home project (garage door open detector)

[Mook Johnson]

My garage door is constantly being left open but various unnamed members of
the family. I'd like to design a wireless device that detects the door
being open and lights an LED in the kitchen if the door is open and turns it
off if it is closed.

The garage is detached and about 30' from the house and there is a brick
veneer wall on the outside of the house. The kitchen is on the other side
of that wall.

I'm thinking I can tap the state of the limit "closed" limit switch on the
garage door and turn on the transmitter if the switch is open, turning on
the LED in the kitchen.

The logic parts will be fairly easy it is transmitter and reciever and
associatd antennas. that will be tricky.

Anyone have any ideas for a project like this.

 

[Jim Thompson]

My garage door is constantly being left open but various unnamed members of
the family. I'd like to design a wireless device that detects the door
being open and lights an LED in the kitchen if the door is open and turns it
off if it is closed.

The garage is detached and about 30' from the house and there is a brick
veneer wall on the outside of the house. The kitchen is on the other side
of that wall.

I'm thinking I can tap the state of the limit "closed" limit switch on the
garage door and turn on the transmitter if the switch is open, turning on
the LED in the kitchen.

The logic parts will be fairly easy it is transmitter and reciever and
associatd antennas. that will be tricky.

Anyone have any ideas for a project like this.

Yep. Just buy it...

http://www.1stdooropeners.com/garagedoormonitor.htm

I bought mine at a better price, so surf a bit before you buy.

...Jim Thompson

 

[John Woodgate]

The logic parts will be fairly easy it is transmitter and reciever and
associatd antennas. that will be tricky.

You could modify a wireless doorbell. Since you aren't touching the RF
part, it might even be legal.

 

[Tim Auton]

My garage door is constantly being left open but various unnamed members of
the family. I'd like to design a wireless device that detects the door
being open and lights an LED in the kitchen if the door is open and turns it
off if it is closed.

Well, Jim has already given you the best answer - buy one! At <$25
you'll have a hard time just buying the required components for less. If
however you still want to do it, for fun or learning, you can buy radio
modules which will deal with the radio bit. I think I'm on the wrong
side of the Atlantic to suggest suppliers local to you and Google only
seems to want to give me local results, but this lot have a decent
range, which should at least give you a flavour of the kind of things on
the market:

http://www.rfsolutions.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

Search for 'radio modules', 'rf modules' and the like.

If that's not enough fun and you still want to build something you need
to read up on FCC regulations to see what you're allowed to build and
operate without a license. Modules let you avoid both technical and
legal obstacles. Radio HAMs would be the best source of information and
advice if you want to get into building your own RF kit.


Tim

 

[Tam/WB2TT]

My garage door is constantly being left open but various unnamed members
of the family. I'd like to design a wireless device that detects the door
being open and lights an LED in the kitchen if the door is open and turns
it off if it is closed.

The garage is detached and about 30' from the house and there is a brick
veneer wall on the outside of the house. The kitchen is on the other side
of that wall.

I'm thinking I can tap the state of the limit "closed" limit switch on the
garage door and turn on the transmitter if the switch is open, turning on
the LED in the kitchen.

The logic parts will be fairly easy it is transmitter and reciever and
associatd antennas. that will be tricky.

Anyone have any ideas for a project like this.

I would look into using the AC line between the house and garage as a
transmission line to carry a fairly low frequency carrier. Someplace around
the low end of the AM band.

Tam

 

[Mook Johnson]

Thanks

I found it on ebay for $12...$16 shipped. Well that saved a lot of time.

 

[Mook Johnson]

now that is a interesting idea! Kinda like X10.

 

[default]

My garage door is constantly being left open but various unnamed members of
the family. I'd like to design a wireless device that detects the door
being open and lights an LED in the kitchen if the door is open and turns it
off if it is closed.

The garage is detached and about 30' from the house and there is a brick
veneer wall on the outside of the house. The kitchen is on the other side
of that wall.

I'm thinking I can tap the state of the limit "closed" limit switch on the
garage door and turn on the transmitter if the switch is open, turning on
the LED in the kitchen.

The logic parts will be fairly easy it is transmitter and reciever and
associatd antennas. that will be tricky.

Anyone have any ideas for a project like this.

Piece of cake - buy one of those "remote finders" or "you've got
mail"-in your rural mailbox, or wireless doorbells, and attach it to a
tilt/mercury switch to transmit when the door is up.

Or sound a horn that quickly conditions the offenders to close the
door - with a 5 minute reset or something to keep you from going crazy
too.

 

[Genome]

My garage door is constantly being left open but various unnamed members
of the family. I'd like to design a wireless device that detects the door
being open and lights an LED in the kitchen if the door is open and turns
it off if it is closed.

The garage is detached and about 30' from the house and there is a brick
veneer wall on the outside of the house. The kitchen is on the other side
of that wall.

