Look up the ESP8266. It's a very cheap piece of hardware that you can program using the Arduino IDE. It can connect to your local WiFi easily and send a push notification to your phone.
So you can build something like this using a simple PIR sensor + ESP8266.
Just made an account to say this and you beat me to it.
I built a garage door opening sensor using an ESP8266 (connected to my home wifi) and a magnetic contact switch. I'm also using TelAPI to send me SMS messages every time the garage door is opened.
It is very simple to do, and kind of cheap.
Re:Bluetooth LED bulbs
by andrey_utkin on Friday July 08, 2016 @10:39AM
(#12055840)
Could you please share any existing sources (schema, firmware)? Thanks in advance.
Re:Bluetooth LED bulbs
by impostervt on Friday July 08, 2016 @10:57AM
(#12055965)
Thanks, sounds similar to the particle photon + pir sensor I used for my version 1. It works, but i'm wondering if the phone part is overkill if I want to make this into a real product. Requires programming, an app on the app store, etc. If i have a second piece of hardware to receive and make noise, maybe that would be easier.
Re:Bluetooth LED bulbs
by andrey_utkin on Friday July 08, 2016 @10:18AM
(#12055659)
You didn't mention wires. And I think it's worth considering. Most probably your sensor is going to be connected to power plug (if it goes detached). So why not to situate mini-server (RPi-alike) nearby, with a sensor connected by wire?
Re:Bluetooth LED bulbs
by impostervt on Friday July 08, 2016 @10:28AM
(#12055740)
Not sure I follow. The door sensor is going to be hanging on my daughter's door, and the alarm would be in my room, probably 40 ft away.
Re:Bluetooth LED bulbs
by andrey_utkin on Friday July 08, 2016 @10:37AM
(#12055821)
Wherever you place the sensor, it most probably needs power supply. Batteries die, so I'd go with plugging into power socket. Since we use a nearby (to daughter's door) power socket, we could insert _right_there_ a mini-PC to control the sensor (because sensor just senses, and you need some "digital brain" to do something with results of sensing). Then mini-PC could notify you in a lot of possible ways.
As a software person who is just getting into electronics (played with a particle photon, just bought the Make: Electronics book & component kit to learn), what are the options when you want to have two pieces of hardware communicate inside a house?
- Bluetooth - limited range?
- Wifi - requires you to join each piece to the network, seems a hassle/expensive for simple electronics.
- Xbee - expensive!
- RF transmitter/receiver - seems cheap, but maybe distance is limited and there may be a lot of noise?
Anything else?