Smart Umbrella Stand

March 2018

 

I. Motivation

Spring weather in San Francisco can be unpredictable. The sun could be shining bright when you leave the house in the morning, and a few hours later you're caught in a surprise downpour without an umbrella.

We built a WiFi-connected umbrella stand that pulls the weather report from OpenWeatherMap’s API. Its LEDs will glow if precipitation is forecasted within the next 10 hours. Placed next to the front door, it tells me if I should grab an umbrella as I leave the house.

 

II. Materials

  • Umbrella stand

  • ESP32 microcontroller

  • WS2812B RGB individually-addressable LED strips, waterproof

  • 3M VHB adhesive tape

  • Project enclosure

  • Assorted connectors, wiring

 

III. Circuit layout

 
 

IV. Code

 
 
 

V. Assembly

  • Four LED strips were cut to length and arranged to fit the umbrella-shaped cutout, then mounted to a flexible light diffuser sheet.

  • Automotive window tint film was applied to another light diffuser sheet, which was placed over the LEDs

  • Hookup wires were soldered to each LED strip. VCC and GND lines were connected to the breadboard power rails, while the four data pins were assigned to separate digital GPIOs on the Arduino.

  • The Arduino and Raspberry Pi were connected via USB and arranged inside a plastic project enclosure.

  • Power was provided to the Raspberry Pi using a micro-USB cable and wall adapter.

 
 
 
 
 

VI. Testing

[Insert video here]

 

VII. Conclusion and next steps

...

 

VIII. Acknowledgements

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