Plumbing valves make nice heavy obligation analog inputs

Most of your Arduino tasks would require inputs and buttons are all the time the plain selection. However many of the buttons and switches available on the market meant for low-voltage DC tasks are fairly delicate. That makes them unsuitable for functions that want to resist heavy-handed use. YouTuber Alistair Aitchison of Playful Know-how designs interactive puzzles for escape rooms and is aware of a factor or two about constructing sturdy interfaces. He got here up with an attention-grabbing approach you can steal, which repurposes plumbing valves as analog inputs.

Plumbing valves like the sort proven within the video include both knobs or levers that step by step open inside gates to extend water circulation. Like a variable resistor, they permit for a lot of “values” (water circulation charges) between LOW and HIGH (closed and open). One may measure the water circulation charge by way of a valve related to the kind to get a price, however that’s difficult and messy. Alistair’s technique is way extra elegant: measure gentle depth by way of the valve.

This setup could be very easy: place an LED at one finish of the valve and a photoresistor on the different finish, with the openings sealed to stop the intrusion of ambient gentle. The depth of the sunshine that reaches the photoresistor will increase because the valve opens. By measuring the resistance of the photoresistor along with your Arduino’s analog pin, you get a price proportional to the valve’s openness. Should you solely want a fundamental on/off change, you’ll be able to set a threshold worth someplace in that vary.The way you select to make use of these plumbing valve inputs is as much as you, however they’ve many functions — even outdoors of escape rooms. They’d work for the whole lot from stereo quantity management to very cool sensible gentle dimmers, so your creativeness is the one restrict.