Electron Ideas Contest, Y'all!

If you didn’t mind the “nerdy” look something modeled after a pip-boy/leela’s arm pda thing would definitely work. I’d use a sharp memory display so it was nice and sunlight readable. Would be a really cool project. You could add cool kid stuff like simple games (Pokemon?), a map, and a way to send messages to their brother/sister. I would have killed for something like that when my brother and I were exploring the woods when I was a kid. Would also make a killer paintball companion :smile:

While commuting to work on my bicycle, I thought it would be fun to keep track of how many miles I have ridden by bicycle instead of sitting in traffic in my car. Bicycle odometers have been around for a long time, so I thought I’d take it a step further and send my bicycle mileage in real time to a remote display and web site so my family, friends, and anyone online can see how far I have ridden as I am actually riding. Thus, the idea for a real-time internet connected bicycle odometer was created.

My first prototype uses a sensor with a Bluetooth Low Energy module to relay the data to my cell phone, and then to the internet. But this required that I remember to start a cell phone app and carry my cell phone on every ride. With a Spark Electron and an accelerometer to wake it from sleep, I can just hop on my bicycle and ride, knowing my total mileage is being uploaded to the internet via the cell phone network. Plus, I’ll wave as I ride by! And who wouldn’t want to see an alligator riding a bike???

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Athlete tracker. Track your athlete while competing in a race. Each year 1000’s of athlete’s compete in races such as Ironman and 100mile bike races. Loved ones want to keep track of where they are on the course and know when and where to come out to see them. Pairing the Electron with a GPS receiver and a battery will allow them to know where there athlete is at all times. Here is an example of what people used not too long ago :slight_smile:

And the new sleek design is much more comfortable and does not introduce any aerodynamic drag!!

And you would be able to track your athlete on a map…

Of course we would add more data related to the speed, duration, … and other race parameters.

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Easy, I love my new jeep, my first Electron is going to be a vehicle LOJACK:

THe Spark Electron LOJACK

I think it should be easy enough to make a circuit that just takes enough juice from the 12v battery to get its gps once every 3 hours or do and then send that info in through to a server.

We would like to take the Agrologies on the next step .
Agrologies is a platform that will help farmers manage their crop areas, more effectively and efficiently, with the use of wireless sensors and remote technology, in order to control irrigation and produce environmentally friendly crops. The introduction of this technology will utilise Arduino units, a website, Smartphones applications and solar power to remotely control watering and other crop management. It will allow farmers to have immediate information on weather conditions and forecasts as well as on site environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, etc.

With electron the device will be smaller , low power and we will can put it everywhere.
Right now we use Arduino .

https://igcdn-photos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t51.2885-15/10809561_874027225950924_1597571312_n.jpg

you can find more picture at instagram

:smiley:

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With the GPS kit, I’ll hide it in the shaft of my bicycle and i’ll never have to worry where it is if it gets stolen

With the GPS kit I’ll never lose my luggage again why the airlines forget how to do their job.

The Electron is a dream come true because of Sparks excellent easy to use, ready to go platform that comes with a the worlds best support forum which can help you accomplish just about anything you would want to do.

Also the low cost data rates they have crated are soooooooooo much better than having to go to T-Mobile and pay $30 a month for a data plan every month which I had to do for the Adafruit Fona.

I build portable power systems that are used by many different people all over the world.

The Electron will allow me to add the following features to the Portable Solar Generators we build:

  1. Battery Low Alert - Send a SMS or Email telling the customer their solar generator in storage needs to be recharged to avoid battery damage from sitting for long periods of time in the discharged state. This will protect their investment and prolong the lifespan of the system.

  2. Send the current status of the Portable Solar Generator to a custom interface on the internet by using Ubidots. This will allow the client to view the current and past system performance data. Ubidots offers custom branded interfaces so thats a low cost way to instantly have a custom ready to go user interface for our customers. They get their own user name and password and they can customize their dashboard to meet their specific needs.

3. Pay As You Go Solar Generators for Africa.

This concept looks like it has a lot of potential to be helpful in developing nations. The Electron would allow me to create systems that can be monitored remotely and the 2 way communication would allow us to activate or deactivate systems based on if the pay as you go customer has paid their bill or not.

Some examples of how this is being done:

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The other way I can see this being used is by tracking the engagement with retail product displays that have proximity sensors and or button sensors where you could track the daily interaction with retail store marketing displays to get feedback remotley and live.

This would allow you to track and measure which retail locations get you the most traffic & interactions. It could also allow you to see which marketing display gets you the most attention.

The Electron could allow the person enter their email address to receive more info via email, or a instant discount coupon via email that would allow them to save money right then and there.

There has to be a way to do something new with retail product displays using the Electron. There has to be a way to gather valuable data that could and should help businesses make smarter decisions and therefore more sales and profits.

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I would give an electron to everyone in the family (with bluetooth connection to their smartphone or gps module for stand alone version) and check their location often (every minute or so) and then I would build the Weasly Clock I saw in Harry Potter movie

A mobile app version can be installed all family member’s smartphones and a real clock can be hanged to living room.

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I would put it in hunting cameras… No more “go get the smart media card in the camera in the Wood to know if there’s good hunting target around” … I would transmit the pictures directly to my cell phone! The huge buck won’t be miles away when I will see the pictures!!

