Ever wanted to have a alarm system that could fit into your pocket? Well have a look at this Zippo Burglar Alarm, it’s pocket sized since all the electronics are stuffed into a Zippo lighter. It is based around a Picaxe microcontroller which controls a few IR LEDs and monitors an IR Receiver module. The alarm is a piezo buzzer which is also mounted in the tiny case.
“It works by sending out a modulated infrared signal. The detector then senses any of the reflected signal, this is how it knows if anyone has passed by. The main board contains a pickaxe chip. There is a mode select button which allows you to cycle through the different detection methods and alerts. It runs off of 3 x AG-13 button cells and can sense up to 15cm+ in good conditions.”
