No touch gate opening?

[pete_c]

Yeah best to play with what you get and see what you can do with it.   Here I have the most fun playing with the stuff.
 
IE: the new car bus allows me to open / close windows, turn on lights and shut off and on the car.  I cannot drive it remotely though.  It would be fun though to just commandeer the automobile when triggered by the RFID and have the computer drive it to the house with no driver interaction all via a widget question "do you want to share this app?"
 
Personally I like the aforementioned RFID solution because its not internet / cloud / phone dependant. 
 
That said the tag is larger than a key and smaller than a breadbox.  I have read that the batteries last a while for some while for others didn't such that they replaced batteries with battery packs.  I had issues with two cars as the automobiles shuts off all of the electronics (any draw in the car) pushing me back to having to deal with a small tank battery.
 
Here when I had the irrigation lines run outside added probably 2X more PVC for LV / HV chases outside. 
 
Automation is a hobby here. 
 
I utilize those under the driveway sensors which are connected to the panel and for fun playing with outdoor in the ground geophone sensors.
 
Here are pictures of the front gate / camera  and card reader access stuff (well there is more) for one home nearby.
 
Local neighbour just put a card access reader combo camera at his front gate.  You barely noticed that its there but you have to put the card right up to the card reader. 
 
Front driveway / gate set up
 

 
Overview of home
 

 
Another local home new build the guy lite up his home like a Christmas tree with down and up facing lights everywhere which really looks tacky considering the home build was probably 2-3 million dollars. Kind of an ugly home build (its an eyesore).   (well and having to climb on a 30 foot + ladder to change a bulb is sort of mickey mouse when you have this type of lighting every 10 feet).
 

 

[pete_c]

I have yet to check the RFID stuff while entering the subdivision here.  I have looked at the NVR triggers (well based on motion / video algorithms.  I cannot really get any uniformity using the video stuff and best test will be the changes seen and position of the vehicle.
 

 

 

[drvnbysound]

pete, the problem I'd have using any video analytics is that I don't have a private drive at all and live in a standard subdivision with general access... so video based analytics to trigger my garage door to open could be triggered by any vehicle that's not so good for security... unless you've got some consumer grade analytics that can differentiate my Toyota Camry or Honda Civic from anyone else's (I don't own either of those, but my idea is not to provide this solution to myself only)
 
Hence the need to be able to 1) identify via a specific vehicle/person/device and 2) do so at a range at least as good as the provided garage door opener. If I have to pull into my driveway for the GDO to be triggered, I'd have to wait to pull into the garage - and it would have been better to have manually triggered the door via the remote from further away. It's one of those cases where if an automated solution can't be better than pressing that button manually, then it's not really worth the effort.

 

[pete_c]

Yeah above the video analytics events is just the NVR software.  I always compare this stuff with the analog triggers.  It does get a bit granular.  Video events also get triggered by analog devices.

IE: the outside lights (when not on scheduled on)  go on relating to any motion / driveway analog sensor that gets triggered. 
 
BTW looking at frame by frames this morning UPB light triggers noticed UPB switches all in sync turning on all of the outside lights in the same second.  I have my coach lights going from dim to bright and see that stuff in the individual frames caught in the one second timeframe of multiple captured frames.  A "seconds" response time to the driving up the driveway lighting would have them turning on while I was in the garage.
 
The is where though the RFID, bluetooth, cellphone stuff comes in to play.  They all can be vehicle or person specific. 
 
Yeah noticed this morning opening the garage door at the start of the driveway takes it halfway up by the time I get to the door driving slowly up the driveway. 
 
The RFID triggered way before I had a visual of the garage door.  I am not sure if I like that or not.  Range is further than GDO. 
 
Next test....configuring an outgoing text message to me as the RFID gets triggered. (logging the individual pieces of it.  Trigger reception, SMTP time of and ack of stuff.)
 
Proof of the pudding test though will be when you guys try the RFID stuff hands on.. 

 

[tmbrown97]

If I lived in a rural area with an automatic gate, I'd be pretty tempted to use an ANPR camera; that way I could automatically let in friends/family provided the TOD is within normal hours.  For my own cars with 24/7 I'd likely add in the RFID as well.
 
For a garage door only in a sea of tract homes I definitely wouldn't do it - I can see plenty of times I'd pull up and not want the door to open. 
 
I need to go check on the RFID options again; I remember CheaperRFID had a ton of stuff that all phased out - haven't looked much since.

 

[pete_c]

Yeah; the cameras are in place.  I do sometimes stop by neighbours here a block or so away. 
 
The houses here though are spread apart and there are no fences allowed. 
 
I can see my back yard (and lights) when I first come into the 100 home subdivision (one entrance only). 
 
One of the only changes I made to the RFID receivers over the years was using external power as the original ones were powered by the serial ports that they were connected to.  IE: the receiver in the attic cat5e cable runs from the com closet in the basement to the attic in the two story home. > 50 feet and < 100 feet.
 
I never did purchase my stuff from any third parties (which did discontinue them / quit selling the stuff) and none of it was discontinued from the vendor mentioned above as I did purchase extra stuff over the years. (old stuff worked fine with the new stuff).

 

[drvnbysound]

If I lived in a rural area with an automatic gate, I'd be pretty tempted to use an ANPR camera; that way I could automatically let in friends/family provided the TOD is within normal hours.  For my own cars with 24/7 I'd likely add in the RFID as well.
 
For a garage door only in a sea of tract homes I definitely wouldn't do it - I can see plenty of times I'd pull up and not want the door to open. 
 
I need to go check on the RFID options again; I remember CheaperRFID had a ton of stuff that all phased out - haven't looked much since.

