[App][Project][Cool] JsChiSurf's "OpenSezMe" Android Garage Door Opener Application
I wanted to create this post to show fellow XDA members a cool project I've been working on, and figured that like-minded XDA members (techno-geeks) would think it was pretty sweet as well, so this post is nothing more than to "show off" what I've done and perhaps inspire others to do something similar once they see how I accomplished this .
I set out to develop a simple android application to turn my phone into a "virtual" garage door remote, with the requirements that the application only successfully function when / if I am within a 1 block quadrant of my home, and be protected by a pin code. Both of these requirements help to prevent accidental opening / closing of my garage both at home, or in some remote location half-way around the world. You will see the end product from the application side in the youtube demo video at the end of this post.
I happen to have an old linux box running as a mail / web server in my garage that also has a serial port. So I said to myself, "self", wouldn't it be cool if I could interface the serial port on the linux box to a relay switch that would enable me to send commands out, via the serial port, to toggle the relay switch on/off, with the goal of mimicking the button press of a garage door pad on your garage wall, and control all of this via my phone?
So, I picked up a cheap serial port relay controller and connected it to my linux box's rs232 port. The controllers are available in a variety of interfaces, such as USB, ethernet, etc, but for me, serial was the way to go due to my existing setup, and ease of programming to the port, etc.
I then wrote a set of serial port communication classes in PHP for sending the necessary commands out the serial port, as outlined in the relay controller's specs, for toggling the relay on/off.
I tie it together by having the android application I wrote first look for the correct PIN code and geolocation, and when correct / within range, present a "virtual remote" on screen. When the remote is pressed, it makes an HTTP call to the webserver in my garage, that when called successfully issues the necessary serial port commands to toggle the relay switch.
The end result? A pretty bad ass virtual garage door opener app I call "OpenSezMe" that allows my phone to double as my opener. When I go on walks, jogs, etc, upon return, I can simply open my garage via my phone for entry back into the house. I know I could install a keypad, but what's the fun it that?
This application is very specific to my needs / setup, so doesn't really have any value for anyone else. I just thought it was pretty cool and figured you guys would too, and, at a minimum, could spur you to come up with something similar, unique to your environment.
Very cool! I would love something like this, you know, if I actually had a garage. But maybe something for my lights in my room, I hate getting up to turn them off
Mast3rpyr0 said:
Very cool! I would love something like this, you know, if I actually had a garage. But maybe something for my lights in my room, I hate getting up to turn them off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the cool thing about it, and the world of possibilities it opens.
You can get these cool controllers that have multiple (dozens) of relays to control different things. I just got a cheap single relay controller to start, but with a multiple relay controller, you can start building an app to control lights, the garage, or anything else you want.
JsChiSurf said:
That's the cool thing about it, and the world of possibilities it opens.
You can get these cool controllers that have multiple (dozens) of relays to control different things. I just got a cheap single relay controller to start, but with a multiple relay controller, you can start building an app to control lights, the garage, or anything else you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome but don't think my patents would let me wire **** up and I don't have a lenix box.
Sent From My HTC Evo 4G Using Tapa Talk Pro!
Rydah805 said:
Awesome but don't think my patents would let me wire **** up and I don't have a lenix box.
Sent From My HTC Evo 4G Using Tapa Talk Pro!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is just my specific setup, but you could have any type of environment, just depends on what you have / know how to use, etc.
At any rate, thought it was a fun project that, for no other reason, would hopefully inspire others to try it out, or do something similar, if they have the wherewithal.
This...is AWESOME! I don't blame you for wanting to show off - this what android and open source is all about!
Sent from my blah blah blah blah
fachadick said:
This...is AWESOME! I don't blame you for wanting to show off - this what android and open source is all about!
Sent from my blah blah blah blah
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ha, thanks! It was fun to do, and very rewarding when it all came together, seeing the door open/close on the inaugural button press .
wow
wow nice job!
that was pure win !!! nice work !
Sporkman said:
that was pure win !!! nice work !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. The discerning eye will notice that it's speaker cable wire that I used to hook up the relay to the opener. Didn't have any "standard" low voltage wire lying around, so I made due with the speaker cable .
Really nice work. As said by others, there seems to be no limit to what we can do with this devices.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Brilliant! You're like a musician with this stuff.. a very talented musician
You should repost HERE, imo
This is actually part of what I do. There are multiple home automation apps out there that interface with - say Z wave controllers to name one - that can open/unlock doors, turn on lights, adjust your thermostat, access alarm/fire panels, control hot water heaters, view surveillance cameras...etc.
Do a search for 'xanboo'. They interface with DSC panels that , in turn can interface with multiple zwave devices, i.e. many of the new door openers/locks made by Schlage.
