Diy Smart Blind Stick Using Arduino

Hi, friends.

How are you?

I hope you are fine!

Today in this instructable we are going to make a smart blind stick for visually impaired persons.

Have you noticed blind people?

Their life is full of risk. They can't walk without the help of others.Their life always depends upon others. Let's make something for them.

Yesterday when I'm walking to my college a blind person who walking through the street. He is facing difficulty in walking on that busy street. Fortunately, i can help him at that time. At that moment, I thought i also need to do something for blind people. In the evening of that day, i come up with this idea, The smart blind stick. My aim is, it can be cheap and too easy to make. Even a kid can make it easily in a couple of hours from scratch.

Using this smart blind stick, a visually impaired person can walk without anyone's help. The smart blind stick automatically detects the obstacle in front of the person and give him a response to the person by vibrating the stick and also with a warning sound.

Through this, the blind person can aware about the obstacles in front of him.

I used Ultrasonic sensor for detecting the obstacles. It cost me just 10$ to make one.

So, it is cheap and also it is easy to make no need of much soldering.

Keep reading to find out how to make!

Firstly we need to collect all the parts that we needed

Here are the parts you need to collect:

• An Arduino Uno.
• An Ultrasonic sensor( HCSR04 ).
• A Mini breadboard.
• A 9-volt battery.
• A 9-volt battery connector.
• DC male power jack.
• A Buzzer.
• Some Jumper wire.
• A Broken cell phone from scratch.
• A Toggle switch.

Other tools and parts used in this project:

• 3/4 inch diameter PVC pipe (used for making the stick).
• 3/4 inch diameter PVC elbow.
• Insulation tape.
• Some small screws for mounting Arduino.
• Screwdriver.
• Utility knife.
• Instant adhesive Glue.
• A Box to Put your Arduino and other electronics, or think about it later.

I think that's all we needed.

After collecting all the parts that we needed, let's go to the next step!

First, we need the vibrator motor. Find a broken cell phone.

Do this step with care and patients.

I used a micro vibrator motor from an old broken cellphone that lying around my home. The reason for i used this, it is very small in size and almost works with low voltage.

Unscrew the cell phone and disassemble all the parts like shown in the above images. you can see the vibrator motor placed a side of the phone's case . Take out the motor carefully from the cell phone.

Please note: different cellphones have different vibrator motor (in size and shape).

Now solder the motor on a small piece of general purpose PCB, Then solder two wire to the terminals of the motor like shown in the above images.

now we got the vibrator motor.

Now it is time for wiring the Arduino!

See the above schematics and carefully connect all parts to the Arduino.

I used a mini breadboard to connect the ultrasonic sensor to the Arduino using jumper wires.

The other parts like buzzer and motor is directly connected to the Arduino.

It is pretty easy does not have complicated wiring.

You can see the wiring diagram from the above image. here i will explain by parts:

• Ultrasonic VCC to Arduino 5v.
• Ultrasonic GND to Arduino GND.
• Ultrasonic TRIG to Arduino D12.
• Ultrasonic ECHO to Arduino D11.

• Buzzer RED to Arduino D8.
• Buzzer BLACK to Arduino GND.
• Vibrator motor pin 1 to Arduino D7.
• Vibrator motor pin 2 to Arduino GND

• 9-volt battery RED to Toggle switch pin 1.
• 9-volt battery BLACK to DC male power jack(-).
• Toggle switch pin 2 to DC male power jack (+).

Now we finished the wiring!

Now its time for uploading the sketch.

The sketch for the Arduino is given below, copy this into your Arduino IDE, then upload into your Arduino.

#define trigPin 13

#define echoPin 12

#define motor 7

#define buzzer 6

void setup()
{
pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT);

pinMode(echoPin, INPUT);

pinMode(motor, OUTPUT);

pinMode(buzzer,OUTPUT);

}

void loop()

{

long duration, distance;

digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);

delayMicroseconds(2);

digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);

delayMicroseconds(10);

digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);

duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);

distance = (duration/2) / 29.1;

if (distance < 70)// This is where checking the distanceyou can change the value

{

digitalWrite(motor,HIGH); // When the the distance below 100cm

digitalWrite(buzzer,HIGH);

} else

{

digitalWrite(motor,LOW);// when greater than 100cm

digitalWrite(buzzer,LOW);

} delay(500);

}

I used a PVC pipe for making the stick.

If you have a walking stick lying around your home use that , else follow this step.

Take a look the above images to make the stick.

I used a 3/4 inch diameter PVC pipe and an 'L' shaped elbow for making the stick.

I will describe you in the word to make one:

• First take a PVC pipe( 3/4 inch diameter), then cut a piece of one and a half meter.
• Take an 'L' shaped elbow and attach it one of the ends of the pipe.
• Take another small piece of PVC pipe (10 cm long), then attach it the other end of the elbow.
• simply glue it.

I'm wrapped the stick with a black insulation tape. No specific reason for that i like black color :)

Now its time for fixing everything on the stick.

This is the hardest step in this project. It took me hours to design and fix the parts onto the stick.

Find a box yourself that we can use to put all our electronics together. I used foam board to make a box myself.

You can also simply do that(i think you don't need an explanation for that).

Fix your Arduino in the box, use screws for a strong fixing . Give two holes for fixing Ultrasonic sensor on the closing lid of the box as shown in the above image. I fixed the buzzer outside of the box for a clear sound also fixed the toggle switch a side of the box and a small hole for connecting vibrating motor to Arduino. Fix the battery inside of the box and connect the power jack to the Arduino.

Mount the Ultrasonic sensor on the closing lid of the box. Fix the buzzer on the top of the box.

take out the vibrator motor to the outside of the box (we need to fix it on the stick's hand)

See the above pictures how I'm put together all the parts.

Now Attach the box to the stick. you can either use screw or glue. Here i used an instant adhesive glue because it is very strong.

After attaching the box to the stick take out the vibrator motor and fix it below the elbow. i used insulation tapes to fix the motor.

We made the smart blind stick, make more features in the smart blind stick and contribute something yourself for humanity.

Bring more automation ideas to help others.

HAPPY MAKING :)