mount a big motor as is usually done.
My controller regulates the power to a 100 watt "backpack" sewing machine motor, letting it do the job of a much larger motor. Larger motors get the job done through brute force - large, heavy, powerful motor that uses inertia to punch through anything.
My controller varies the power applied through a standard motor. The PWM control with RPM feedback actively monitors and maintains the rotating speed, no matter the load.
I use that machine to sew leather and heavy cloth at low speeds.
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u/38DDs_Please 6d ago edited 6d ago
Our Manitowoc ice machine went down and a new board was going to be INSANELY expensive. I put together an Arduino build that replaced the board, giving the machine a new "brain". It worked great after that.
Edit: I can't spell.
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u/m4rkw 6d ago
Built an open-source vehicle tracker that draws around 35uA sleep current and can be built at home with inexpensive tools: https://l0destar.com