Garage Parking Aid

There are a number of garage parking aids out there to help you park safely in your garage but most of us wont take precautions until it’s too late. Some weeks I got home late and as I pulled into my garage I slightly touched a “LIMIT” parking post I made , the thing fell over and scratched my SUV real bad. So this instructable will hopefully save all of you from damaging your property.

My light switch is not located at my roller door but rather at the side entrance so parking in the evening in the dark is not so easy even with the brights on, this means that some type of led indicator has to be used along with a sounder so that we get the whole audio visual warning.

Now I have used the VL53LOX in a previous project that I published on INSTRUCTABLES where I was able to open and close my Venetian blinds automatically so I really liked the sensor. I have tested a few and found them decent especially when measuring flat surfaces.

My youtube channel has only the practical devices that I made with Arduino and can be found on this link: https://www.youtube.com/@Circuit3-MNB since I’m a third-worlder I know how expensive data is so this link is to my channel and hopefully there’s nothing to auto play and finish your data plan. I have detailed a parking aid that can be portable when mounted on a post or something for use in your vehicle. Most of us want our cars to look okay so I have included some 3D prints that will house the display that is used on your dash.(its universal but links are only on this youtube project).

Parts List

1 x Arduino Nano (The nano is my current favorite because I got a bulk deal buying them)

1 x VL53LOX

1 x i2c 16x2 line LCD

1 x Red LED 3W

1 x Green LED 3W

1 x Blue LED 3W

1 x Piezo Sounder

This circuit is simple to construct as two of the major devices are connected with their SDA and SCL pinouts connected to A4 and A5 of the Arduino Nano. The i2c addresses are different and I have used them before successfully. Next you'll notice that i did not provide any current protection to the LED because these are capable of handling the voltage.The LEDs are connected to D4;D5 and D6. (I'm aware that there are people out there who don't like this type of construction but my projects are practical and work).

A buzzer is connected to pin D7.

I have a proof of concept from my video at 1m:52s in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LebSRWRksaM

There are very few components and modules and it is a really fun build.

The code is very straight forward and makes efficient use of available libraries. I had to put a note on the code to highlight the fact that the tone() function is used when the vehicle is too close to the obstruction but you will be able to set the frequency and the level of annoyance you want to create with your buzzer.

i hope you enjoy this build.