 
My wife and I used to open the garage door every time we arrived at home and entered through the garage whether we parked in there or not. The reason being, at that time, was that we did not have an electronic lock on the front door and didn't care to use our key (manually! UGH) each time we came home. Today, we primarily use the front door since it's now a Zwave deadbolt that we just enter a PIN for.
 
Having said that, I brought up the use case due to a friend who recently got an Elk and his wife parks in their garage any time she comes home. He wants to automate the opening of the garage door for her (mainly because it's possible and just a fun automation exercise), but as I stated above the solution would have to work as good or better than manually pressing that button in her car.
 
Understand that the approach for doing so has been thought about for a few weeks and we've tossed around many ideas, some of which would include getting a software developer involved - it just so happens that we "know some guys" who would be willing to support, but we're trying to see if there are easier solutions that could be implemented first. Today, the beta system consists of a wireless AP that is installed in the vehicle that connects to the homes AP (bridged); a RPi is running and inspecting a Syslog and when it "sees" that mobile AP, it triggers one of it's relays which is connected to a zone input on Elk to open the GD. Some additional logic has been added so that the AP in the vehicle doesn't start up until ~5minutes after the vehicle was started, which gives them enough time to leave... usually. That was just one of the initial beta tests to try and get something working...

 

[pete_c]

Curious what the time and materials cost are for the beta testing stuff?  (AP and RPI and custom scripts stuff). 
 
Is the AP smaller than a breadbox? 

 

[drvnbysound]

Curious what the time and materials cost are for the beta testing stuff?  (AP and RPI and custom scripts stuff). 
 
Is the AP smaller than a breadbox? 

 
AP is an old WRT54G router; my friend has many of them from an older project where some wireless mesh was being tested. I bought one in the Classifieds here on the forum for $7 a while back
 
The RPi was $35, plus a PiFace2 I/O board (with relays); using a single relay to provide an input to Elk. Obviously the RPi can be multi-purposed in that application where Python code can be written to trigger all sorts of things, not only via contact but network or serial as well

 

[pete_c]

Very nice.
 
This morning you had me looking at RF used for model airplanes and found the attached which is tiny 433Mhz RF 2-way.
 

 

 
Testing with Homeseer this morning.  Very slow response times to event. (my opinion based the following).
 
-  ON RFID Transmitter Today 06:08:44 AM
-  If then event
-  Event Trigger and text at 06:10:06 AM
 
 
Next test try up the priority of event.

 

[drvnbysound]

Ah, very cool stuff and interesting idea! That's a large reason that I posted about the idea, trying to see if anyone else had ideas or directions that maybe we hadn't thought of... and using RF comms from an airplane wasn't on our radar ;-)

 

[pete_c]

That and some of remote airplane stuff is made for long distance remote control these days.
 
That said you can also do proprietary serial wireless and get some really good local range.
 
Here thinking of ordering the RFID receivers with the solenoid switches and bypassing any software with direct switch connections to the OPII panel. 
 
You can do APRS these days (well you need a radio license) very cheap. (< $100 per automobile)
 
The Nexux Hawk devices I purchased (to play with) have built in GPS/wireless and dual GSM and work well for this sort of thing.
 
You can do more with the Linksys WRT54G's putting OpenWRT on them versus DD-WRT.
 
You can also probably modify a remote control starter as a quick check this morning shows ranges up to 1.7 miles/9000 feet and communications provides all sorts of information...well and its cheap and tiny.

 

[pete_c]

Here are some numbers from this afternoon.
` 30 seconds before driveway sensors triggered
Note this relates too to me driving around 15-25 mph as I enter the subdivision.
 
2/26/2015 6:18:00 PM     Event     Event Trigger "RFID Trigger"
2/26/2015 6:18:00 PM     Device Control     Device: Outside Garage Coach - Ch: 1 (@15+18+17) ON
2/26/2015 6:18:01 PM     email     Email successfully sent to ....RFID trigger
2/26/2015 6:18:28 PM     Event     Event Trigger "Sensor"....driveway sensor trigger
2/26/2015 6:18:28 PM     Event     Event Trigger "Chime"
 
Next morning numbers: (` 30 seconds before driveway sensors triggered)
 
2/27/2015 6:09:54 AM     Event     Event Trigger "RFID Trigger"
2/27/2015 6:09:54 AM     Device Control     Device: Outside Garage Coach - Ch: 1 (@15+18+17) ON
2/27/2015 6:09:55 AM     email     Email successfully sent to ....RFID trigger txt/email
2/27/2015 6:10:27 AM     email     Email successfully sent to ...(driveway drive up) driveway sensor email.
 
The original Homeseer event from a few years back would do a TTS thing relating to what car (of 4) was coming home.

 

[batwater]

Does the friend have CQC or other PC based HA software *and* do they have android phones? If the answer to all is yes, then there are some pretty straight forward (relative I guess) options.  Actually just saw the RasPi controller & Python comment. If the smartphone answer is Android there is the option of Tasker, AutoRemote and maybe a few other pieces.  You could trigger based on a number of things, connection to AP, Geo Fence, Speach...  

 

[pete_c]

An ideal scenario would be a solid state device non cellular phone dependant (although you could use it) and connected to say your DSC alarm panel. 
 
The use of geofencing and mobile phone technology precedes that of Android / IPhones by a few years as I was playing with it on my Microsoft mobile phone using GPRS years before. (use of radio tower / GPS positional triangulation).  It got better over the years with faster CPUs on mobile phones.  (thinking first phone was running at 200Mhz or less back then).
 
The remote controlled solid state solenoid switch would be plugged in to your DSC alarm panel.
 
You could do anything you wanted to do with that RFID on/off switch. 
 
The simpler the better relating to hardware / software involved.  Lower costs and time and effort is always a win win thing.