Smart Waste Sorting Bin
About this project
BinCore is the standalone Arduino Uno counterpart to Engorio's ESP32-based SortPulse: the same capacitive-moisture waste classification and servo-driven sorting mechanism, rebuilt to run entirely offline on a plain Arduino Uno with no WiFi, no WebServer, and no phone/browser dependency whatsoever — everything the student needs to see is right on a 16×2 I2C LCD and the Serial Monitor. An HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor watches the sensing tray for a placed object; once detected and given 500ms to settle, a capacitive moisture probe embedded in the tray takes 15 oversampled analog readings, median-filters them to reject noise, and compares the result against a two-point calibrated threshold to classify the item as DRY or WET. An SG90 micro-servo then smoothly tilts the tray toward the correct chute using a non-blocking, one-degree-per-step sweep, holds briefly for the item to slide off, and returns to neutral. Two further HC-SR04 sensors track fill level in both compartments, warning past 85% via buzzer and LCD. Because the Arduino Uno's GPIOs are natively 5V-tolerant (unlike the ESP32's 3.3V-only pins), every HC-SR04 connects directly with zero voltage-divider resistors — a genuinely simpler, cheaper build than the ESP32 version, at the cost of losing the remote web dashboard. The project covers the same five CSE-relevant concepts as its ESP32 sibling minus the networking layer: capacitive dielectric sensing vs. resistive probes, ultrasonic time-of-flight distance measurement, non-blocking servo motion via millis()-gated angle stepping, and a finite state machine (IDLE→SETTLING→SENSING→SORTING→RETURNING→COOLDOWN) for a physical sequencing task — plus a close look at what changes (and what doesn't) when the exact same sensing/actuation logic is ported from a WiFi-capable ESP32 down to a bare 8-bit Arduino Uno. Build time: 3.5 hours.
What you get
- Complete, commented source code
- Full components list with quantities
- Pin-by-pin wiring guide and connection table
- Step-by-step upload and testing guide
- Project report (.docx, IEEE style)
- Presentation slides (.pptx)
