Automatic Door

Date started: February 2021, Freshman year of college

As opening our door became too much of a hassle, and frankly, my roommate locked himself out of the room too many times, I had an idea to make our door automatic. I grabbed my wood clamps, grasped them to the door handle, and tried to see how much force it would take to open the door. After many hours of trial and error, I ended with this.

Here is the Arduino running inside. The power from the motor is powered by an old phone charger I bought at Goodwill, and is being controlled with an H bridge chip.

Version 2 will include a pin pad for entry. Here is a video of the circuit working on a different Arduino (not hooked up to the door).

When an incorrect pin is entered, the led will flash red, and the speakers will make an aggressive "this is the wrong pin" sound. When the correct pin is entered, however, the led will flash green, and a doorbell sound will play. I now have a few bugs to work out and additions to add to this until it will be implemented on my door.

Update! Version two has started!!!

I designed in SolidWorks, and 3D printed, a box to house the buttons and LEDs. Here is a video of a password working with the new box.

Here are some images of the CAD files, and the inner workings of the box.

The next step, is to build a similar housing on the inside of the door. This will incase the Arduino, another speaker, and a stepper motor. I am switching to a stepper motor because they provide much more toque, as the previous motor was barley strong enough to open the door, and would sometimes get stuck.

The next step has happened! Check out how it all came together!

Here is what the inside box for the door opener looks like, along with a CAD drawing (I apologize for the bad angles!). You can see the stepper motor in the middle picture.

Here are some videos of the new door opener in full operation!

People caught wind of my door opener at MSOE, and had me showcase the door opener, along with my room, in a sweet little video! Here is the link to the video that MSOE made. (This video was made my sophomore year, when I was an RA in Viets Tower. I made the original door opener(s) when I was a resident in MLH my freshman year)

If you made it this far, maybe you want to check out the source code!

Fair warning, I made this code as a Freshman in College with little embedded systems experience at the time, so it may not be the most efficent or best looking code you have ever seen.

However, that was not the point of the project. The point was to see if I could open my door without carying my key with me!