IoT Trashcan Monitor for Parks & Rec

Better efficiency, better experience

Having a remote monitor of trashcans cuts down on the maintenance required, especially for remote locations that would be costly to check using a traditional trash truck (cost of fuel).

The IoT Trashcan Monitor is based on the free Reference Design from Golioth which also includes other sensors onboard that could be used to help monitor locations for weather and the status of a trashcan (including orientation).

‍

The IoT Trashcan Monitor is built on top of the Golioth SDK and includes Over-The-Air firmware updates.

This design also takes advantage of the Golioth Settings Service which can be used to calibrate trashcan levels based on the detected height of garbage. Like all fleets using the settings service, these settings can be applied at the project level (all devices), at the Blueprint level (usually separated out by hardware revisions or similar), or on an individual level.

If you're ready to take this design to the next level, a good next step would be taking the various development boards included here and creating a custom hardware implementation; this would likely include a custom PCB and maybe a different case that fits your needs in the field. The sensors and the firmware can be taken out in order to save costs, and other sensors could be included to sense different real-world data.

• Cellular + GPS connectivity untethers this solution from local networks like Wi-Fi
• Includes a range-finder sensor used to detect the height of trash in a bin and can be reused for things like liquid level sensing, human detection, proximity alarms, and more.
• The main range-finder sensor can be switched for something like a PIR sensor allows very similar firmware and cloud software to be deployed as an entirely new application.

The following specifications are a part of Golioth's open source reference design which uses off-the-shelf parts. For custom solutions, please contact us.

• Electronics Parts List
  • Sparkfun Thing Plus nRF9160
  • Sparkfun Environmental Combo QWIIC breakout
  • Adafruit VL53L0X STEMMA breakout
  • Aludel Mini Trashcan PCB
  • LiPoly Battery
• Mechanical / Enclosure
  • CU-1937-MB ABS Enclosure from Bud Industries (~3.1"x3.1")
• Data
  • Hologram SIM card