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Final Project Journal

Project Ideation

1- Tell us about the idea of your project. Why do you care about this? What were you inspired by? Include images and videos of similar projects

my project is a smart piggy bank

to ensure me having my money safe

what inspired me to make it is my desire to save my money in a cool safe

and to lock it with a password

I inspired the design from the cash drawer used by cashiers
and I made a simple safe-like handle to combine the 2 designs together

Project Construction

2- Explain the CAD process of your project. How did you use the software to design your project? (List the softwares/tools/materials...etc that you used)

I inspired the shape from this cash drawer

from the beginning I decided to join the bodies using brackets

I started by drawing the ground

then designed the rear of the bottom box

made one side and copied it to the other side
and using joint feature I joined them to the rear part

the money box top has a lot of details as all components will be placed on it
I projected the components on it so I can have a clear vision on the final result

the front panel will be having the solenoid lock and holes for the handle

the front panel of the top part was joined usin t-slot

the designed one side and copied it to the other side and joined it with the front panel

then draw the rear part and joined it to one side

then designing the top and final part

placing the electronics on the enclosure

brackets placement inside the design

I designed the handle like that to make it rotate as in a real safe ,it's just decorative but I learned a lot designing it.

Screen Recording 2025-09-29 014849.mp4

a video of the design process , although beng a bit messy

Screen Recording 2025-09-28 155229.mp4

for designing and drawing I used fusion 360

I used grab cad to get the electronic components

3- Explain the fabrication process of your project. How did you use the machine to fabricate your project? (List the softwares/tools/materials...etc that you used)

Ultimaker Cura

to prepare the Stl files into Gcode for the printer

Laser waorks

prepare the .Dxf files for laser cutting

Fusion360

fusion for exporting the ,DXF files
and the .STl

First I exported every single panel as .dxf files with total of 11 panels using fusion 360 plugin

then I divided them into 3 projects in laser work to make them on the laser cutter

as it's all cutting it was set for cutting at speed 15 and power 65

the laser cutting process

video_٢٠٢٥٠٩٢١_١٨٤٤٥٢_18.43.45.mp4

video_٢٠٢٥٠٩٢١_١٨٥٩٣٦_18.48.15.mp4

video_٢٠٢٥٠٩٢١_١٩١٠١١_18.50.34.mp4

For 3d printed parts Firstly I exported them as an Stl from fusion 360

After that I sliced them in Ultiamaker cura

Project Electronics & Power Management

4- Describe your electronic circuit. What are the input and action components? What is the function of each? How do the components integrate together to form your smart system? (List the softwares/tools/components...etc that you used)

arduino uno r3
the main controller

Buzzer
output
to make a tone for the wrong password or the wrong one

crocodile wires
power management

Leds
output
red led to alarm with wrong password
green led for the right password

Jumper wires
power management

breadboard
power management

I2C LCD
output
to communicate with the user

and making the project more user friendly

3*4 Keypad
input
entering the password

solenoid lock
output
to lock the safe till the right password is entered

12v adapter
power source

220 resistors
power management

Relay
output
to control the 12 v needed for the solenoid

as the arduino is the heart and the brain for the project
I started by putting it and connecting it with
the keypad (input)

this keypad has 4 rows and 3 columns

each of them has its pin so 7 pins total

I connected the columns to the pins
2,3,4

and connected the rows to the pins
5,6,7,8

then I connected the I2c LCD

I2 c lcd has 4 pins
for powering:
vcc -> 5v
gnd ->gnd
for data :
SCL-> A5
SDA -> A4

separately I connected the solenoid lock (output) with the relay (output) to makea closed circuit

we connect the solenoid to the relay in series to let the relay work as a switch

here I put the the relay on arduino

, and on the othe side of the relay is the arduino related side
which has the vin and gnd for powering
and "in" for signal -> pin 13

As I will power the arduino using the 12v adapter
I did a little trick here for power management
I took the power source for the solenoid from the vin power output in the arduino and replaced the previous connection with this new one

As a result now I don't need 2 power sources for operating the arduino and the solenoid separately it's just 1 power source for both

here I connected the 2 leds with their resistors on the bread board
red led -> 10
green led -> 9

then connected the buzzer -> pin 11

here a video of the circuit operating
using the 5v from the laptop only
which is why the solenoid doesn't operate but the relay does

video_٢٠٢٥١٠٠١_١٠٢٢١٨.mp4

5- What is your power source? How did you select the suitable power source for your project? (List the softwares/tools/components...etc that you used)

for the power source I used the 12v 2A adaptor

since the solenoid uses 12v for operating correctly

and the arduiono can work in the range of 7~12 v

Project Programming

6- Describe the code of your project. How did you program each function of the project?

