Prototype
The only prototype we had was a cardboard box used as a makeshift bin. We assembled it and used it to test out (some of) our final bin’s functions.
For this prototype, we had only set up
- the electomagnetic lock
- light
- one ultrasonic sensor
- Arduino UNO R4 + bread board
The ultrasonic sensor was placed on the underside of the box’s lid. Once the ultrasonic sensor detected that items in the bin were less than 5cm from it, the bin would be considered as full. This would cause the electromagnet to lock and the light to light up, signalling that the bin is full.
This prototype reflects our initial idea of placing sensors on the underside of the bin’s lid, and detecting the height of trash in the bin to determine whether its full or not. We eventually scrapped this idea, favouring a ‘beam break’ approach to the ultrasonic sensors instead. You can read more about our progress over the weeks under “Development“!
After this prototype, we moved on to constructing the actual bin used as our final product, which you can view here.