Controlling a relay via cellular phone.....

[Tomi Holger Engdahl]

Hello,

Since a few weeks I am running a webcamserver . It is stationed 40
Kilometers away. I control it via an UltraVNC connection. However, about 2
times a week I need to hard-reset the computer manually.
I am looking for some kind of construction to reset the computer via a GSM
cellular phone.
The only thing I need is a relay that I can switch by making a call to the
GSM phone. So, I need only 1 channel.
This relay could switch the reset-button.

Can anyone help me out?

Check out this:

REMOTE CONTROL VIA GSM MOBILE PHONE
http://www.velleman.be/be/en/product/view/?id=350454
turn equipment ON and OFF from a random place via your cellular phone
ring detection circuit avoids phone charges
no need to open or modify your cellular or connect it with other devices
compatible with most cellular phones

Looks promising...
I have non tested this articular product, but
Velleman kits have generally been quite good quality products.

 

[Rich Grise, Plainclothes Hippie]

Not on a computer. On the other hand, I work with well designed
equipment that doesn't need a panic button.

No, but PCs did have the "ANY" key for awhile - a big rectangular red
button on the front panel that gave the box a hard reset. >:->

Thanks,
Rich

 

[EsDee]

Hi all,

Thanks for your reactions.
The Velleman kit is what I bought and it works perfectly!

regards,
Marcel

 

[Peter Hucker]

Did anyone ever tell you about the huge voltage potential between the
electron gun at the back of your monitor, and the screen you have a few
inches from your nose.
RUN, RUN

tapwater
Professional Chicken Plucker

[snip]

Isn't the correct spelling "PHUCKER" ?

...Jim Thompson

I resemble that remark!

--
http://www.petersparrots.com http://www.insanevideoclips.com http://www.petersphotos.com

A couple was on their honeymoon, laying in bed, about ready to consummate their marriage, when the new bride says to the husband, "I have a confession to make, I'm not a virgin."
The husband replies, "That's no big thing in this day and age."
The wife continues, "Yeah, I've been with one other guy."
"Oh yeah? Who was the guy?"
"Tiger Woods."
"Tiger Woods the golfer?"
"Yeah."
"Well he's rich, famous and handsome. I can see why you went to bed with him."
The husband and wife then make passionate love. When they get done, the husband gets up and walks to the telephone.
"What are you doing?" says the wife.
The husband says, "I'm hungry. I was going to call room service and get some food."
"Tiger wouldn't do that."
"Oh yeah? What would Tiger do?"
"He'd come back to bed and do it a second time."
The husband puts down the phone and goes back to bed to make love with his wife a second time. When they finish, he gets up and goes over to the phone.
"What are you doing?" She says.
The husband says, "I'm still hungry so I was going to get room service to get some food."
"Tiger wouldn't do that."
"Oh yeah? What would Tiger do?"
"He'd come back to bed and do it one more time."
The guy slams down the phone and goes back to bed and makes love to his wife one more time. When they finish he's tired and beat. He drags himself over to the phone and starts to dial.
The wife asks, "Are you calling room service?"
"No! I'm calling Tiger Woods to find out what's par for this hole!"

 

[Peter Hucker]

Thats rediculous.

You can spell what YOU do any way that you want to.

Did anyone ever tell you about the huge voltage potential between the
electron gun at the back of your monitor, and the screen you have a few
inches from your nose.
RUN, RUN

tapwater
Professional Chicken Plucker

[snip]

Isn't the correct spelling "PHUCKER" ?

...Jim Thompson

 

[Jamie]

the calls to the watchdog resetting routine need to come from the software
that's being monitored, if it's not done this way and the payload software
crashes ties the network in a knot but the watchdog pinger keeps pinging
you're no better off.

I got in late on this thread.

Basically, it'd be pretty easy to rig a relay device to the reset pin from the
phone ringer. But.. you'll need a dedicated phone for that. (As I understand it,
this is basically how the terrorists do their business, 'cept it's a bomb instead
of a bombed computer..)

Not really advisable though, unless you want any phone call to reboot the computer.

A watchdog timer is the best approach, the idea is to wire it like a dead man switch,
(gee, morbid today) so that failing to send it a signal will cause a reboot.

