The Twittering office chair “tweets” (posts a Twitter update) upon the detection of natural gas such as that produced by human flatulence. This is part of my commitment to accurately document and share my life as it happens.
For more in depth theory, please see the next step entitled Theory.
See the results of the toots of your on labor on Twitter.
Step 1: Theory
According to my coworker, Twitter is supposed to happen in that space between Flickr posts and Facebook updates, in the space when life actually happens. Well, in the space of time “when life actually happens,” life actually happens. It is neither pretty nor ugly. It is just life. If Twitter is supposed to be a document of life as it happens, then it should really document life, indiscriminately, as it happens without interference. If it fails to do this, then life then becomes the space between “tweets” (Twitter posts).
Therefore, it is of the utmost importance, to be able to update Twitter with life events without actually interfering with the event themselves. The documentation of life, henceforth, needs to be automated.
That said, I decided the first part of life that needed to be documented was my daily flatulence at work. I am not going to lie, I am a gassy individual. Since my flatulence is a part of life, it would be fraudulent of me to document life as it happens without documenting these occurrences.
In keeping with the process of non-interference in daily activity, I have created an office chair to both detect and Twitter my flatulence without having to bother me to update it myself.
Step 2: Go get stuff
You will need:
– Office chair
– Squidbee TX/RX pair
– 1/8″ piece of acrylic
– 50K trimpot
– Natural gas sensor
– Solid hookup wire
– Soldering setup
– Laser cutter (or saw and drill)
– Razor blade
– Screwdriver set
– Drill
– Nuts and bolts (or screws)
– Pliers
– A staple gun
– Python
– A Twitter account
Step 3: Make a sensor mount
Did I mention how awesome Epilog laser cutters are?
Anyhow… If, unlike us at Instructables, you do not have a laser cutter, you can download the file and print it to paper. Cut out the circular outline from the sheet of paper and tape this to your acrylic as a guide. Where necessary, drill holes through the acrylic using a power drill and cut around the outline with a jigsaw (or similar).
naturalGasTemplate.cdrStep 4: Attach the sensor
Attach the sensor to the mounting bracket by follow the wiring in the schematic pictured. If you don’t have a trimpot, you can insert a resistor value between 22K and 47K (a trimpot is recommended).
When the components are inserted, solder them in place. You may want to first cut off any extra leads that may confuse you.
See the datasheet here.
For more detail: The Twittering Office Chair using Arduino
