Driveway sensor remote location over wireless

[myyaz33]

I am wanting to monitor a driveway at a remote location that will soon have point to point wireless to a home location through a wireless bridge. I am set on the Cartell sensor however I am trying to think of how I can get the alert signal back to the home location over the wireless connection. The bridge does have 1 lan connection. I really don't want to have a computer at the remote location but some other low cost hardware device would be the ticket. Basically, I am trying to do this on the cheap. I have absolutely no hardware for the back end yet so pretty much open for ideas.

Maybe Ocelot, Bobcat & Quatech RS232 to IP?

THanks
-Marty

 

[signal15]

There are wireless driveway sensors on the market that use FRS/GMRS radios to send a signal. I don't have any links handy, but one of these might work. Range is up to about 5 miles.

 

[pete_c]

Or something like this...

Wireless

 

[sic0048]

Would you have power and a weather proof enclosure near the driveway sensor. I know you don't want to put a full computer out there, but what about a used thin client? Something like the HP t5720 which can be bought off EBay for around $100. It has a PCI slot, a serial port, and a 10/100 network plug. It runs windows XPe so you can load programs on it. Best of all, once the system is loaded with all the software you want, you "commit" all the changes and it reads all of it into the hard memory of the machine. So if something goes wrong, a simple reboot will take it back to the original OS image that you saved. Or perhaps you set it up from the comfort of your home and then move it down to the permanent location and run it headless.

All this in device that draws about 15watts of power. So it is relatively efficient.

Just a thought.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Do you have to use the wireless connection? Would another wireless option be suitable? What distance is between the driveway sensor and your house?

 

[myyaz33]

Thanks for the replies.

signal15- I searched a bit for some of those products that use GMRS and found a few. I am looking for something a bit more flexible like the ability to eventually snap a picture or two or other automation. Really just didn't find much I thought I liked.

petec- not even sure where to start with the recommendation on the USB device server. Maybe someone will clue me in a bit more.

sic0048- not a bad idea. I actually have a couple t5630 to play with but really don't want to waste a device for this situation. I have other, better plans for it. Another thing is what software would I then need to load. Seems like anything with good hardware support is gonna cost me another license fee.

bsr- Don't have to use wireless but I have limited options as the secondary location is just about mile or so away from the home location. The secondary location has no phone or internet connectivity. I have a few Cisco 350 bridges and antennas planned for point to point connection. Both locations already have tall tv antenna towers available. This distance between the driveway sensor and the house on the premises is 200-300 feet.


I am now thinking-
Cartell Sensor connected to a Powerflash
Powerflash sends the signal, picked up by Powerline interface
Powerline interface connected via rs232-to-Ethernet device server
Ethernet cable from device server plugged into the wireless bridge lan port
Receive at other end of bridge on desktop computer using (what software?) J9?

J9 looks like it has plug-ins for some X10 sensors. Anyone know how steep the price will be for this software?

Does this sound doable?

 

[myyaz33]

As always, things have changed a bit. The thinking now is a decent ip camera that has input/output alarm. Connect the driveway sensor to the alarm connection on the camera which should trigger the events which are built into the camera software.

I have really never done anything with with alarm output/relays so my question in general is how can I trip a 110v light using the output?

The last question would be is there a good way to disarm the driveway sensor going to the input alarm using a keyfob. This is to disable notifications when someone legitimate is on the property?

 

[signal15]

As always, things have changed a bit. The thinking now is a decent ip camera that has input/output alarm. Connect the driveway sensor to the alarm connection on the camera which should trigger the events which are built into the camera software.

I have really never done anything with with alarm output/relays so my question in general is how can I trip a 110v light using the output?

The last question would be is there a good way to disarm the driveway sensor going to the input alarm using a keyfob. This is to disable notifications when someone legitimate is on the property?

You could use a proximity sensor to disable it. I just bought the "kit" here:

http://cliste.sailwhatcom.com/

I don't have it yet. But I'll post a review once I get it set up. I've also found that a big scary German Shepherd is a *very* good deterrent. :huh:

 

[myyaz33]

As always, things have changed a bit. The thinking now is a decent ip camera that has input/output alarm. Connect the driveway sensor to the alarm connection on the camera which should trigger the events which are built into the camera software.

I have really never done anything with with alarm output/relays so my question in general is how can I trip a 110v light using the output?

The last question would be is there a good way to disarm the driveway sensor going to the input alarm using a keyfob. This is to disable notifications when someone legitimate is on the property?

You could use a proximity sensor to disable it. I just bought the "kit" here:

http://cliste.sailwhatcom.com/

I don't have it yet. But I'll post a review once I get it set up. I've also found that a big scary German Shepherd is a *very* good deterrent. :huh:

Could you elaborate a bit more on the necessary hardware to utilize the proximity sensor?

I like the German Shepard idea, however it is highly likely that the neighbor poisoned the last dog that was on the property. No proof though..

 

[signal15]

The proximity I posted above I'm integrating with an ELK M1 Gold. The transmitters send a beacon every 5 seconds or so, which prompt the receiver to send the unique transmitter ID as ASCII. Then, in the ELK, you write a rule that triggers when it sees the unique ID come across the serial port. I'm setting up mine so it sets a phantom output to ON for a period of a couple of minutes when it sees the transmitter. Then you just have another rule that disables the motion sensor when that output is on.

You have to use unused outputs on the ELK as boolean variables because it doesn't actually have variables in it.