Starting with including the needed libraries
Keypad.h for keypad controlling
Wire.h to communicate with I2C devices
LiquidCrystal_I2C.h for communicating with the LCD

this Line for defining the LCD type an how many columns and rows it has

for determining how many rows and columns the Keypad has

for defining the keypad buttons

to define which pins are for columns and which are for rows

using a pre defined function within the keypad.h library

To know more about Keypads I recommend visiting This website as it where I learned how to use the keypad
and it really explained it well

Here I defined the password in a string variable

And made an empty variable the user entered password

naming the arduino pins as a more understandable names for
easier debugging

used const as it will remain the same till the project end

the setup function for defining the pin mode for each pin
intializing the LCD
setting the LCD cursor at row 0 column 0
and write "Enter Password"

we make the variable key to store the entered keypad value
using customKeypad.getKey() from the library

an if condition activates whe n a button is pressed
and a nested if condition to check which button is pressed
Starting with " * " to delete the entered value and restoring the "input" vriable to empty
and clear the LCD and reshow "Enter Password" once again

inside the main if condition
an else if to cjeck if the button pressed is " # "
if true it checks if the input equals the password

if it's true
it lits the green led and make a note using the buzzer
and opens the solenoid lock

if the input doesn't equal the password
the else activates the wrong pass word condition which leads to
the red led is let
and making 3 different tones with the buzzer
and off the led again
the lock remain the same locked

after 2 seconds
the input return to be empty

the LCD clears and reshow "Enter Password" once again

if not " * " or "#" then it means that it's a number
then we start taking numbers for the password
using the length function we set the password length for 4 digits
and after each digit entered the cursors moves one step back and writes " * " instead till 4 digits are written

Project Integration & Testing

7- Demonstrate with text and visuals how did you integrate the project’s modules together? What are the testing results? (Include a Demo video separately, showing a proof of functionality)

All what I needed for the integration

all components of the project

m3 screws and nuts

3d printed brackets

wood panels

safe handle

electronic components

Integration process

Bringing the ground pane and attach the brackets

Attaching the walls and the upper brackets

Starting at the top part

attaching the money box top panel

the brackets for the top part

putting the arduino

placing the relay

Finishing the money box

attaching the solenoid on the front panel
using 2 diagonal scews

join the groundand the front using hinge

attaching the safe handle
and the front panel of the top part

Connecting the main components

attaching the 3 -wall panels and joining them using the brackets
placing the bread board with the buzzer and the
2 resistors of the led
taking the power from the arduino
and connecting the buzzer to the arduino

placing the components on the very top panel
the 2 leds
the keypad
and the LCD

from the back
I used crocodile wires to connect the leds
connected the male-male jumpers to the keypad
placed the LCD using screws and nuts

Finishing the project

connecting the LEDs and the keypad to the arduino

connecting the LCD

sealing the top part

Video showing the safe at work

the features shown in this video
1. writing the password

2. delete the wrong written password

3. alarming for the wrong password using the buzzer and red led

4.openning the safe with soft toneand the green led

video_٢٠٢٥١٠٠١_١٥٥٥٠٤.mp4

Sharing & Collaboration

8- Did you ask for feedback? What are the ideas that others have contributed or suggested? What was someone else’s idea that you built upon? How did you help your peers? How did your peers help you?

Overcoming Challenges

9- When you got stuck, what/who did you turn to? At what point did you have to pause to research or learn more before moving on? What are some mistakes, pitfalls, or challenges that others can avoid if they were doing this project?

the first challenge I faced was how to program the kety pad and after searching , I found that there is a library for the keypad so I included it
and start using its functions what made it so easy
I found all things about the keypad HERE

the example which I copied most of the keypad programming from

the second challenge was about how to place my solenoid lock
as for safety I didn't want its screw heads to be shown
then my instructor Manar suggested if we make a handle to hide these screw heads

Future Work

10- If you had more time, what is one thing you would change/ Do next in your project?

If I had more time I'd add NFC reader to the safe

to let it operate without needing to input the password everytime

the same as shown in the picture

click on the picture

another feature is to link the safe with the phone using bluetooth module

to insert password or get alarmed when attempted to interact with the safe

Final Project Design Files

the program

Arduino program

Grabcad components

grabcad leds

LCD

arduino

breadboard

solenoid lock

keypad

Design files

design panels[DXF]

panels[rld]

safe handle [Stl]

brackets [Stl]

handls[Gcode]

brackets [G code]

the whole project

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