Create a Burglar Alarm with ESP32-C5 and Rust

Let’s get straight into a practical project. We will create a simple burglar alarm using our first sensor, a PIR (Passive Infrared) sensor.

Imagine you want to know when someone enters a room while you are away. The PIR sensor can detect movement in the room, and the ESP32-C5 can respond. For this demo, we will turn on the RGB LED and sound a buzzer. In a real scenario, you might want to send an alert to your phone instead. Of course, a PIR sensor would not be enough on its own for a complete security system. You would typically use other sensors and cameras as well. But this project will give us a basic idea.

Requirements

For this project, you will need:

• ESP32-C5 development board
• PIR motion sensor
• Jumper wires
• Active buzzer (optional)

HC-SR501 PIR sensor module

The HC-SR501 is a PIR motion sensor module commonly used for motion detection in projects such as burglar alarms, automatic lighting, and home automation. It has a pyroelectric sensor and a dome-shaped Fresnel lens that help it detect changes in infrared radiation within its sensing area.

Active Buzzer

If you don’t have an active buzzer, you can leave it out of the circuit and skip the relevant parts of the code. If you decide to use a buzzer, make sure you get an active buzzer, not a passive buzzer. An active buzzer can produce a sound when you simply turn it on, which keeps things simple for this example.