Made by @martin and @jakob
Goal:
A Donation Box that plays silly souds when donations are made.
What we used:
- Raspberry Pi 2B (for media playback)
- Arduino Nano (for sensor reading processing)
- VL6180 ToF Sensor (to detect donations)
- Some sort of amplifier and speaker @martin can tell you more about xD
We used @martins Prusa Mini to print a crude box that holds the donations and a fitting lid with cutouts and room for the ToF sensor. Afterward, an acrylic plate has been cut using @jakobs diy cnc. Below you can see it put together:
The VL6180 can detect which hole is used and send a specific command to the Raspberry Pi to play different sounds.
The printable files are uploaded on printables: https://www.printables.com/model/498817-donaionbox
The code is published in our wiki: https://wiki.technologiehub.at/en/projects/donation-box
Conclusion:
The box was successfully tested at Makerfaire 2023
The quick realisation of this project shows the potential of Technologiehub, when a couple motivated people from different fields work together against a common goal and make a cool, working project within a couple of hours.
If you have further questions and comments, feel free to write a comment!
Could you not mount a pienzo sensor at a 45 degree angle across half the boxes interior so when a coin is put in, it reacts to the stimuli and converts the energy into an electrical impulse which is sent to a controller where LED lights or a Speaker is triggered?
Problems with your design could include people setting off the sensor when they aren’t putting money in
Hi Riley! I’m sure your idea would also be an option, yes. But so far, we have tested the box on a few occasions, and it’s working without issues. If the concern is that the people don’t actually put money in it, yes, that can happen, we would indeed need a redesign. But also, the box is completely open and not locked, so there are quite some issues still (people could simply take the money out).
Thanks for the response – I’m a DT student in Year 11 doing GCSE’s right now, I came up with the idea noted above and searched up “piezoelectric donation box” for inspiration, do you think it would be possible to use your work in my coursework? Anything you could tell me about your findings related to supporting charities whether that be during research or issues you faced, that’d be so cool!