Laser Guided Parking - Intro

I was in Home Depot a couple of months ago and I saw an accessory for garages used to replace the tennis ball that people sometimes hang from their ceilings to keep themselves from going to far into the garage. However, this device was pretty cool. A laser beam was projected onto the dashboard in the place of a tennis ball.

I had to have my very own, but the one they were selling was only compatible with a specific garage door opener I don't have. Then I thought I could build one of these pretty easily. I just had to figure out how to do it. My challenges were:

1. Finding a cheap laser
2. Turning the laser on and off. (It's a waste to keep it on all the time).
3. Finding a place to mount it without doing too much construction.


Over the next couple of weeks I brainstormed and came up with an idea for the circuit. Like most garage door openers mine has a light on it that comes on when the door is opened or closed. After a while the light goes off. After thinking for a while I figured I could use a photoresistor in a circuit to turn the laser on and off. In this post I show a block diagram of the little system and a photo of the circuit.



I actually built this thing, and I am working the bugs out right now and when I get it working the way I want I'll send more info.