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Lucho Peñafiel
Lucho Peñafiel

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I built a garage for my roomba with a ESP32.

A few weeks back, my partner showed me this image, and I thought, "Alright, I can tackle this. And maybe make it a bit fancier. Challenge accepted."

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Same IKEA box, different approach.

I purchased the same IKEA Hol side table, but I opted for a different strategy. The side door wasn't going to work for me because the vacuuming robot needs a clear path.

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Requirements and research.

To make it cool (and a bit challenging for a non-professional like me, just a hobbyist), I set three goals for this project:

  • I should be able to open/close the door using Alexa.
  • The system should be able to detect when the robot is leaving its base and open the door.
  • The system should be able to detect when the robot is returning to its base and close the door.

For the first goal, I used SincrinPro, and it was a breeze. Not a big deal.

To tackle the next two goals, after exploring options, I settled on using an Infrared sensor. This way, I can determine when the robot is in or out of its base.

Proof of concept.

At this stage, it was time to code and start validating the plan.

I must say it worked quite well. The only issue I ran into is that the robot leaves the base faster than the actuator opens the door, but that's okay. I can live with it. In future versions, maybe I'll try to get another actuator that works faster.

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Here you can find the code of this project.

Design and print the final PCB and the enclosure.

Once the system was tested and I was happy with it, I decided to design a PCB for it. This was my first time, so don't judge me. As I said, I'm not a pro, just a hobbyist.

After getting all the components mounted on the PCB, I designed the enclosure and 3D-printed it.

The final result turned out pretty good, and I'm more than happy with it.

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Top comments (1)

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dariocasciato profile image
DarioCasciato

Very nice article! Congrats for the working and very cool project!