Project idea: Galaxy's Edge R2 Astromech Droid sensor platform

Share your Projects!
1

next month i’m going to Disneyworld Galaxy’s Edge and i’ll be picking up one of the build-you-own R2 astromech droids. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDOSvtojMCg

and i was thinking it would be a cool project to give it a little more functionality and turn it into a sensor platform. add a bunch of sensors and tie them into HA via MQTT.

so i’m looking for advice. i figure i can start the project now, order and begin to piece together all the parts and sensors. and i have an old pi3 i can use.

here’s what i’m thinking:

–night vision pi camera
–temp
–humidity
–air quality
–light sensor
–motion sensor
–mic (for future almond use!)
–others?

i’d like to tie into the existing hardware to turn the head to/fro on command, and make it beep on command. mount the camera in the eye piece. dremel holes for other sensors, etc.

maybe have a “sentry mode” where the if the motion triggers, the camera turns on, and it triggers the beeping.

here’s some photos of the droid internals: https://github.com/Coolbots7/Astromech

anyways, looking for ideas and advice.

2

Beer fetching ability (need a low fridge shelf though). Even better, with recognition, “R2 get me an IPA or if we have run out, one of those new hoppy lagers we bought the other day.”

A mobile accesspoint that automatically positions itself to always give you the best connectivity, which is probably about midway between me and the main house access point. Gets more complex if there are people in various parts of the house.

A book reader. “R2 read me Stranger in a Strange Land, start one minute before where we left off last night, I forgot where we are up to.”

3

hey did you manage to get some automation?