I added a project to github for a “scare-a-tron”, which is what I call a simple device which basically uses typical garage door sensors to detect someone walking up to a porch, then plays an mp3 file. In my case, it plays a cougar roar sound at a loud volume.

The project can be found at https://github.com/kalee/garage_sensor_rpi

Happy Halloween!

https://emkc.org/contests has weekly contests that are fantastic. If you have an interest in learning a language, or having fun solving problems, give these weekly challenges a try. A new challenge starts each week at noon central time each Sunday. The contest lasts until Noon central time the following Wednesday.

There is an active discord group found at ​https://discord.gg/engineerman Take a look and see if it is a good fit if you are a developer.