Laser alarm with Arduino

An introductory activity for creating and programming circuits with Arduino. The objective is to build a simple door alarm using a laser beam.

Plan for the door alarm

What do we need?

Every student team will have:

  • One Arduino Uno or compatible board with a USB cable for connection with PC
  • One light sensor with digital output
  • One buzzer
  • One laser module
  • One breadboard
  • Jumper wires
  • A PC or laptop with Arduino IDE installed

Connecting the wires

Before proceeding to the actual connections, every student team completes the following worksheet, drawing the connections using markers, according to the instructions.

Worksheet – connectionsΛήψη

When each team completes the schematic, we proceed by giving them the modules and wires to construct the circuit following their design.

A way of solving the schematic

Programming and testing

We proceed in a similar way to program the system. Instead of explaining in detail and step by step the structure of an Arduino program, we give each group a worksheet that includes a half-baked program and ask them to fill in the missing elements first with a pencil on paper.

Worksheet – ProgramΛήψη

We explain and help each team when they have questions, but in general, we try not to give them ready answers and let them solve the puzzle of the program. After completing the program on paper they can type it on their computer, upload it to the Arduino and test it.

void setup() {
  pinMode(8,OUTPUT);  //Laser pin
  pinMode(9,INPUT);   //Light sensor pin
  pinMode(10,OUTPUT); //Buzzer pin
}

void loop() {
  // Turn on the laser that points at the light sensor
  digitalWrite(8,HIGH);

  //Check the light sensor
  //If there is no light that means that the resistance is low
  //and the current is high
  if (digitalRead(9) == HIGH) {
    digitalWrite(10,HIGH);  //Turn on the buzzer
    delay(500);            //for half a seconf
    digitalWrite(10,LOW);  //Turn off the buzzer
    delay(500);            //for half a second
  } 
}

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