2000-10-25

Introduction

Homework sucks. It's boring, time-consuming, and does not push the limits of our creativity or resources. Instead of choosing to do our homework right away, we opt to waste away our free (or not-so-free) time working on stupid projects. One day we hooked our computers' speakers together and setup surround sound. One day we plastered all my AOL CDs that come in the mail to the wall and made a totally shiny wall. October 24th and 25th, we worked on our remote-controlled, automatic door opener.

Mike's Vision

(=FR mikerode|Mike FR=) and I are both lazy. If we're on our bed or computer doing homework, we don't like to go and open the door whenever people knock. While (=FR eli|Eli FR=) and I were putting the finish touches on our hangman game one day, Mike began work on our door. He took apart a fan of his and taped it up all over the wall. He then took a few long rulers and tied them around the door knob, to give us more torque, and to make it easier on the motor. He tied a string to the rulers and wrapped it up around the fan axle. The result was Version 1.0 beta, a door that could unlock itself by plugging in the power to the fan and unplugging it

Remote Control Action

To turn 1.0 beta into version 1.0, I unplugged my blacklight from the remote control unit I had it on and instead plugged Mike's motor into it. We know had the motor on remote control. We stepped out of our room and immediately began giving demonstrations. Ever since, people have been coming from far and wide to see the spectacle that is Mike and Brad's door.

Version 1.0

Here are pictures from Version 1.0; the door that could unlock itself via remote-control.

Unlocking the door via remote control.

The motor, with its support--- the orange juice bottle.

The door in its unlocked state. We turn it off to lock it again.

Version 2.0

By now, Mike and I were already famous. People from other floors and other halls all came to see our door. Still, there was room for improvement. There's always room for improvement. The door didn't open itself, and when we came in, it was still dark in our room.

We fixed both these problems. Using trays from the cafeteria, and a gallon jug of spring water that Mike "found" outside our dorm, we setup a system of weights and strings that would open our door, and when the door was fully opened, would also flip the light switch up.

Version 2.0 has a gallon of water pulling the door open and a string that flips the light switch on.

Supply List

A lot of people have been impressed by the collection of crap that we threw together to make this contraption so listed below now are all the critical components that make up our automatic door opener:

• Fan Motor - Mike took apart his fan
• Hemp string - courtesy (=FR eli|Eli FR=)
• Shitload of Masking Tape - although duct tape would've probably worked better
• Library newspaper holder - aka "whoopin' stick". we didn't even steal it. we found it on the stairwell.
• Gallon of Pure Spring Water - some damn Cub Scout group decided to have a race outside our dorm at 8:00 am and had a "water station" right outside our window. Interestingly, Mike "found" some water later on that day. How convenient!
• Rulers - Leverage & support
• Orange Juice Bottles - support and counter-weights (when filled with water)
• Trays from the cafeteria - tracks, covers
• Home automation light remote control - the magic of it all