remotely indicative

[sunnybob]

i am looking for a remote operated indicator for my garage door.

The garage is around the side of the house out of sight, and it has an electric roller door which is a pain to keep raising and lowering. i mostly leave it open all day. But just lately I have twice forgotten to close it at night.

Luckily, I am not too worried about thieves as we are pretty remote but am more worried about snakes. There are 8 species on the island, two are very poisonous and I live next door to fields and often see them sliding across the roadway. I dont want any of them deciding to nest in my garage one night.
So, finally, we get to the needy bit.

I am looking for an indicator lamp that I can rig to the garage door to show inside the house if it is closed or open.
i have the roller switch, but i need a transmitter and receiver that will light the lamp while the door is open, and turn the lamp off when it closes.
I'm talking about a small car dashboard type indicator lamp.
Anyone?

 

[Noel]

This, if you're reasonably attentive to your phone:

https://www.gogogate.com/ one of many on the market, may be costly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u64zBLsoFcI



Or:

 

[sunnybob]

Oh man, that fails on so many levels.

After 20 minutes of chasing dealers i still couldnt get a price.
i never carry my smart phone unless I'm going out.
My smart phone is not internet connected.

I would have to check my phone (if it was connected and if I knew where it was) every time i wanted to know status.
Thanks but no thanks.

I did have a hard wired lamp showing status in the hall at the bottom of the stairs, but due to house re modelling I cant do that any more because I would now have to run a 50 foot cable all around the front of the house.
I need a wireless version of plan B

 

[novocaine]

Arduino to the rescue. Again. 2 micro arduino, a wireless transmitter and an led (Ok and a resistor and a switch).
Very simply bit of programming and your good to go.

 

[Noel]

Oh man, that fails on so many levels.

After 20 minutes of chasing dealers i still couldnt get a price.
i never carry my smart phone unless I'm going out.
My smart phone is not internet connected.

I would have to check my phone (if it was connected and if I knew where it was) every time i wanted to know status.
Thanks but no thanks.

I did have a hard wired lamp showing status in the hall at the bottom of the stairs, but due to house re modelling I cant do that any more because I would now have to run a 50 foot cable all around the front of the house.
I need a wireless version of plan B

Why chase dealers if you don't carry your phone, can't find it most days and it's not really a smart phone and have no wifi?
As Novocaine mentions, find a controller board and other bits, would work out for little money. Or put a timer on it, simplest way.

 

[ColeyS1]

http://www.homewizard.co.uk/magnetic-co ... 52-hw.html
This would do it. Years ago b and q had all the home easy stuff in the clearance. I had this on a door sensor, then had a home easy plug with a radio plugged in. When the door was open, it would switch the radio on for a preset amount of time, or you could have it so it'd stay on continuous until it was closed. Really good stuff, could never understand why they were selling it for pennies.

 

[monkeybiter]

Can you mount a small mirror in a tree so that you can see the garage from the house?

 

[sunnybob]

Mike, no. The neighbour might get the hump if i keep flashing a torch at the front of his house every evening just to see it reflect onto the garage door.

Novocaine & Noel. I'm not up to speed on ardinos and programming. hell, as far as I know, i have never seen an arduino.

Coley. Thats my kind of simple. the missus is back to the UK next month, I shall have to get her to bring one back. Thanks.

 

[ColeyS1]

Apologies sunnybob.
Just had a look at the back of one of my sensors and it's got 0-20minutes. I thought the zero meant continuous, but instruction manual tells a different story.

Probably not what you're looking for.

 

[John Brown]

Distance? Line of sight? There is probably a wireless solution, but hard to tell without some idea of the geography/topology.

 

[sunnybob]

50 foot, through a concrete and brick house.
Power available at both locations, I would rather NOT have to use batteries.


Thanks for looking coley, I thought that was too good to be true.

 

[John Brown]

Is it within the range of your home WiFi?

 

[Ian down london way]

Could you plug in a laser within the garage pointing out to a target somewhere (you own) that you can see out of your kitchen window. Then if there is a red light on the target you know the door is open.

(similar to mirror, but better over longer distances).s

Make the target a swarovski crystal ball set into a tree, and it could look rather pretty.

 

[sunnybob]

yes its in range of the wi'fi, but as said earlier, I dont want to have to keep finding my phone and running an app to find out if its open or closed. I just want an indicator lamp I can fix to a bracket that I can see from across the room before i go to bed each night.

Nope, cant use a laser, theres a house dead opposite the garage door.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Could look at baby monitors for a solution - although normally the sensors respond to noise so may need to rig up a mod to make the sensor send signal when door open.

Just a thought!!

Terry

 

[sunnybob]

Baby monitors use batteries, they would only last a couple days if i had it transmitting 8 hours a day.

I need a remote switch that latches a relay on, and then much later, from a second signal, unlatches the relay.
I thought this would be an easy problem to solve. Cant work out why whatever I want the answer is "theres no call for that sir".

 

[Shed hermit]

Have a look at the baby monitors with a video option. Quick web search for £60 you get camera and monitor both mains powered, one part has rechargeable batteries but sits in charging station, 250m range, so could work. If you can get hold of a second hand one might be worth a try!

 

[John Brown]

yes its in range of the wi'fi, but as said earlier, I dont want to have to keep finding my phone and running an app to find out if its open or closed. I just want an indicator lamp I can fix to a bracket that I can see from across the room before i go to bed each night.

Nope, cant use a laser, theres a house dead opposite the garage door.

Ideal job for two ESP8266 modules running Arduino code and using MQTT. You might need to study up a bit, though.

 

[sunnybob]

"Ideal job for two ESP8266 modules running Arduino code and using MQTT. You might need to study up a bit, though."


What, like study up and find out what an arduino is, you mean?
I am not that far into any kind of software or computing.
i just want a remote switch.

Mains powered monitors are closer to my needs, but dont really want to have a video screen (even a small one) in the place I have ear marked for my light.

 

[John Brown]

Who knows? You might find it fun.
Still, understand if you're not interested. Just throwing out suggestions.