I'm thinking I can tap the state of the limit "closed" limit switch on the
garage door and turn on the transmitter if the switch is open, turning on
the LED in the kitchen.

The logic parts will be fairly easy it is transmitter and reciever and
associatd antennas. that will be tricky.

Anyone have any ideas for a project like this.

I suppose that's the end of the world as I know it.

I don't suppose you could fill up lots of buckets of cold water and dump
them in beds in the house and say.......

'Whoops, Gosh..... sorry

I FORGOT TO FLUSH THE TOILET AND COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO WAIT FOR THE
CISTERN TO FILL UP AGAIN SO I GOT THESE BUCKETS OF WATER TO DO THE JOB,
BECAUSE IT'S REALLY EMBARRASING HAVING TURDS FLOATING IN THE TOILET, AND
THEN I WASN'T ABLE TO WORK OUT WHAT TO DO WITH THEM SO IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD
IDEA TO TOSS THEM ON ABSORBANT MATERIAL BECAUSE LIKE I THOUGHT ABOUT WASHING
THE GARAGE DOOR BUT WHEN I WENT DOWNSTAIRS IT WASN'T THERE'

Are you a man or a mouse?

DNA

 

[Genome]

My garage door is constantly being left open but various unnamed members
of the family. I'd like to design a wireless device that detects the door
being open and lights an LED in the kitchen if the door is open and turns
it off if it is closed.

The garage is detached and about 30' from the house and there is a brick
veneer wall on the outside of the house. The kitchen is on the other side
of that wall.

I'm thinking I can tap the state of the limit "closed" limit switch on the
garage door and turn on the transmitter if the switch is open, turning on
the LED in the kitchen.

The logic parts will be fairly easy it is transmitter and reciever and
associatd antennas. that will be tricky.

Anyone have any ideas for a project like this.

Of course you might borrow a flame thrower from the local NRA then stand in
the drive and totally torch the contents.

You would need some old neighbor bloke standing by.......

'Damn! I'm sure that wouldn't have happened if the door was closed.'

'Dang tooting.'

DNA

 

[Tam/WB2TT]

You could modify a wireless doorbell. Since you aren't touching the RF
part, it might even be legal.
--
OOO - Own Opinions Only. Try www.jmwa.demon.co.uk and www.isce.org.uk
2006 is YMMVI- Your mileage may vary immensely.

John Woodgate, J M Woodgate and Associates, Rayleigh, Essex UK

I thought this was a really great idea until I started thinking about it.
The doorbell button sends a momentary signal. When do you send it? not when
the door first opens. How about resetting it? I think the best bet is to
forget about radio and use wire. Unless the ground is paved over, you can
bury it a couple of inches.

Tam

 

[John Woodgate]

I thought this was a really great idea until I started thinking about
it. The doorbell button sends a momentary signal. When do you send it?
not when the door first opens. How about resetting it?

What did you not understand about 'modify'?

 

[xray]

'Dang tooting.'

Pretty sure the accepted phrase is, 'Darn tooting.'

Is this another case of differences in phraseology between the US and GB
like bonnet-hood or boot-trunk, or maybe some just kind of genomic
irony?

 

[John Woodgate]

Pretty sure the accepted phrase is, 'Darn tooting.'

Is this another case of differences in phraseology between the US and GB
like bonnet-hood or boot-trunk, or maybe some just kind of genomic
irony?

Genome is Australian, or so I believe. They do speak a sort of English,
or claim to. But I suspect 'dang' is just a slip.

 

[Mook Johnson]

How ot you handle this response...."Whoopsie I forgot again!!!"

Just keep beatin asses until they remember or CPS come to drag me off..which
ever come first.

I think I like my $16 solution.

 

[Mook Johnson]

Here in the south its

Darn tootin'.

 

[Tam/WB2TT]

What did you not understand about 'modify'?

The guy could have buried 10 feet of wire in the time it took you to come up
with this.

Tam

 

[Ancient_Hacker]

I wouldnt bother with designing this-- it's been done many times over.

Try a few of these ideas on for size:

Buy a remote thermometer. For $19.95 you get an indoor base station
and two transmitters.

Place one transmitter outdoors so you will get the outside temp. Take
the other transmitter and put a "burglar" reed switch in series with
one thermistor lead. Place the burglar sensor on your garage door.

Then when your garage door is closed, you'll get the garage temperature
reading. When it's open, you'll get a very high or low temp reading,
or a line of dashes. Only glitch is it only updates every few minutes
so its not the most timely of sensors.

 

[Don Bowey]

Genome is Australian, or so I believe. They do speak a sort of English,
or claim to. But I suspect 'dang' is just a slip.

Well, drat! Which is it?

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Genome is Australian, or so I believe. They do speak a sort of English,
or claim to. But I suspect 'dang' is just a slip.

Well, he does love his lingerie.


--
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