I am going to have this as my backup communications for my home alarm. I self monitor my alarm system - but the alerts go through my internet connection and I lose monitoring if I lose my internet connection. + Electron = $200/year saved and additional peace of mind. You should also contact Envisalink to work together to integrate your products (Envisalink makes a module that connects Ademco and other alarm panels with an internet based self monitoring service)

Next idea. Remote reboot of anything… I currently use ezOutlets (http://3gstore.com/product/4186_single_outlet_remote_power_switch.html) to reboot my router when I lose an internet connection - problem is - you can’t connect to the device when you lose a connection.

An always connected remote reboot device…

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My idea is pretty similar, but I have a cellular panel now and it would save us about $600 per year. Since it also monitors a smoke detector, I don’t really want to depend on my Internet connection in case a fire cuts the power. Plus, it is one of the Vivint panels with outdated and insecure firmware.

It is a great solution for the self monitoring of a home alarm system - in my case it will be used for backup monitoring. I have integrated my smoke alarms, CO2 alarms, water / flood detection alarms, temperature sensors, boiler heat sensor, whole house water shutoff, garage door open/close, and even mailbox open/close with my Honeywell Ademco alarm system. I use an Envisalink 3 device to connect the alarm panel to the internet. I get a text message when my mailbox is opened. I get text messages, email, and even a phonecall from IFTTT if there is a flood, fire or temperature alert. The water/flood detection system automatically shuts off water AND shuts off my wellpump if a flood is detected in multiple locations. I can remotely shutoff the water in the house and open/close garage doors through the alarm panel. It is all on battery backup and will continue running for days if I lose power. The weak link is the internet connection and I have been too ‘cheap’ to pay for cellular backup. I should be able to integrate my remote reboot of my router, security camera system etc with the same device (or so it appears). I just ordered a photon to get a head start at setting it up. Hopefully will be an easy swap once the Electron is shipped. Best wishes!

Halloween costume that you can control via a webpage, change LED colors, etc

I used to work on the railways maintaining signalling equipment. Things often go wrong but a lot of it is preventable if the systems are pro-actively monitored. We had a project to log the current draw of point machines to see when the motor would fail but the hardware at the time was too large and/or expensive. The biggest problem was getting the data back without visiting the site.

It looks like the electron has fixed all that so my project would couple one with a current clamp and make a remote power monitoring device.

There are other applications such as monitoring domestic power use at the meter. This could be used to keep an eye on electricity cost, as a security system to see when the house is in use or to check that an elderly family member is still keeping active.

I did a similar project with a raspberry pi and a wireless power monitor a while ago: https://unop.uk/dev/raspberry-pi-electricity-monitor/

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I’m definitely going to be building a GPS bike tracking system, and I’m planning to add performance monitoring and BLE capabilities to that as well. However, I think that is not original enough for this contest.

That is why I will try to solve an other, less visited problem: keeping track of where my stuff is.

I have a backpack equipped with a solar panel, which makes it look cool and high tech, but it is doesn’t make it smart. When I leave a place, my backpack doesn’t warn me when I am going to forget my binder full of important stuff or the charger for my laptop. I am hoping to change this using the Spark Electron.

The plan is to monitor what is in the backpack using a combination of BLE and RFID tags, switches and weight sensors. The Electron will figure out what I need to take with me based on pre-set activities stored in the Spark cloud, and warn me when I am about to forget something using a BLE connection to my phone.

An addition would be to add GPS, so I am then able to figure out where I left my stuff. No more figuring out if I left my cellphone charger at work, my friend’s place or at home.

It would also be nice to have the Electron measure the energy harvested by my solar panel, keep track of how much energy is left in my power bank, monitor and log the weight of my backpack, notify me when I am dragging along stuff I rarely use, keep track of the location of my backpack in case I forget it somewhere / it get’s stolen, refrigerate my lunch, …

There is so much stuff my backpack should be able to do with it, I don’t even know how I am surviving without it.

I’ve been working on an idea that I was really excited to use the Electron for. I plan on using the Electron to prototype a bracelet that I will construct that will allow potential victims of sexual violence on college campuses to either send a text message to a small group of friends and/or alert authorities in the immediate area. Think Jimmy Olsen’s watch in Superman comics.

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Electron + Inverter for a solar control system: an example can be the Danfoss DLX series, with Ethernet, RS-485 and CAN bus. I’m going to connect my Photon (coming in May) with my little solar system (3 kW) and try to send info through a router. With the Electron it would be easier enough, bypassing the router for a direct connection.
I think I’ll use the RS-485 port: I need to study more the inverter to be sure.
I’m living far from the solar system so it can be usefull to check data remotely.

Sadly I can’t show real picture because, guess what, I’m far from the inverter and I haven’t yet the Photon. :sob:

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We’ve already experimented with the Spark Core and WiFi, but the Electron will allow for “near coast” messaging from sea going vehicles before the need to move to full satellite communication.

I’m planning on taking the prototypes of the Bob float ( http://community.spark.io/t/sending-the-spark-core-to-the-depths ) and fit an Electron in them then, in combination with a few schools, see if the children can build some sensors to go on each one and send them out to sea (or lakes depending what’s closer to the schools in question) and see what happens, what information they send back and how far they travel.

Hopefully they’ll stay within 2G range and be able to send the location and data back to plot on maps they can follow in class.

Hoping with a decent antenna we can get a signal a few miles off the coast.

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