Motion sensing water gun Tweets photos!

Hello folks! I haven't updated this blog in a long time. I am in San Francisco now, working at Punch Through Design (the makers of the amazing Lightblue Bean). We have a lot of nerf wars happening in our office all the time, so I decided to bring office warfare to the next level by making a motion activated water gun that also takes pictures and posts them on Twitter. I modified the water gun (a motorized Super Soaker), and connected it to the Bean. A PIR sensor is used to detect motion.

I have used Node-RED and Python to link the Bean to a Twitter account. The Node-RED flow runs on a computer, and wirelessly monitors the Bean's serial output. If the Bean detects motion, the computer takes a picture, and uploads it to Twitter. The Node-RED server can also monitor the Twitter account for incoming direct messages. If I send a message with the correct password, I can enable or disable the system. This way I can turn the system off before I enter the office, and turn it on after I leave. It has been driving people crazy here, so I think this project is a success! Check out the tutorial on Instructables (be sure to vote for it if you like it)! :)