RF proximity control / 30-40 feet

[loowee]

Hello guys !

We have a particular need for a client that would like to have a relay triggered when various vehicules reaches a proximity of 30-40 feet from the receiver. I am sure there is a cheap way to acheive this using some X10 (or other technology) RF devices such as MS16A motion sensors ( hacked if needed ) or other RF module.

Basically, we need the relay to stay on as long as signal is in range of 30-40 feet and off when signal is out of bound.

The transmitters have to be inside the vehicule and easy to swap between vehicules. I was thinking about MS16A devices because they work perfectly with X10 RF receivers and range seems to be what we need. We could hack this unit to be powered from the vehicule 12V and have it send a on signal constantly but I am not sure if hacking the House/on button will actually have it send the signal constantly and there is still a problem on the receiver side which needs to have relay @ on the whole time it sees the transmitter and off as soon as transmitter signal is lost.

Any suggestions will be appreciated, I am confident in X10 RF signal but I need to find the right modules or hack them the right way if possible.

Thx guys !

 

[AnthonyZ]

Cliste Electronics RFID

 

[sic0048]

You might look at some of the RFID solutions out there. CheaperRFID is one option that is not expensive at all to implement. There should be several threads here on how people are using it.

You might also want to check out the RFID section of the Homeseer forum. One place to buy the equipment is Ananiah Electronics.

 

[signal15]

I'm using the Ananiah/Cliste stuff with modified firmware to work with my ELK M1. You can also check out ZigBEEF and OpenBeacon.

Whatever product you choose will still need to be hooked up to something that has the logic to be able to trip a relay when a device is in range. The rules in my elk basically just look for a tag ID and have a rule that says:

Whenever "16Tr^M" is received on serial port 1
then turn on output 200 for 45 seconds and reset timer if already running

 

[Dave X10]

...... We could hack this unit to be powered from the vehicule 12V and have it send a on signal constantly but I am not sure if hacking the House/on button will actually have it send the signal constantly and there is still a problem on the receiver side which needs to have relay @ on the whole time it sees the transmitter and off as soon as transmitter signal is lost.

Any suggestions will be appreciated, I am confident in X10 RF signal but I need to find the right modules or hack them the right way if possible.

Jame Lipsit did that for his HA setup: http://www.james.lipsit.com/smart_car_sensor.htm

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

How accurate do you want that 30-40 ft. In other words, some of these RFID solutions would provide a signal, but their range might not be within the accuracy you want.

I was initially thinking something like a Maxbotix sensor to measure the distance, but they only go out to 25 ft (again, I was thining distance 'accuracy').

 

[loowee]

Thx for all replies !!

I think we have found something interesting ( Eckey MK3 professionnal kit ).
It seems bluetooth will reach 30 feet line of sight and we could use bluetooth rear view mirrors found everywhere to pair the device.
these units also provide relay activation for the time frame the unit is in range.

Anyone has long range bluetooth experience and could confirm strength is reliable under a 30 feet range ?

The ananiah RFID solutions offer 8 meters ( lower than bluetooth ) and 40 meters ( way too much ).
We cannot exceed range of 40-60 feet because gate will be opened all the time :/

thanks guys !

Thx again guys !

 

[Rupp]

Loowee,
How about an update on the Moonshine product.

 

[loowee]

Loowee,
How about an update on the Moonshine product.

Rupp, you must be spying on us, we were planning an update of the thread this morning ...
See Moonshine thread for update... Thank you !

 

[signal15]

Thx for all replies !!

I think we have found something interesting ( Eckey MK3 professionnal kit ).
It seems bluetooth will reach 30 feet line of sight and we could use bluetooth rear view mirrors found everywhere to pair the device.
these units also provide relay activation for the time frame the unit is in range.

Anyone has long range bluetooth experience and could confirm strength is reliable under a 30 feet range ?

