Garage Door Control with monitor & Android

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After seeing the post about the garage door opener I decided it was time to post mine which I have had in place at my current rented townhome for 6 months and had at my previous rental home for 2 years, and it doesn’t require any welding, just sticky-tack and depending on how clean you want maybe a couple zip-ties. I have 3 physical units and 3 programs.

  1. The opener, a FEZ Panda II with an XBee shield for communication with a e-block relay which connects to the terminals on the garage door opener and a digital input that uses a magnetic rail sensor to tell if it is open or closed. Also receives commands through the XBee to open or close. If the door is open it ignores new open commands, if closed it ignores new closed commands, so it only triggers when appropriate. (will be upgraded CerbuinoBee)

  2. The remote, a FEZ Mini with an XBee, LED, and a switch (2 switches in series to prevent the cat from opening the garage door). The LED flashes at 4hz if it is not getting a signal from the opener, and at 1hz if the garage door is open. It is solid on if the garage door is closed. (will be upgraded CerbuinoBee)

  3. The server unit, an XBee USB adapter, this is connected to from a web service that an Android app I wrote connects to. The android app can get the status of the garage door (open or closed) and send open/close commands to the web server which then relays those through the XBee.

4 - built and tested but not off the workbench yet) A CerbuinoBee with an XBee and an RFID module, if the RFID module gets a valid code it sends an open/close signal to trigger the door.

If anyone wants more details on how it works or source code please let me know.

5 Likes
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Picture 1 & 2 are the remote, picture 3 is the opener, picture 4 is the rail sensors stuck on with sticky-tack, picture 5 is the XBee USB onthe web server.

And yes, my 9 year old daughter did figure out that part of why I enjoy this stuff so much is because it is a perfectly acceptable reason for a grown man to play with his Legos. :slight_smile:

Lego instructions can be provided as well. Many of the things are a bit loose or just pressure placed.

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@ PintSize.Me - top effort, always good to see proper working projects, well done :slight_smile:

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Thanks. Version 1 was Phidget based, but the Phidget SBC is very expensive, quite a bit bigger, and just not as friendly to work with. I love the rest of the Phidget world though and I used a Samsung Q1 back then.

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Very cool!

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Nice project!

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I want one of those :slight_smile:

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@ Gus
How much help do you want in getting one?

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I’ve now added RFID to the mix.

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It is finding time to work in these fun project. Maybe when we are done adding new products :slight_smile: (will never happen!)

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Marvelous job PintSize.Me!! Really appreciable I have never seen garage door which works on android.
I also work for commercial garage doors. Just out of curiosity wanna ask you that are those garage doors are of pull over fashion?

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Got a link for a pull over garage door so I can see what you mean? I built the system I use myself, so I can probably figure out a way to adapt it.