SocketAlert

Inspiration

During the brainstorming process, we tried to think of problems we encountered in our lives and how we could solve them. One of our groupmates, David, recalled an issue he had recently when he was in the Los Angeles airport. He wanted to charge his phone but the phone charging brick did not stay in the socket. He therefore had to stand by the outlet and manually hold the brick in place. Based on his experience of this minor inconvenience, we began to think about how this situation could be a real world problem and realized that there could be life threatening cases if a medical device accidentally fell out of its power source. We concluded that if there was a way to notify the user of such issues, disaster could be avoided.

What it does

SocketAlert is a device that provides fool proof security on home life support machines that require constant power. The SocketAlert is turned on by pressing the button and will beep once to confirm to the user that it is on. While SocketAlert is on, it will detect if the power is connected to the electronic device. If power is not detected, SocketAlert will warn the user by beeping rapidly until power is detected again. The SocketAlert is turned off by pressing the button again and will beep twice to confirm to the use that it is off.

How we built it

The creation of the SocketAlert came in many phases. Initially, our project design was a consumer product that was more in lines with mechanical manufacturing, as seen in picture 3. The primary goal of our project was to create a mechanism to prevent charging plugs from falling out of the wall sockets, primarily using SolidWorks. Upon talking to the mentors available at HackCWRU, we were given some ideas on how to implement electronic hardware components to our original project. In our frequent visits to the MLH Hardware Lab, we were able to get equipment for our project as well as continue to seek guidance from Anna and Kyle (Anna - thank you for giving us the buzzer idea. Kyle - Thank you for teaching us the importance of failure in the learning process (EVERYONE SHOULD CHECK OUT THE KYLE MLH STICKERS)). Additionally, with the help of the immense amount of arduino resources available online, we were able to make our own design and implement it into SocketAlert.

Challenges we ran into

-Given that this was our first hackathon and our group’s lack of experience with electronic hardware and software, it was difficult to come up with an idea that fit the parameters of the hackCWRU, used our previous knowledge of mechanical manufacturing, required us to learn something new, and could be useful in the outside world. -During the brainstorming phase of our project we frequently ran into issues of questioning whether an idea was able to check all of our requirements. -At times throughout the project we ran into communication difficulties where group members were not on the same page.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Going through the process of creating something: Making an idea, designing the idea, redesigning it, and creating a full project that functions as a proof of concept and that can be built on -Working together as a team where everyone was able to contribute, share their suggestions, and support one another.

What we learned

We were complete beginners when it came to Arduino, but were determined to implement electronics into our device and the arduino was the best way to do it! Using our previous knowledge of coding in other languages and circuits from class, we picked up the basics of the arduino in no time.

What's next for SocketAlert

Based on our current design of the SocketAlert, there is a fairly large safety concern given that we would have a wire attached directly from the socket alert to the hot wire prong of the medical device. If we were to continue with this design, we would need to implement a safe connection between the SocketAlert and the prong such that the high voltage from the outlet does not ruin our product and there are no possibilities of safety hazards such as fires. We truly believe that the concept of SocketAlert could have an application to the general public, in a less obnoxious way, to notify users of not just when their electronic device is unplugged but of other important notifications about their device. For example, with all of smart plug technology on the market, we could develop an app that could stop charging a device when it’s at full battery and notify the user.