I Built INSANE Smart Home Gadgets Using Only LEGO®

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Woodworking Plans Banner

I've been building insane smart home gadgets using a ton of Lego robots I'll show you automated light switches door locks and they'll save the coolest gadget for last I automated the light switches first I didn't want new holes in the wall so I figured that the face plate bolts might be long enough to put through a technique beam and so engage the threads inside the housing turns out they're too short but luckily the Technic half beams are just right or I could have gotten longer bolts anyway from there I had to find a way to actuate the switch up and down to do this I used a medium EV3 motor and the linear actuator first I placed the motor directly in line with the linear actuator but that was too long I ended up putting the motor and linear actuator side by side and connecting them with these two 24 tooth gears as the motor rotates this slide raises or lowers to flip the switch the touch sensor I added here acts as an end of travel limit switch so the motor can initialize lastly I needed to find a place for the EV3 controller and this works perfectly finally I tested out the mechanism manually before jumping into making it a smart home Gadget the mechanical part worked really well and I'm at my goal of not getting in the way of manually turning the light on or off a second eb3 controller will be used to remotely control all of the smart gadgets via Bluetooth I programmed a menu system using these nested lists in Python that lets me choose which Gadget to control the menu looks like this I pick a room say office the type of Gadget is light switches there's only one switch and then the action of on or off when the master controller sends commands it lights up green and when the smart Gadget receives a command it lights up green so let's watch and see if this works here's on and tears off perfect now I can control any light switch remotely there's just one problem some rooms have multiple switches it would be cumbersome to put this on each of these switches I needed to scale up this solution first I prepared this frame and added a long chain and motor for picking the desired light switch just like last time these Technic half beams are what I use to hang the gadget from the faceplate bolts next I added the EV3 controller then they swapped out the linear actuator for a slide riding on the chain finally the touch sensor also wasn't needed anymore since both Motors could use their internal encoders to initialize by bumping against the hard stops at the end of their travel check out how this one turned out I'll pick switch 2 and turn it off yep that worked now I'll pick switch 5 and turn it on that works great you'll notice that the robot returns to an idle position after flipping a switch the idle position allows all the switches to still be manually turned on or off here's a shot with the lights coming on this one's all done and a huge success so single and multiple light switches are all covered and automatic door locks are next which went super fast I started by creating a simple frame with two Motors one motor engages the lock and one more twist the locks into the desired position I used a 36 tooth gear and Technic bricks to interface through the lock this worked but the motor also needed a hard stop on one side to initialize off of so I added round bricks and 1×4 plates to achieve that hanging a Lego frame from a door handle was easier than from a light switch faceplate the reason there's a motor that lifts the twisting mechanism into place is to meet the goal of being able to still manually open the door by turning the knob and also rotating the lock manually let's try it remotely here I'll remotely lock the office door now I'll unlock it wow that's totally awesome the door's not locked and now it's unlocked I won't dig into this smart sync too much because there's a separate video for it which you can watch on my Channel or by clicking the card in the upper right corner of your screen here I'll just highlight the new remote control functionality I can remotely turn the sync on or off with my master controller say I need to let the water run for a moment to get it hot now I can start that process from anywhere in the house easy right I'm working on building so many other Lego smart gadgets an automated dog food dispenser and a tennis ball thrower a robot that sets the table for one or more people automated blinds and more at your house what would you want to have automated comment below to tell me what it is and let me know your favorite Gadget from this video too smash that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any Lego smart home gadgets and the rest of my videos thanks as always

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

You May Also Like

About the Author: tech