Wiz Kitty

By: Ali Qureshey, Sariah Hurd, and Patricio Bello

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Introduction & Motivation

Going to the restroom is usually a very lonesome endeavor and sometimes scary. Would it be better to have a friend to support and comfort you through the most uncomfortable activity of the day? If this is something you like we recommend the only friend for you, the Wiz Kitty.

The idea of the Wiz Kitty was inspired by Japanese toilets which are made to make the process of doing your business as comfortable as possible by playing relaxing music and warming up the toilet seat, but the Wiz Kitty is almost the opposite of a Japanese toilet. It looks at you with its bright red eyes and swigs its arm around violently and creating a feeling of stress and anxiety. It is also a great prank to pull on your friends.

The way that the Wiz Kitty activates is by using a duel activation system in which there has to be movement meant in the area in which the motion sensor of the Wizz Kitty. The water level sensor then detects and activates because of an increase in liquid. When these conditions are met, the Wizz Kitty activates.

But be careful because sometimes the Wizz Kitty moves on its own.

Parts, Materials & Tools

Most parts on this list can be found in the ELEGOO UNO R3 Project Starter Kit. Other parts can be purchased from any hardware store.

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Components

x1 ELEGOO UNO R3 Controller Board

x1 830 Tie-Points Breadboard

x1 HC-SR501 PIR Motion Sensor Module

x1 Water Level Detection Sensor Module

x1 Fan Blade and 3-6V Motor

x1 Micro Servo Motor 9G (SG90)

x1 9V Battery

x1 Lucky Cat

x1 NPN Transistors (PN2222)

x3 Resistors (10Ω)

x18 Breadboard Jumper Wires

x6 Female-to-Male Dupont Wires

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Materials

x6 Feet Copper Electrical Wire

x7 Single Wall Heat Shrink Tubing

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Tools

Screwdriver set

Hot glue gun

Hand saw

Electrician wire cutters

Electrical pliers

Lighter

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Equipment

Computer

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Software

Arduino IDE

This is Video of Wiz Kitty

Circuit

The ELEGOO UNO R3 Controller Board will serve as the “brain” of the robot in which the code will be uploaded and processed. The ELEGOO UNO R3 will be connected to an 830 Tie-Points Breadboard which will act as the backbone of Wizz Kitty. The water and motion sensors will communicate directly to the ELEGOO UNO R3 and produce outputs connected to the breadboard.

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Programming

Attached below is the code required to run Wizz Kitty. Open the file in Arduino IDE and upload it onto the ELEGOO UNO R3 Controller Board. To do this, you must connect the controller board to your computer via the USB cable. Ensure the correct port is selected by going into Tools and Port in the dropdown menu.

It is not recommended to change the variables in the code unless you have experience or know what you are doing.

Build Circuit

One thing is to build the circuit either on TinkerCAD or Fritzing but the only true way to get familiar with the creation of the Wizz Kitty is by applying it in practice. The two most tricky parts about recreating the Wizz Kitty are the DC motor and the motion sensor. The motion sensor is tricky because it has a screw in the back that control the duration of time the sensor is on (right screw) and the distance at which the sensor detects movement of infrared light (left screw). The cable for the DC motor is complicated because if you don't wire it correctly with an NPN transistor, you only control the speed of the motor instead of when it turns off and on.

Wiring

When working on the wiring on the cat you will need some electrical wire pliers, a wire cutter, and 6 feet of copper wire. You want to attack the wiring like an electrical by piling the wire you bought and exposing the copper wire you can rap it around the Arduino jumper wires and then seal it with the shrink tubing when you expose it to fire with the liter. ( Be very careful not to burn yourself). You are going to do this for both the dc motor and the LED lights, this is to extend the length and strength of the cable so they don't separate or break. Next, drill some holes into the eyes of the lucky cat for the LED lights. Next glue the dc motor to the open area where the swinging arm is and glue the LEDs to the eye holes. Allow the cables and wires to run the inside body of the lucky cat so they reach the bottom. Close the lucky cat back up and place the base back on.

The base for the project can be made out of any basic mediums size box, similar in size to a shoe box. We use a box in our project to place the breadboard components and the power system of Wiz Kitty, but had to make three holes in the box. Two of which were on the side that the motion sensor could be exposed and the water level sensor could reach the bowl of the toilet. The third and final hole of the box was for the Wiz Kitty so that the cables could flow done into the box hiding them.

In the end, we were very pleased with the result of our work. The Wiz Kitty turned out much better than we ever imagined especially at the beginning of the project when we had the idea of it working with a proximity sensor instead of a motion and water sensor. Once we concluded that we were going with a dual activation of motion and water sensor the code was very simple, nothing more expensive than we had learned in class but applying it to the sensors.

Although, the biggest complication we ran into was the circuit I didn't really know the proper way of connecting either motion sensors or water sensors, and that was short-lived due to Youtube, figuring out how to connect properly the dc motor using a transistor was a pain. For a good period, the motor wouldn't work properly. It was always on, as long the circuit had power, and it was only just the speed at which the motor went when the system was "working". I then came to realize that I had connected the motor to the transistor incorrectly so once I fixed the ground and positive of the motor correctly the Wiz Kitty started to work.

There defined improvement meant that can be added to this project to make it even better like a speaker so that it would produce sound when it activates and overall a cleaner design with a better box. But we as a group are still extremely proud of our creation and enjoyed this project tremendously.

REFERENCE AND CREDITS:

This project was created for an undergraduate Physical Computing Course (ARC385) taking place at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto.

The videos at the top are what helped me understand how to use the motors and the sensors.

This website also helped:

Arduino Water Level Sensor Tutorial - The Geek Pub

GROUP MEMBERS:

Ali Qureshey

Sariah Hurd

Patricio Bello