12,000-Mile
Universal
Remote
Flip any switch
from your
smartphone!
BY JORDAN HUSNEY
Shortly after I moved into my home, my automatic garage door
opener broke. For years after, I was content opening my garage
manually, but last summer my contentment was interrupted by
a door spring failure. When the repairman came to fix the spring,
he noted that the automatic lift was also not working and offered
to fix that too.
Before the repair I would simply open
the door by hand, grab my bike, and ride
away. After the repair I found myself needing to remember where I left the garage door
remote. I fumbled in my pockets for my keys,
but instead found my mobile phone. It has a
radio, it can communicate with the world, and
it’s always with me. Why do I need a second
device? I don’t, and neither do you. In this
project you’ll learn how to connect a mobile
phone, via the internet, to actuate your garage
door button using a wireless mesh network.
The project has 3 parts: controlling the
garage door, connecting it to the internet,
and configuring the smartphone. The basic
pattern you’ll learn here for making your own
wireless home automation devices — using
Digi International’s XBee radio module,
ConnectPort Ethernet device, XBee Internet
Gateway software, and iDigi Device Cloud
service — can be used to automate countless
other devices in your home. (Full disclosure:
I work for Digi.)
Perhaps you’d like to know when Tiger’s
water bowl is empty? Detect freezing pipes or
a leak in the basement? Know when the washing machine has finished its cycle? You can
easily add another XBee to your network and
reuse your entire wireless home automation
infrastructure — the ConnectPort, XIG, and
connection to iDigi. Everybody can share!
HOW IT WORKS
Almost all automatic garage door openers
have a hard-wired button that when pressed
opens the door. To remotely control the door,
all that’s needed is a simple circuit that can
simulate this button press. Since you’ll be able
to control the door from anywhere, you’ll also
want to detect and communicate whether the
door is open or closed. For this, you’ll add a
simple magnetic reed switch sensor that will
tell you when the door is fully closed. Then
you’ll connect this circuit to an XBee radio
that will allow you to wirelessly communicate
with a network inside your home.
66 Make: makezine.com/30
