One critical monitoring element for any home automation system is the garage door. There are many ways to do this including using your traditional magnetic contacts which will change state when the garage door is open or closed. This method satisfies the minimal requirement of knowing the open/close status of the garage door. But what happens if more detail about the garage door is needed? For instance what can you do if you would like to know the exact position of the door (say if it got stuck during its open/close travel)? What if you wanted to know this garage door position to within a few inches?
EDIT: One note I would like to make based on some of the replies below. This is the ADVANCED ULTIMATE method of monitoring your garage door's EXACT status/position. If all you want are simple and basic OPEN, CLOSE, and maybe one IN-BETWEEN state, then go get yourself some wide gap magnetic contacts and X-10 Powerflash modules and do not bother reading any further!
Edit2: This article is also published in HomeToys.com February 2006 Edition.
Click here to view the article
EDIT: One note I would like to make based on some of the replies below. This is the ADVANCED ULTIMATE method of monitoring your garage door's EXACT status/position. If all you want are simple and basic OPEN, CLOSE, and maybe one IN-BETWEEN state, then go get yourself some wide gap magnetic contacts and X-10 Powerflash modules and do not bother reading any further!
Edit2: This article is also published in HomeToys.com February 2006 Edition.
Click here to view the article
