Please Help A Noob Out...Peace!

Kits
1

Hi folks, Reed Damson here. Brand spanking new to all of this. Pretty much within the last hour I stumbled on this site. I have been on a role coming up with projects around the house and getting a kick out of completing them. Example, wiring the house with cat5E, killer WiFi and an older laptop running a Linux distro and Plex Media Server. I have done and still love most R/C stuff and work for myself as a computer technician. How ever ALL of this is foreign to me.

I have been trying to come up with something for weeks and ended up here. I know this is where I need to be but too ignorant to know what I need without a lot of time and research. That all sounds great and exciting but I would like to get something together sooner rather than later.

I have a light 110v that is on a simple analog timer, that turns off at 1:00am and on at 1:00pm. When this occurs I have to manually manipulate the arm or lever maybe 90 degrees. The lever opens and closes a small 4inch air vent. I would love to automate this. I believe I need a certain sparkfun board that I saw while researching. I know nothing about Arduino but do not believe this board needs it? I may need to install something IDE? I have servos, will purchase power supply, think I will need a USBa to USBb cable (printer) but not sure. I believe the board could set a time of 2 hours which wouldn’t be helpful. Maybe a light sensor that would send signal during the light change?

I am always available to do this task but would prefer to take on this project and have it done for me. Not sure if this is even the place to post.

Any help or guidance would be much appreciated!

Best Regards,

Reed

2

Thanks for reaching out to us on this.

Since you are looking to get started with project using automation and perhaps beginning a programming journey, I would highly recommend the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15267 as a series of entry-level projects that can be done in a weekend that will provide the necessary education for the scope of your project - depending on the size/weight of the vent, you may be able to use the included servo or motors to rig something up, or simply purchase a more powerful servo or linear actuator to add to your kit.

Hope this helps, and happy sparking!

3

Hey thanks man! Will have to talk to the wife about that one. She is the only one working right now unfortunately. Are you familiar with the spark servo trigger. I was hoping to start this journey on a very limited budget and when making some more money dive into a kit like that. I will definitely check that kit out and thanks for the reply.

Peace!

Reedo out!