Arduino Smart Sitting Alert Chair Made From Recycled PLA Filament Spools — Warns You When You Sit Too Long

Hello people in this Instructables i will show you How To Make this Arduino Smart Sitting Alert Chair Made from Recycled PLA Filament Spools.

This chair is made from empty spool holders and the best part is it is very easy to carry and packed with best feature!(most essential)

Well let me explain to you what this smart sitting chair is all about.

At first this is upcycled from PLA Filament Empty Spools that most of the hobbyists like me and you doesn't find any use so consider as you are giving a second life reducing plastic waste.

Secondly many of us keep on sitting for too long(not a healthy habit) and needs a system to alert after a specific time and this chair does that.

The combination of these makes this chair stand out.

Let me quickly explain to you how this chair works.

This chair has inbuilt alert system that alerts you when you sit on this chair for too long with vibration alert and the red light led alert.

Power on this chair by long pressing the touch sensor for 2 seconds and then the chair is ready for using and holding the sensor for 2 seconds again will turn off the chair.

After the chair is powered up the green led blinks and the countdown timer starts and all this happens only if someone is seated on the chair(detected by IR sensor). and in between if you wake up the timer resets.

Almost all other parts except the electronics are upcycled, the main frame for the chair from empty spools and the cushion part from an old laptop bag.

This chair was tested with 71kgs and it works pretty fine and to mention that the alert time can be changed as you need.

I have also given a detailed explanation to build this project and don't miss to check the video tutorial also in the last step.

If you have any suggestion for adding new features let me know, Happy to check on that too. (PS: Don't recommend to add any music systems on this chair since that will increase the sitting time)

These are the supplies that you will need to make this chair

Arduino Uno

Touch Sensor Module

ARGB LED Strip

Vibration/Buzzer Module

IR Sensor Module

Empty PLA Filament Spool

Zip Ties

Hot Glue

Super Glue

Jumper Cables

Old Backpack

Arduino IDE

Cura Slicer

Scissors

Thread and Needle

Paper Tubes

White PLA Filament

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The circuit seems like a big mess to you at the first glance! But believe me it is way much easier to make this than you just judged!

I will break the circuit into parts considering the components.

There are 4 modules in total and connections are explained likewise, Note that except the vibration module(3.3v) rest all the components power pins for positive terminal is connected to 5v whereas the Gnd is connected to ground

ARGB connections

Din or the digital input pin is connected to D8 on the uno board

Touch sensor connection

Touch sensor that i used here looks different but the circuit is same for all 3 pinned touch sensor and here i will be using D2 pin on the board

IR sensor connections

Signal pin from this sensor is connected to D3, here you should adjust the potentiometer accordingly.

Vibration Module connections

D9 pin from the vibration module is connected to uno, if you are connecting this directly i would suggest using resistor.

After these connections are complete, i will test the circuit.

I will pre upload the Arduino code to uno, start by installing the libraries first.

Now to test all you have to do is connect the uno to power bank, touch the touch sensor for 2 seconds and then place hand in front of the IR sensor.

At this point you should see green color led on the strip and then the timer led blinks.

I will use Tinkercad to design the part for this chair or seat.

The design was made considering the size of the standard spool that holds the PLA filaments, And as per my understanding this is the universal size.

You can either remix my design or simply download the STL that i have given below, The part is simple and wont take much time to get printed.

The part will hold the ARGB led and i will suggest to slice the model with the settings that i used on my slicer.

I used PLA filament of white color to print this part and the corners were printed with red color to highlight the touch sensos module.

There is no need of any rafts or supports at the time of printing, and no post processing is also required.

I will upcycle the cushion and the net part from my old laptop bag.

We know that the most backpacks come with cushion to support our back, i found that this serves the best for our project.

One full cushioning and netting part from my old bag was used to make whole chair here on this project.

I will start by separating the net and the cushion(foam/sponge), You can use scissor to seperate this.

Now i have traced the circle considering the size of the spool top part, this will help in taking the measurements much more easier.

