If you spend more than 15 minutes with me, you’re likely to hear all about my work with the Girl Scouts. I’m the troop leader for my daughter’s troop (9 of the most amazing 6th and 7th graders out there) and a volunteer for our local council, Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts (GSEMA).
Fortunately, I’ve found a way to unite Girl Scouts with the work I do at Q-SYS. In April of 2023, my colleague Shay Lynch and I presented a smart dollhouse at the GSEMA STEM festival. The fully automated system demonstrates the advanced capabilities of Q-SYS in a way that is fun and accessible for the younger generation.
This year, we focused on cleaning up the wiring and adding fun new integrations. By leveraging the versatility of the Q-SYS Platform and devices, we were able to extend native features in new and unexpected ways.
User Button Fake-out
Last year, pressing the user button on an NM-T1 would play “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. The girls thought that this was hilarious (so much so that they kept pressing it over and over. And over again). This year, I spared us all the 4-hour long Rick Roll and replaced it with a trombone sound effect. Any girl who remembered the automation from last year was rewarded with a “wha wha whaaaaaaa” when she pressed the user button.
Bed Sensor
If a doll wearing a magnetic vest is placed on the bed, it activates the reed switch and shuts the lights in that room off. The girls had a lot of fun putting the dolls on the bed and then saying “night-night!” to them.
Toilet Sensor
A little bit of juvenile humor for the kids. Another reed switch is on the wall behind the toilet. When a doll is placed on it, it starts a 5s timer. If the doll is removed after the timer has elapsed, a toilet flushing sound effect is played through an SB-42.
Refrigerator with Lights and Sensors
I added LEDs and a reed switch to each compartment of the refrigerator. When the girls opened either of the doors, the lights would come on. I also wired the reed switches into two GPIO ports on the Q-SYS Core. Opening a door would start a timer. At the end of the timer, a warning sound would play to alert that the door was open.
Party Mode!
This one is definitely my favorite. To activate party mode, you needed to gather at least 3 friends (because you need at least 3 to party!). We used the face count feature in an NC Series camera for this. I turned on the option that outlines faces and put a camera preview on the touch panel. This way, the girls had a visual indication of how many faces were being counted. Once there were enough people in view, a party mode button was enabled.
Activating party mode:
- Played a random party song.
- Shut off the house lights in the “party room.”
- Turned on the theatrical spots and disco balls in the party room.
- Turned on a bubble machine
The Dollhouse in Action
The most rewarding part of the dollhouse project is seeing how the girls interact with it (the second most rewarding part being bubbles and disco balls). I might create the automations, but it’s the girls who play with them.
Not only is their interaction fun to watch, it’s also a valuable chance for the girls to engage in creative play using STEM concepts. Women are woefully underrepresented in our industry, and the disconnect starts as early as toddlerhood. Creative play that uses logic, spatial awareness, and other skills is one of the best ways to teach kids the building block (pun intended) skills that they’ll need if they want to go into a STEM field.
Final Thoughts
Q-SYS Designer makes low-code and no-code workflows accessible to anyone. My dollhouse utilizes heavy scripting because that’s my coding comfort level. However, you can create the same automations using logic blocks and block controller. If you’re interested in wiring up your own dollhouse, pay attention to this space! It would be nice to include a child from your life in the fun, but I won’t judge anyone who works with their inner child on a dollhouse of their own.
If you were going to wire up and program your own Q-SYS Dream House, what would you do with it?
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