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Background: I'm looking to start on my first real electronics project and I have an Arduino Uno I bought a while back. I've only done a few of the starter Arduino tutorials and that was a while back as well. Starting from very little electronics knowledge, I'm trying to get a bit of advice on how to tackle my first project. TL;DR: I have an Arduino Uno but very little experience with it or electronics.

Project: I want an object that locks, I want the duration of the time it stays locked for to increase by ~1-3% every time it locks. I want to put my nicotine products in there to gradually pull myself off nicotine. I have designed a rough 3D model of the box, which I can 3D print so now I'm looking at the electronics. TL;DR: A box which stays locked for longer, every time it locks.

Electronics: A microcontroller/Arduino/Pi to increase the locking duration; a locking circuit and some form of power supply.

My 2 questions are

  1. Would the Arduino Uno be suited to this type of project?

  2. What sort of components should I be looking for for the locking circuit and power supply (I'm thinking some sort of solenoid actuator and a battery pack)?

dda
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Era
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2 Answers2

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It is a great occasion to use the Arduino!

There are many tutorials for the Arduino out there, so thats a good place to start. This forum is a good place to ask any Arduino related question if you need to do so.

The following contains MY OPINION

In my opinion, an Arduino Nano would be great for this project. It is really user friendly and can pretty much accomplish many things. A Pro Mini would be better, but seeing sa you're a beginner, stick with the Nano.

A good long lasting batteRY would be a simple USB power bank. It outputs 5V and has a lot of juice. For a locking circuit, a simple servo would work IF THE THINGS THAT IS IN THAT "SAFE" ISN'T 1M $$. A servo does a decent job as a lock.

Good luck!

Dat Ha
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Regarding your second question about what components to use, there are a couple arguments for a servo over a solenoid.

A solenoid in the energized state is relatively power hungry compared to a servo, which only requires any appreciable power while actually moving. Also, on power loss or interruption a servo fails as-is; a solenoid goes to the off position, which could cause an unwanted change of state for the lock.

allardjd
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