I will start with the cushion first and then the net part needs to be slightly larger in size compared to this because later we are stitching the cushion to the net(cover to be much more accurately named)

Then i found that instead of gluing or any other option stitching is the best option here considering the look and the strength here.

I will use needle and thread here, the more stitches it has the more beautiful the seat is going to look

The Spool center is made of thick cardboard and since I'm stacking one spool over the other the mass distribution will not be even and the chances are high the person sitting may slip to one side.

To solve this problem the solution is simple, I used paper tubes.

Now many just ask me hey, are you serious paper tubes? Yeah you heard that right i used paper tubes and almost 9 tubes i have used here.

Start by rolling the paper to form thick tubes and place the tubes as i have placed in this step.

This will help to distribute the weight to the ground evenly.

To double secure the tubes i have added drop of super glue at the connecting areas this will ensure that the tubes stay in place.

This process will take some time and it is essential to do this too.

I weight around 71kgs and i have tested this by standing and sitting over this and i was able to see the seat remained strong with no problem

If you weight more than i would suggest to use more than 14 tubes, also as per my tests this chair can withstand upto 90kgs and beyond that you might need to find other alternatives.

Side covers are essential in 2 ways.

The first i would say it hides all the electronics that makes this normal seat to work like a smart chair

and the second is the aesthetic of the seat.

I will use the same leftover part which i used earlier to make the seat cushion.

Start by cutting strips of foam, i have previously measured the height and length of this.

Now again back to the stitching phase! I'm not a pro at this job but to my surprise everything came out soo well and you can see that too.

I stitched 2 of these side covers and one of this will be permanently glued to the base of the spool and the other one is partially glued.

In case if you want to make any modifications to the electronics i suggest to half glue the top part of side cover so that you can access the circuit anytime.

There is no rule that you can use only the color that i used, The choice of colors is totally upto you.

I will now place all the electronics inside this seat spaces that you can see.

Note that after the insertion of tubes the seat becomes very strong and now instead of altering anything just place the electronics on the vacant spaces.

I will keep the Arduino board first, make sure all the jumper cables are intact later finding the missing connections will be a hectic work!

Use hot glue and double sided adhesive wherever necessary.

Now start with ARGB LED holder part, you can either use super glue or hot glue to attach this, make sure that the alignment with the spool frame is taken care.

After this is done, attach the touch sensor, i will add this on the corner of this 3d printed part.

Now the leftovers, and i forgot to mention that i made a small hole to insert the IR sensor, so that it can detect the person/object that comes in contact with it.

Adjust the potentiometer on the IR sensor before gluing it to the spool center hole.

In the end you can use hot glue to attach the cushion to the top part of the spool holder(now its not a spool holder anymore!)

Using this is pretty much fun, I would much rather say using this Infront of some one to showcase your build is the best experience i would say.

I will be using power bank to power this project and i would recommend you to use the same since it makes the project portable and also you can expect a great backup time.

Once you connect the power source to the Arduino uno board the project is ready for using, Start the smart chair by pressing the touch sensor for 2 seconds, This will activate the circuit.

Now you can sit on the chair and now to confirm your seating the green le blinks and then the timer starts to run.

There are 10 LEDs in total and each blinks green for 6 seconds and that particular led turns red indicating that the countdown is happening.

After the 60 seconds is complete the entire strip turns to red and then the buzzer starts to vibrate indicating that the time is up!

Note: The 1 minute timer was just an example, You can set the timer to your needs in the Arduino program

This will keep you moving and not get just struck in one place for too long!

Hope you will try to make this project, to add more details for the project build i have added a video also in the next step, Consider checking that out.

If you are still left with questions let me know in the comments.

Here is a detailed build tutorial video of this project that i have documented each and every steps so that you can understand even better if you are building this project.

Also if you like this ideas spread it across your friends whom you think might consider building this!

This was all about this project, if you need any help in the build let me know i will be happy to help, Thank you and have a great day :)