If it's a specific piece of network software being monitored, a software solution
would be far easier, the "watchdog" could do double duty, for example, attempting
to load a page from a web server, if it fails, reboot the web server and set a flag
so the next iteration checks to see it restarted proper if THAT fails, then stop sending
signals to the watchdog timer and await a reboot.

That way, you won't need to reboot the comptuter when a specific application dies and
if you (the watchdog process) fail to send a signal to the watchdog timer, it still does
a reboot.

UNIX'ish operating systems, this would be easy to do. Not sure about windows.

If you insist on going the phone route, I'd probably look for an old answering machine,
the kind with a tape that allow you to fetch your messages via remote via a code. Then,
rig into THAT machine (playback motor or something, look for a led or other signal that
is only active when fetching messages) At least you'd have a minimal
password protection scheme.

Jamie

 

[Charlie Edmondson]

What the hell is "The red button"?

It has a big sign on it, saying "DO NOT PRESS"

It takes a little force to press it, and then a sign lights up -

RELEASE TO DETONATE



Charlie

 

[Mark Fortune]

It has a big sign on it, saying "DO NOT PRESS"

It takes a little force to press it, and then a sign lights up -

RELEASE TO DETONATE



Charlie

Sounds like a job for gaffer tape

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

It has a big sign on it, saying "DO NOT PRESS"

It takes a little force to press it, and then a sign lights up -

RELEASE TO DETONATE



Charlie

And the question was, "What do you find in an Iranian voting booth?"


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[martin griffith]

And the question was, "What do you find in an Iranian voting booth?"

here

http://www.nogw.com/electionfraud.html


martin

 

[jasen]

I got in late on this thread.

Basically, it'd be pretty easy to rig a relay device to the reset pin from the
phone ringer. But.. you'll need a dedicated phone for that. (As I understand it,
this is basically how the terrorists do their business, 'cept it's a bomb instead
of a bombed computer..)

Not really advisable though, unless you want any phone call to reboot the computer.

if you've got free caller-id (it';s free on mobiles here) you can easily set
it so that only calls from trusted parties reboot it.

A watchdog timer is the best approach, the idea is to wire it like a dead man switch,
(gee, morbid today) so that failing to send it a signal will cause a reboot.

If it's a specific piece of network software being monitored, a software solution
would be far easier, the "watchdog" could do double duty, for example, attempting
to load a page from a web server, if it fails, reboot the web server and set a flag
so the next iteration checks to see it restarted proper if THAT fails, then stop sending
signals to the watchdog timer and await a reboot.

That way, you won't need to reboot the comptuter when a specific application dies and
if you (the watchdog process) fail to send a signal to the watchdog timer, it still does
a reboot.

UNIX'ish operating systems, this would be easy to do. Not sure about windows.

should be do-able on windows.

If you insist on going the phone route, I'd probably look for an old
answering machine,

yeah, that'd work well on a fixed line.

 

[EsDee]

I got the Velleman kit MK160.
It's in a plastic box together with an old mobile phone.

When the phone's display lits up, it triggers the MK160.
On this device I can select the switching time from 0.5 seconds to 1 hour.
I set it to 2 seconds, connected it to the reset button, and configured the
phone to only accept my number as allowed caller. All other numbers are
blocked.

Works great!

Thanks for the input.
Marcel

 

[martin griffith]

I got the Velleman kit MK160.
It's in a plastic box together with an old mobile phone.

When the phone's display lits up, it triggers the MK160.
On this device I can select the switching time from 0.5 seconds to 1 hour.
I set it to 2 seconds, connected it to the reset button, and configured the
phone to only accept my number as allowed caller. All other numbers are
blocked.

Works great!

Thanks for the input.
Marcel

Like this?

http://tinyurl.com/zl5tc


martin

 

[EsDee]

Yep, like that

The MK160 kit costs about $ 15

 

[BadHabit]

Another solution might be to just set up a windows timed event to
reboot your remote machine on a daily basis at some obscure time of
day or in the very early morning. If it is restarting ever day and
you are getting by with only having to reset every 3 or 4 days, then
the software solution would circumvent any need for a hardware fix.