The ananiah RFID solutions offer 8 meters ( lower than bluetooth ) and 40 meters ( way too much ).
We cannot exceed range of 40-60 feet because gate will be opened all the time :/

thanks guys !

Thx again guys !

The range of the devices can be modified. The 8 meter tags have a jumper which increases the output to give you about 12 meters, and the antenna on the 40 meter tags can be shortened to reduce the range.

 

[loowee]

Thx for all replies !!

I think we have found something interesting ( Eckey MK3 professionnal kit ).
It seems bluetooth will reach 30 feet line of sight and we could use bluetooth rear view mirrors found everywhere to pair the device.
these units also provide relay activation for the time frame the unit is in range.

Anyone has long range bluetooth experience and could confirm strength is reliable under a 30 feet range ?

The ananiah RFID solutions offer 8 meters ( lower than bluetooth ) and 40 meters ( way too much ).
We cannot exceed range of 40-60 feet because gate will be opened all the time :/

thanks guys !

Thx again guys !

The range of the devices can be modified. The 8 meter tags have a jumper which increases the output to give you about 12 meters, and the antenna on the 40 meter tags can be shortened to reduce the range.

It does look interesting then, can you precise what equipments we need exactly ? Website is not so clear as what's what and what make a complete package ( receiver + transmitter + accessories )

thank you Signal !

 

[signal15]

Thx for all replies !!

I think we have found something interesting ( Eckey MK3 professionnal kit ).
It seems bluetooth will reach 30 feet line of sight and we could use bluetooth rear view mirrors found everywhere to pair the device.
these units also provide relay activation for the time frame the unit is in range.

Anyone has long range bluetooth experience and could confirm strength is reliable under a 30 feet range ?

The ananiah RFID solutions offer 8 meters ( lower than bluetooth ) and 40 meters ( way too much ).
We cannot exceed range of 40-60 feet because gate will be opened all the time :/

thanks guys !

Thx again guys !

The range of the devices can be modified. The 8 meter tags have a jumper which increases the output to give you about 12 meters, and the antenna on the 40 meter tags can be shortened to reduce the range.

It does look interesting then, can you precise what equipments we need exactly ? Website is not so clear as what's what and what make a complete package ( receiver + transmitter + accessories )

thank you Signal !

I'm using the 8315 receiver with an ELK M1 Gold. I don't know what you are planning on spending on this, but for tripping a relay when certain ID's come across, the M1 is probably going to be the most straightforward to use for this, which might be overkill. You could do the M1 EZ8 to save some moola. A better option for this specific purpose would be to use an Arduino board with this receiver plugged into it, but then you'd have to write the program for the Arduino (which wouldn't be hard).

If you do go down the path or ordering one, you need to be aware that they typical output from the serial port is the tag ID with a space after it, then the next tag ID, and so on. This won't work with the ELK, and to be honest, it's a huge pain in the butt to parse because there's no EOL delimeter like a carriage return. I bought my stuff from Cliste, but I contacted Ananiah and they made me a custom PIC chip that outputs a CRLF at the end of each tag ID. They did it for free and sent them to me from Hong Kong. If you order one, even if you aren't using it with the ELK, I would highly suggest getting the custom PIC chip. Just let him know that you need a CRLF after each ID instead of a space when you order.

 

[Dave X10]

Anyone has long range bluetooth experience and could confirm strength is reliable under a 30 feet range ?

I am currently beta testing a BlueTooth Software product that receives the BlueTooth signal from my cell phone. 30-35 feet is pretty dependable. Once my phone ID's itself (registers) with the software.. an X10 device is switched ON/OFF based on the presence of the BT device. Eventually... this will be used to turn OFF my alarm when I arrive home... or maybe to unlock a door. But it's not ready yet.

 

[signal15]

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/18684.html

Get a serial port controlled relay, run this on a mini-ITX board with Ubuntu. You can get the ITX board with processor for 57.99 from newegg.com, install the OS on a USB stick, and put a cheap stick of ram in the board.