Motorized control of a blind

Abstract: Automated solutions such as robotic vacuum cleaners and smart lighting are gaining popularity, both in the home as well as in public environments. The purpose of this project is to investigate the possibility of using a microcontroller to, in a user-friendly way, control a blind and to implement a sound sensor to activate the mechanism. A stepper motor was used to drive the blind and control its position. The prototype was programmed to recognize a sequence of two claps within a specific time interval. To make the prototype more user-friendly a UI was implemented with an LCD-display and mechanical buttons. A menu was designed where the user would be able to change settings such as the sound level threshold and motor speed as well as calibrate the position of the blind. The performance of the prototype was evaluated by testing the audio recognition by attempted activation in a quiet environment and by recording accidental activations in a loud environment. The conclusions drawn from these test were that the sound recognition was implemented and operated with a success rate of up to 73 %, but that it also triggered relatively easily by extraneous sound sources. Future improvements to this problem could include implementation of a band pass filter to further optimize the sound recognition to the desired audio cue.