The Maker's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse: Defend Your Base with Simple Circuits, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi
solder The detailed primer in Appendix B will get you started on any tech nical skills that may be new to you A few of the projects also require some basic wood-working skills and tools but you won’t need anything more fancy than a saw drill and chisel The more technical projects in the book make use of the popular Raspberry Pi and Arduino as low power easy to use control modules See Chapter 5 for some Raspberry Pi basics and Appendix C for a primer on the Arduino About the Apocalypse Survival Projects Although these projects are all things that are intended to be useful post apocalypse most are also useful even if the zombies don’t take over Many of the Arduino projects can actually be grouped together onto a single Arduino with a single program integrating their different functions Chapter 1 Apocalypse Basics gives an overview of what the world will be like when the zombie apocalypse strikes so you know what you’re up against From there we dive straight into the projects Chapter 2 Generating Electricity has two projects Project 1 Solar Recharging shows you how to charge a car battery using solar power and Project 2 Bicycle Generator describes how to use a scavenged car alternator and pedal cycle to charge a car battery Chapter 3 Using Electricity covers two projects to get you acquainted with using those car batteries and an Arduino First Project 3 LED Lighting has you string up some LED lighting to illuminate your base from 12V bat teries Then you’ll turn an Arduino into Project 4 Battery Monitor to make sure you don’t run out of juice Chapter 4 Zombie Alarms includes two builds you can install around your base to alert you when zombies are about Project 5 Trip Wire Alarm is a nice low tech alarm that uses a microswitch and car horn and Project 6 PIR Zombie Detector is a more high-tech zombie detector that uses a motion sensor Chapter 5 Surveillance and Raspberry Pi equips you to monitor your undead neighbors from a distance Project 7 Monitor Zombies with a USB Webcam shows you how to set up a webcam and analyze the video for movement detection in Python Project 8 A Wireless Zombie Surveillance System helps you make your surveillance system more practical by extend ing your observing range with a low-cost Wi-Fi webcam 2 Introduction
Chapter 6 Add Remote Access and Detect Open Doors helps you keep the zombies out of your base Project 9 Remote Door Lock shows you how to set up a door with an electro-mechanical door latch so that you can unlock it remotely using a wireless option and Project 10 Door Sensor will notify you when someone or something opens your door Chapter 7 Environmental Monitoring contains projects to protect you against other postapocalyptic hazards because zombies aren’t the only things you have to worry about when you’re trying to survive Project 11 Quiet Fire Alarm shows you how to hack a loud smoke detector into a more discreet alarm that’s integrated with Arduino Then you can use Project 12 Temperature Alarm to monitor temperatures and set alarms to avoid burst pipes or other disasters Chapter 8 Building a Control Center for Your Base lets you take all the sensor feedback detection systems and so on from previous projects and monitor everything on one screen In Project 13 A Raspberry Pi Control Center an Arduino monitors for door and zombie movement temperature changes and battery warnings while the Raspberry Pi displays a status window You can also add wireless communication between the Raspberry Pi and Arduino on the Control Center by following the instructions for Project 14 Going Wireless with Bluetooth This way you’ll put more dis tance between you and the dangers you’re monitoring Chapter 9 Zombie Distractors shows you how to draw zombies attention away from you so you can escape Project 15 Arduino Flash Distractor uses scavenged disposable camera flashes to distract zombies and Project 16 Arduino Movement and Sound Distractor does the same job with the sounder from a smoke alarm and a servo motor waving a flag Chapter 10 Communicating with Other Survivors shows you how to find other humans in the zombie-ridden wasteland that used to be your town Use Project 17 A Raspberry Pi Radio Transmitter Beacon to attract fellow survivors with an FM transmitter hack a low-cost FM radio to scan the air waves for messages from fellow survivors with Project 18 Arduino FM Radio Frequency Hopper and flash out messages to would-be recruits to your survivors group or warn people away with Project 19 Arduino Morse Code Beacon Chapter 11 Haptic Communication is an essential build if you want to coordinate a group of survivors on a supply run and it’s probably the coolest project in the book Project 20 Silent Haptic Communication with Arduino allow you to press a button on one device and have the other device vibrate and vice-versa The project uses an Arduino low cost 2 4GHz RF modules and a vibration motor Introduction 3
Now that you’ve seen an overview of the projects that will save you from the zombies you might like to order some parts Each project includes a parts list specific to that build including quantities and Appendix A provides details of where you can buy all the parts listed for each project in the book Resources to Download Before the Zombies Rise The book has its own web page at http www nostarch com zombies where you will find further information about the book including errata and links to the source code used in the project That code is all available on GitHub at https github com simonmonk zombies Before the apocalypse strikes be sure to visit both URLs download all necessary files for the projects save them to a flash drive and keep that flash drive in your go bag The Internet will very likely cease to exist dur ing the apocalypse whether because everyone at your ISP becomes a zombie or because the electrical grid itself collapses but if you download these files ahead of time you’ll be one step closer to outlasting the undead With your files loaded and ready let’s look at what you can expect to happen during the apocalypse 4 Introduction
APOCALYPSE BASICS Before you start working on the zombie apocalypse survival projects in this book I want to show you exactly what kind of undead you'll be dealing with and share some tips about how to survive in a zombie infested world Of course you'll need parts to make your projects Fortunately one of the few benefits of a postapocalyptic world is that there's plenty of scrap material to scavenge So in this chapter I also include a guide to finding the parts you'll need But first let's look at the background of zombies
