SparkFun Forums

[Brandon.Gilligan]

What's up everybody! I wanted to see if anyone could give me some pointers on the direction I should take with my next project. I work for a new website called RFInspireD.com, we just did a soft launch about two weeks ago or so and are looking for people to try it out and give us feedback! We are an online database you can use for many things, a simple example would be using it to keep track of books in a library with a barcode scanner. I also recently built a SparkFun Weather Station that will send it's data to our website. Like I said there are tons of things you could use our service for, give it a look at our website! I am not here to promote the website however. My next project will involve an RGB light sensor and a kangaroo feeding machine. We need to have the light sensor send data to the website and from there send a text or notification of some sort to the parents phones. Commonly someone who has to use this device will use it while they sleep. During the night you toss and turn and if the machine stops working for whatever reason a different colored light will flick on informing the user to a problem. If this is your child and you don't check on them every so often they could go all night without getting fed. So what I was thinking is some industrial colored light sensors come equipped with a serial port. We can then connect an RS232 (serial to wifi) to the serial port. The data from the sensor will then be sent to the website where it will send a notification to the user when a problem occurs. I have worked with sensors, micro controllers, and RS232's before, but using industrial sensors and light will be a new venture for me. I would love to hear some feedback, whether that is negative or positive, and tips, tricks or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!