Published April 12, 2017

PIR Motion Sensor Camera Security System

Small IOT security system consisting of a PIR sensor and digital camera. Set the camera out to catch whoever walks by.

IntermediateFull instructions provided8 hours2,136

PIR Motion Sensor Camera Security System

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Photon

Breadboard (generic)

PIR Motion Sensor (generic)

Resistor 220 ohm

LED (generic)

General Purpose Transistor NPN

Key-chain Camera

Software apps and online services

ThingSpeak API

IFTTT Maker service

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Soldering iron (generic)

Story

The objective of this project was to create a device to capture the perpetrators that insist on leaving that fiery bag of animal feces on your porch or sneakily ringing the doorbell to get you off the couch for their entertainment. The motion sensor can be positioned a few feet away hidden in the shrubbery and the camera can be mounted above the door or even within a porch light for optimal concealment. Once the meddling kids run past the motion sensor the camera will be ready to catch their identity. Once the motion sensor is tripped and the event has been published a notification will be sent to your phone via an IFTTT (if this then that) applet, and you can retrieve the camera and view the pictures on any device with a USB port. If you already have children in the local school system you can confiscate their yearbook or sports team photos to identify the suspect; if not then you might need another means of capturing them or just posting a wanted poster around the neighborhood or on social media.

IOT Project Demonstration and Description

PIR Sensor Controlled by Photon

The PIR sensor (motion sensor) is the main component in the system, controlling the camera and outputting information to the ThingSpeak graph. The PIR sensor has 3 pins located on the bottom (ground, output, and V in); the power for V in is supplied by the Vin pin and the output is connected to the D7 pin on the photon. Once the PIR senses motion it sends a digital write of HIGH to the photon and publishes that motion has been sensed. Once the digital write has taken place the information is sent to ThingSpeak via a webhook integration in the particle console. Within the code there is an increasing count that will output a new total count number and graphs the number of times that the sensor has been tripped in a predetermined time interval. This time interval can be configured within the ThingSpeak channel being used and once the user wants to return the count to zero and start collecting data they can use the "clear channel" option in the channel settings page.

PIR sensor circuit

Camera Controlled by Photon

The camera is controlled by a particle photon, and two transistors. The transistors used for the project were 2N3904 NPN transistors. The transistors act as a switch on the camera, controlling the shutter switch and the mode buttons on the camera as shown in the picture below.

1 / 2 • Two wires are soldered to the connections for the shutter button and the mode button.

When somebody walks past the PIR sensor, an event is published which the camera's photon subscribes to. The photon then turns on the camera, takes one picture, and turns back off. One common ground must be connected to the photons ground and the negative side of the battery in the camera. The number on the small screen on the front of the camera displays the number of pictures that can be stored in the cameras memory. The camera can hold a max of 20 high resolution pictures. When a photo is taken, the number decreases to display how many more photos can be taken and stored in the camera.

1 / 3

The PIR sensor and the camera are housed in two separate containers so that the motion can be sensed before the camera captures a picture due to the small delay between the motion being published and the camera subscribing to the published event.

1 / 3 • These pictures were collected by setting up the security system in the computer lab.

Graphing with ThingSpeak

Graph using ThingSpeak

Utilizing the webhook integration within the particle console to send data to ThingSpeak provides the above graph. The Y-axis displays the running count of motions sensed and the X-axis displays the time intervals of the motions.

How-to on Creating a Webhook and Generating a Graph with ThingSpeak

How we set up Push Notifications with IFTTT

1 / 4

Getting notifications sent to your phone via push notifications, SMS, or email is easy with IFTTT! First create an IFTTT account then go to applets on your account. Select "new applet" and search for "particle" and click on the particle icon. Next click on the word "this" in blue and choose "new event published". Enter your criteria, similar to what we have above and select "create trigger" when done. Then select the word "that" and search for notifications. Next, select "send a notification from the IFTTT app", select "create", and then "finish". Now you should have a notification sent to your phone whenever the event you chose publishes.

References:

Cover Picture: http://img.memecdn.com/genius_o_2449587.jpg

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hacking-A-Keychain-Digital-Camera-for-Arduino-Cont/

https://www.hackster.io/snack-squad/snack-security-06cf91

https://www.hackster.io/gr1m/particle-photon-pir-sensor-and-event-reporting-268aa0

Code

int shutter = D7;
int mod = D1; //mode button on camera used to turn camera on/off


void setup() {
pinMode(shutter, OUTPUT);
pinMode(mod, OUTPUT);
Particle.subscribe("Camera", myHandler); //recieves signal from photon with PIR sensor 
}

void loop() {
delay(500);
digitalWrite(shutter,LOW);
digitalWrite(mod,LOW);
}

void myHandler(const char *event,const char *data){
    if (strcmp(data,"1")==0) {
      digitalWrite(mod, HIGH);// switches mode button to turn the camera on
        delay(300);
        digitalWrite(mod,LOW);
          delay(200);
        digitalWrite(shutter, HIGH);//takes picture
        delay(300);
        digitalWrite(shutter,LOW);
        delay(600);
        
        digitalWrite(mod, HIGH);//changes the mode to OFF
        delay(300);
        digitalWrite(mod,LOW);
          delay(200);
        digitalWrite(shutter, HIGH);//switches camera off
        delay(300);
        digitalWrite(shutter,LOW);
        
        Particle.publish("CamON","HIGH",60);
        delay(5000);
        
      
    }
}

int PIR = D7;
double count=0;
int var1=0;             
int last = 0;

void setup() {

pinMode(PIR,INPUT);
  // Subscribe to the integration response event
  Particle.subscribe("hook-response/PhotonMotion1", myHandler, MY_DEVICES);

}

void myHandler(const char *event, const char *data) {
  // Handle the integration response
}

void loop() {
     var1=digitalRead(PIR);
     
       if ((var1 == HIGH) && (last == LOW)) {  //basically just determining if motion has been sensed or not and if so inducing the count and publishes
           count++;                              //running count to send to ThingSpeak for graphing
            Particle.publish("PhotonMotion1",String(count),60); //publish command to trigger the data to be sent to ThingSpeak
            Particle.publish("Camera","1"); //publish that the other photon is subscribed to to capture a picture with the camera
            delay(10000); //10 second delay, make sure to have a long enough delay not to overload the console and trip things up
        
       }
       
       last = var1; //the other aspect of the count function to keep a running count ie. 1,2,3,4,5,6......
                    //you can reflash the code to reset the count
  }

Credits

Austin Morgan

1 project • 0 followers

Jon Lewis

1 project • 0 followers

PIR Motion Sensor Camera Security System

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Schematics

PIR Sensor Circuit Diagram

PIR Sensor Circuit Diagram

Camera Circuit Diagram

Camera Circuit Diagram

Code

Camera subscribe

PIR Sensor to Camera and Thingspeak

Credits

Austin Morgan

Jon Lewis

Comments

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PIR Motion Sensor Camera Security System

PIR Motion Sensor Camera Security System

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Schematics

PIR Sensor Circuit Diagram

PIR Sensor Circuit Diagram

Camera Circuit Diagram

Camera Circuit Diagram

Code

Camera subscribe

PIR Sensor to Camera and Thingspeak

Credits

Austin Morgan

Jon Lewis

Comments

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