Project Description
I’m putting together a small outdoor rack and need an electronic sensing solution that can tell me, in real time, whether something has been placed on—or removed from—each shelf. Cameras are off-limits, so I’m looking for a clean sensor-based approach that works equally well with mixed materials such as metal, plastic, or any everyday composite an item might be made from.
Because the rack will sit outside, the hardware must shrug off normal weather exposure—sun, light rain, the usual seasonal swings—but it doesn’t have to survive arctic freezes or tropical monsoons. A compact, low-power design is preferred, and I’m open to ultrasonic, IR, capacitive, load-cell, or any other sensor technology you feel is best suited to the job, provided it stays reliable outdoors.
What I need from you:
• A complete hardware design: schematics, PCB files (if applicable), and a clearly identified bill of materials.
• Firmware or microcontroller code that flags “object present” / “object absent” events for each shelf and can push that data over a simple interface (UART, I²C, MQTT—your recommendation).
• A brief test protocol showing how you validated detection accuracy with different item shapes and materials.
• Installation guidelines so a non-engineer can mount, wire, and weather-proof the system without guessing.
If you’ve built anything similar, a short note on the results will help me see how your approach fits this project.