New Touch Proximity Sensor added to my existing Music Box

This project started at a MakerFaire in Vancouver where we fitted 4 Infra-Red Proximity sensors to the inlets of recycling bins to make suitable sounds whenever a specific item was thown through the hole.

Just for fun a small PIC was added to a 5th input on the Adafruit Soundfx board to every few minutes play a random selection of the programmed sounds to get attention from passersby.

Sounds then included:

Organics = Cow mooing; Glass = Smashing glass sound; Paper = Crunching paper sound etc.

Then came Halloween and the sensors were placed at various spots around a Haunted House with suitable (well lets say scary!) sound effects. Two years running and this is a hit

In earlier 2018 I created a stand-alone sensor to trigger a 1 minute timer and switch a remote relay to control the Xmas train in the Salmo and District Chamber of Commerce window display.

This control is now in regular use at the model train exhibit at Waneta Mall, Trail BC since June 2019

As part of an initiative to modify a “Bop-It” toy earlier in 2019 I obtained some interesting Touch/Proximity sensors from a South Africn Co. - Azoteq Sadly I never used them at the time and resorted to a conductive set of stainless steel contacts to activate the toy on picking it up.

These amazing evaluation devices come in a pack and although I only wanted 2 I ordered 2 packs only to find they ship 3 in each pack so its about time to find other uses for these.

Well they beat I/R, Ultrasound and most other sensors I have found hands-down

They have integrated seperate Touch and Proximity outputs and include tell-tale smd LEDs on board.

So now for the next project - a through the window sensor to activate the soundbox to play Holiday tunes. The pic below shows the comparison of the Azoteq device alongside the traditional I/R sensor.