This week I primarily focused on working with the locking mechanism and started with some basic Arduino code to familiarize myself with the board. Unfortunately, I realized that the tailpiece of the exterior-facing lock cylinder is in an awkward position to be operated on by the motor. I had originally wanted the motor and the lock tailpiece to interact naturally, but I’ll have to make modifications to either the tailpiece or look into a stronger or different motor (one with more rotational power, perhaps). On the Arduino front, I’ve been doing some basic code compilations to make sure the main pins and ports on the Arduino Uno function correctly. I’ll look into hooking more components up to it next week.
Open issues: figuring out a solution to the locking problem. I’m fairly certain I can adapt the current design as it stands to make it work, but I’ll do some more research into lock tailpiece alternatives and stronger motors. I’ve attached a picture to show what the situation currently looks like.
Next week will be finalizing my locking mechanism solution and getting the Arduino to output signals to a breadboard. With spare time, I’d like to look into how an Arduino interfaces with a Raspberry Pi and potentially look into cutting out the middleman.
Pictures: locking mechanism, basic Arduino setup (breadboard not pictured).
