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Arduino-controlled blinds: a tutorial

Alessandro PaganelliOctober 5th, 2012

Have you ever wanted a smart home that can automatically adjusts the blinds for you? If so, this project is for you.

In this instructable, the author describes his approach to “smart blinds”, by using an Arduino board, an ethernet shield, a motor shield and a couple of sensors.

By means of a simple web-based GUI, the user can manually open and close the blinds, or he/she can setup both temperature and brightness thresholds in order to automate the whole process. Finally, opening and closing events can also be scheduled at pre-defined times of the day, if necessary.

The complete tutorial, together with the source code of the project, can be found here.

[Via: Instructables and Lifehacker]

One Response to “Arduino-controlled blinds: a tutorial”

  1. Dan Whittet Says:

    This is the best example I have seen so far of using Arduino and other small “maker” projects to begin intefacing with the built environment in a very signifigant way. Would it be possible to write a program for a raspberry pi, for example, that would create a dynamic building light and temperature sensitive control system?
    LEED gives points for daylight that require mechanized shades. Passive solar strtegies designed around a device that anticipates light and weather changes….the possibilities are staggering.

    Nice work, now if I can find time to try this

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