Elevator

The IoL City Station has two levels and needs a way to transport people between the platforms. Let’s build an elevator!

The basic idea is to use a motor to lift the elevator and a sensor to figure out when to stop it automatically. Because I had a spare ultrasonic distance sensor, that’s what I’m going to use. This does make it more complicated, but it’s a fun way to see how this sensor works. Another approach could have been to use infrared sensors on each level, but I’ve already used those sensors in previous projects so that’s boring.

The additional complication is that using motors is hard on microcontrollers, due to the heavy power load and interference it causes. I’ve decided to use an Adafruit motor shield v1 clone.

Finally, I want to start connecting all of these projects to a web interface. There will be some extra code to setup the web server and connect the circuit file. I will only lightly explain this, since a web search will probably provide more comprehensive instructions.

Goal:

• Move elevator between two floors
• Elevator should automatically stop at destination
• Control elevator from a web interface

Challenges:

• Ultrasonic sensor for elevator positioning
• Elevator motor mechanics.
• Elevator tower and coach construction
• Motor shield configuration
• Web API coding

Components:

• Raspberry Pi (or any NodeJS host)
• Arduino (I used an Uno clone but any will do)
• Adafruit motor shield v1 clone
  • 
• Ultrasonic Distance Measuring Sensor – HC – SR04
  • 
• 5v DC motor
  • 

Circuit:

First the motor shield will need to be installed. This shield does not make use of the digital pin 2, so I will use this for the ultrasonic sensor. I had to remove the header pin that would normally connect there so I could connect the sensor wire.

Install the motor shield and then connect the motor to the M4 connectors.

I’ve used an external 12v power supply that is plugged into the Arduino. This avoids too much power draw from the Raspberry Pi USB host.

Ultrasonic Sensor
5v DC Motor
Motor Shield

Code:

Initialize the board, the motor and ultrasonic sensor. The motor shield will need a special bit of code to get the configurations in there. The Johnny-fivemotor documentation is great at explaining what options are available and any special code needed to support your motor shield.

To use the ultrasonic sensor, the Arduino must be running PingFirmata as opposed to StandardFirmata used in previous projects. Again, the Johnny-fiveproximity documentation is excellent at explaining how to install this and what options are available with the various proximity sensors that are supported.

Basic Flow

• Create web server for API and web sockets.
• Initialize board and devices.
• Create elevator functions for up/down/toggle/brake
• Export commands for API usage
• Listen to sensor to stop the elevator at the correct position and prevent accidents
  • A smoothing algorithm will be used to reduce sporadic measurements

Filename

server.js
elevator.js

Now save and run your file.

npm init

npm install johnny-five events primus primus-emitter express http path --save

node server.js

You should now see the REPL on your screen and control the elevator by typing in any of the defined functions or device objects.

root@thethingbox:~/IoL# node server.js
120509902 Device(s) /dev/ttyUSB0,/dev/ttyACM0
120509983 Connected /dev/ttyUSB0
120513609 Repl Initialized
>> elevatorToggle()
Elevator Toggled
Elevator going down!
undefined
>> elevatorStop()
elevator stopping
Elevator Stopped
Non-braking motor type

You can now also control the elevator by simply putting the following in any web browser, where the IP address is that of your NodeJS host.

http://<em>192.168.0.4</em>:8080/command/elevator_toggle