Highly random this one, but I generally encourage my 6yo daughter to do a bit “engineering”/making/tinkering. The other day she announced she had an idea for an invention: an automated toothpaste dispenser. 😆
She’s since mentioned it again and done some drawings, so I’ve offered to help her build “a prototype” as a nice little daddy/daughter project 😀
Obviously in terms of encouraging her, it would be good if it actually worked – or at least came fairly close.
So umm.. advice please?
I’m thinking something like a little LED/LDR light gate on the analog input to an Arduino which then drives a digital output high for a set time when the toothbrush head breaks the “beam”.
The output then turns on a transistor that activates a 6 volt peristaltic pump (I’ve already ordered this one from eBay).
Will that work?
Any alternate designs spring to mind (with a view to simplicity rather than functionality)?