Posted on Monday, 22nd November 2010 by Bob
I have three kids, and I am pretty sure they must have been raised in a barn in a previous life, because most of my home automation project arose from cutting the costs associated with the kids leaving lights on, etc. With the winter coming, now I need to worry about doors open, and more specifically the garage doors, since they not only allow people and the cold in, but they also allow critters like mice, etc into the house. I am not someone who is afraid of mice, but hell, if they are gonna live under my roof and eat my food, they damn well better be paying rent
In all seriousness, this is something that is an issue for me, I HATE that, and on top of all that, since we are in the middle of several home improvement projects, my car is in the driveway at night (my garage is full of building materials). This concerns me.
So there is a way to be notified when your garage door is open, with a few things from the X10 software pile. They offer a MyGarage package that allows you to see if your door is open or closed on a mobile phone web app, then trigger it to open or close, and I have that now, but it only works with one garage, and it doesn’t do all the things I want it to do. Think about it – should your garage door be open for more than 10 mins after say 9pm? In my case, hell no
So using a DS10A contact sensor, the iAlert software, and a UM506 Universal module, a SS13 remote switch, and a lamp module, I can control everything all from one place, and check on things all at once
The plan is simple – use the DS10A to tell me is the garage is open or closed. Put a thread-in lamp module into one of the bulbs in the ceiling fan in the master bedroom, assign the SS13 remote to trigger two macros. Macro # 1 says check the status of the door, and if it is open, blink the overhead light in the master bedroom 3 times. Then I know if the garage door is open or not. Then, if I want to close it without heading downstairs, I can hit the other macro that will trip the UM506, which has been wired into the garage door buttons, to close the garage door. I can do this safely for 2 reasons: #1 I can see my driveway from the bedroom, so I will know if there is a car not backed in (like unloading groceries, etc) and #2 my garage door has photo sensors witch will not allow the garage to close if something is blocking it.
Now, if I want, I can also have it check the status of the garage on a regular basis (hourly, etc) and have it let me know via email or text message, 0r send me a text/email every time it opens/closes, etc. I can have it blink the basement lights when someone comes home, think of the possibilities.
I will get some more information up as testing progresses, but it is just one more example of how insanely flexible this platform is!
Bob
Tags: automation, cm15a, DS10A, home automation, How To, iAlert, relay, technology, UM506, x10
Posted in Security, Tranceivers, X10, X10 Hardware | Comments (0)