Garage Monitor 3001

Problem: My garage is detached from my house, difficult to see if the doors are open from the house. Or maybe I am in a hurry to ride to work and forgot to close the door.

Solution: Parallax BS2 based monitor. I can check the status of my garage doors form the web, and with a plugin to Nagios I get paged if it open more than 15 minutes.

This is an update to an earlier garage monitor I made, just tailored to this use.

Step 1: Parts

Parts:
Parallax Basic Stamp 2
Parallax Board of Education
Parallax PINK
Parallax 4x20 Backlit LCD
Radioshack Project Box
Piece of Plexi Glass
4 pole terminal block
SPST Toggle Switch
DC Power Jack
DC Power supply for BS2

18 AWG Speaker Wire
12" Cat 5 Ethernet cable
2 x RJ45 Plugs
Magnetic NO Switches for doors

** Cat optional.

Step 2: Tools

Screw Driver
Dremel
RJ 45 Crimper
Wire Stripper
PC with serial port/or adapter.

Step 3: Put Everything in the Case

I find it easier to start on a project if I can at least get everything in a case and then begin programming it.

I cut a piece of plexi glass with a dremel stylus for the top so you could see the 4 line lcd.

I chose not to put an RJ45 jack in the box as I couldn't make a neat enough cut with a dremel. So I ran the cat 5 cable through the box and then crimped the plugs after I was done.

I wired the LCD display to pins 0 1 2
The Reed switches to pins 3 4
The pink to pins 13 14

Step 4: Program the Code

Now as I said before I find it easier to work on a project when it is more than a pile of wires.

Only problem, I don't have a lot of room to attach a serial cable. So I made a little extension cord for the programming sessions.

The code is attached for the bs2.

Step 5: Upload Web Page to Pink

The pink needs a corresponding html page to display the status. Upload it to the pink via ftp.

Step 6: Installation

Wire it up in the garage. I used 18AWG speaker wire to run from the box to the sensors, its cheap...

I don't have wired internet in the garage, so I used an old linksys wireless bridge WET11 is the model I believe.

Step 7: Proxy the Pink

I don't have any idea if the pink was made to be secure, nor do I want to find out.

So I use a php script to grab the script from my web server using curl, which doesn't allow anyone to put in any post variables.

Script is attached.

Step 8: Its Done

Now you can check the status of your garage from anywhere.

If anyone wants it, I can make the nagios plugin available for paging.