Touchless Smart Garage Door With Auto-Close Using Arduino

Hello readers in this instructables i will show you how i made this smart garage door that opens and closes automatically that is powered by arduino.

Everyone or most of us have a garage door that needs to be opened and closed manually!

But being a hobbyist builder we want to have things that are automated or include some sort of tech that we can brag about to our friends!

Even I want the same but sadly I don't have a big garage but still I made a fully working model that can be applied to the real sized garages also.

Kidding guys! If you don't have a real one just get a Hot Wheels or some realistic model supercar and build this garage to park it.

This project can be scaled to life sized garage too if the right sensors and the mechanism are used.

Let me tell you how this smart garage door works

Powered by Arduino Uno the IR sensor picks up the obstacles that comes close to it(4cms) and if something stays for more than 3 seconds the servo moves turning the gear that runs the slider.

All the messages are displayed on a 16x2 LCD by the help of which you can see what's going on.

The servo or I would say the slider mechanism raises the garage door and now you can park your car inside the garage and after some time the door closes automatically.

Since the mechanical movement parts are 3d printed you can expect flawless movement.

This is a touchless garage door opener and is very fun to build.

Not only do you build the project but also in the process of building you get hands on exposure to circuit making, 3D printing and mechanical movements also.

I have given all the necessary details to build this project and also there is a working video given in the end that you must check out to see its working.

I would recommend that you gather all these materials before you sit down to build this so that the building time can be minimised.

Arduino Uno from amazon

IR sensor

LCD with I2c (16x2)

Micro Servo

Jumper Cables

Piece of Board

Arduino IDE and Programming Cable

Ultimaker Cura

Tinkercad (for modifying the design if you want to)

PLA Filament

3D Printer

Hot Glue and Super Glue

Super Car

Note that these are affiliate links and upon qualifying sales i get a small percentage commission at no additional cost to you

I made lots of blueprints first in the end i decided to 3d print these designs, and it works best.

The design of the garage and the door lifting mechanism was made using Tinkercad

You can edit my designs further if you want to or simply use my files from below, These STLs are designed considering the standard size of the components, like the LCD screen size or the micro servo shaft size.

I will separate the design part into 3 steps so that it is easier to explain for me

The first is the garage part where you have one container and the lid(door) and the support.

The second is the gear, slider and the servo holder that runs the door mechanism

Now the LCD frame and the servo support can be considered as the additional parts that are 3d printed.

Once you have these STLs, slice them with a slicer and use PLA filaments of your choice to 3d print these parts.

Check for the settings that I used usually the infill of 30 to 40% works best for this project parts.

It will take some time to print the parts and there is no need of any post processing after you are done with d3 printing.

Tip: Keep the parts for 3d printing meanwhile you can build a circuit for this project

After the printing is complete there is no need for any post processing sice we are not using any rafts or supports at the time of printing.

The circuit may look messy if you see at first glance but when you look carefully component wise the circuit is simple and can be built in less time.

I will break the circuit into small steps part wise so that you can make it easily

The IR sensor, Servo and the LCD are the components we are using here.

The IR sensor has 3 pins

Ground and the Vcc is connected to gnd and 5v pin on the Uno board.

The signal pin from the Ir sensor is connected to D2 on the Uno board

LCD with I2C has 4 pins

Scl and Sda are connected to A5 and A4 pins respectively.

The power pins Vcc and Gnd are connected to 5V and the ground on the board

The micro servo has 3 pins

Ground and Vcc are connected to Gnd and 5V on the Arduino board.

The signal pin is connected to D9 on the Uno

After you make these connections connect uno board to computer via the programming cable and open the IDE

Use the program below and simply upload after checking for port and the right board type.

Now after the program is done uploading you will see the message on the LCD screen.

To simply check if the circuit is working fine place your hand in front of the ir sensor and you should see the micro servo moving.

You can even further simplify this circuit using services from JLCPCB they also provide 3d printing services with fast shipping.

Ordering PCBs from them is very easy and affordable and they provide fast delivery too.

If you want to track all your orders in one place, you can check out their new JLCONE application for both desktop and mobile devices, avail free shipping and great discount if you sign up from my link

After you make these circuit connections, Connect uno to computer and open arduino ide and upload this program.

Before clicking on upload make sure you select the right port and the board type, if you don't have the pixel ring library installed you might have to do that.

After the code is done uploading you can see the messages on OLED and lights on the ring light and you are good to go.

After you check the circuit for its working, we can head over to assembling these components on the piece of cardboard.

Start by connecting the LCD to the 3d printed case, Use double sided adhesive to connect LCD to the frame and then use hot glue to connect this frame to the base of the cardboard.

After this is dry add the IR sensor, I will flip the sensor upside down and use hot glue even here to connect the sensor body to the LCD frame.

Now the main garage block will be glued to the remaining space, make sure you are following the exact placement like I'm doing so that all the spaces are utilized well.

Arrange all the extra cables from the components well on the backside so the circuit looks clean.

The how glue must not be too hot here because the 3d printed part for garage door has only 1.5mm thicnkess and too much heat can lead to shape change.

After the block or the garage space is dry you can also seal the sides with glue to ensure it is not shaky.

Now we can add the mechanism of door and we will see that how in the next step.

This is the highlight of the garage and it must be installed well since it goes through many cycles of movement when the door is closed and opened.

I will start by adding hot glue on the door(to the slot provided), press the slider part tip here and allowing it to dry completely.

Now to add additional strength to this joint add a drop of superglue and again wait for drying.

This is now ready and then you can proceed to add the servo setup with a slider.

Use the 3d printed support part to add the servo to the middle of the garage frame.

Make sure to check for the alignment, It should be at the center so that we have all the space covered and no visible space are seen at the time of working.

This completes almost the build part of the project now only the final touch is pending, Yes you are right the road for the garage.

I will use a black sheet of cardboard that was cut in a slightly curved shape so that it can fit inside the board well.

To make it look much more like a real road i will add white stripes of paper.

Later glue this road to the garage door entrance and the remaining space on the board, this will now look much more like a realistic road to the garage.

Testing this project is really fun and for most of the builders seeing their creation coming to life is a real bliss.

Connect the Uno board to power and i will be using the programming cable and the onboard power itself to power the project and you can do the same also.

Once you connect the USB cable to breadboard you will see LCD showing a message "garage locked, Hold the hand"

Now you can either hold the hand in front of IR sensor and wait for 3 seconds and now you can see the authentication message on the LCD.

Then the door starts to slide open slowly and now park your car inside, and then the door closes automatically.

If you have a bigger can than mine then you might need to increase the rotation of servo so the garage door can open upto the max but for the supercar this works fine.

Now to open the door again simply place the hand in front of the sensor and the door opens and then take your car out and after some time the door will close by itself.

These timings can be adjusted in the program above on the delay section on the servo.

This was all about this project if you have anything to ask related to this project ask me in the comments and i will be happy to answer.

Consider checking this working video which has all the build steps that are explained above.

Have a great build and thank you for making it till here.