This is great! I live in a condo and never use my front door to enter my place I always use the garage! This is great.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
nebenezer said:
Brilliant! You're like a musician with this stuff.. a very talented musician
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Nebs. Good to hear from you!
chas123 said:
This is actually part of what I do. There are multiple home automation apps out there that interface with - say Z wave controllers to name one - that can open/unlock doors, turn on lights, adjust your thermostat, access alarm/fire panels, control hot water heaters, view surveillance cameras...etc.
Do a search for 'xanboo'. They interface with DSC panels that , in turn can interface with multiple zwave devices, i.e. many of the new door openers/locks made by Schlage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. When I first started with the idea (centered around creating an android app to drive the whole thing), I came across the ZigBee controllers, which looked pretty slick. These and others, though, were way more than what I needed for my simple application.
What's cool about the ZigBee, and i'm sure others, is that you can get ones that have an apache server built right in, eliminating the needs for a computer to be in the mix all together. Though, as mentioned, based on price, they were way beyond what was necessary for what I was looking to do.
Saltwater Hero said:
This is great! I live in a condo and never use my front door to enter my place I always use the garage! This is great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Precisely. You can probably tell from the video that I live in a townhome, where the garage is attached to the house, so I typically just leave the door into the house unlocked and access through the garage, rather than the front door, which was the main reason why I wanted to do this.
JsChiSurf said:
I typically just leave the door into the house unlocked and access through the garage, rather than the front door.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't you seen that Brinks commercial with the guy driving around with a backpack full of garage door openers?
nebenezer said:
Haven't you seen that Brinks commercial with the guy driving around with a backpack full of garage door openers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, he'd have to get into my gated complex first . Point taken though! Let me re-phrase. I "could" leave the door inside the garage unlocked, and then just use my phone to gain access via the garage .
Very cool
........
I love the concept/idea....
I'm one of many that is guilty of using my garage door as my main door to my residence.
An app like this has endless ideas to expand on. One that would personally benefit me would be the option to remote open the garage from anywhere barring a series of security measures to prevent a false opening.
I have family that routinely drop by and at times I'm not home. I hate having tons of keys distributed and it would be nice if they were to call or text saying they were out front. I then could go to an app like such input a series of security pins, or what have you, and then open remotely. A timer or LED indicator that stays lit while the door is opening/closing would be great also - this would tell me if an accidental key press weather the door was still opening or closing.
Gosh, i need to brush up on my programming skills !
jaypeezee said:
One that would personally benefit me would be the option to remote open the garage from anywhere barring a series of security measures to prevent a false opening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the beauty of the setup, as you can put whatever restrictions you want in place to determine when/if the door, for example, should open.
I mapped out a 1 block quadrant that, if I am within, the proper command / call will be issued to toggle the door open/close, otherwise, the commands won't get sent, but this restriction could be set to whatever level desired.
I was actually thinking about have a "super user" pin code, that I can use, instead of my default code, that when entered, causes the app to ignore the geolocation attributes, allowing me to open from China if I wanted to.
The wife was apprehensive when I decided to do this, worrying about false openings, etc, so that's why I put in both pin code and geolocation measures. Problem is, there's no way for me to remotely tell if the door is actually in an open or closed state, just that I successfully toggled the relay. So, I slapped a cheap webcam in my garage, so that if I want, I can login remotely to verify the door is open or closed.
Related
forget about screen protectors, forget about 4" screens I want my entire table to be a screen!
Now thats what I call finger friendly!
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/05/13/inside-microsofts-home-of-the-future-video
about 1min 30secs in !
the rest of the stuff on there I could live without, but that mobile/table interface looks great. And it would please the "tidyheads" at my work, as I'd have to keep my desk tidier!
wow! if only we could get this now, i would guess this sort of technology is many years away and will be very very expensive!
i dont think it is, the point of that house is to show what M$ think will be mainstream in a in 5 to 10 years.
I've been thinking about the mobile screen on table, and I think it's feasible now, but would need plugging in,rather than wirelessly.
using mymobiler and projector it's possible, but obviously the tech to capture where your finger is on screen is still a research project. But I could do pretty much the same thing here with some tweaking of our interactive whiteboard.
I might have a go one day..
i think thats just a bit table version of the microsoft surface that u can use at the mo to put ringtones etc on your phone through bluetooth.
she it putting the card on the table, a camera see the card (probally a barcode on card) then links to the cloud network and then sends the contact info to the phone (by bluetooth or wifi).
fards said:
using mymobiler and projector it's possible, but obviously the tech to capture where your finger is on screen is still a research project. But I could do pretty much the same thing here with some tweaking of our interactive whiteboard.
I might have a go one day..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The tech is available. It works with laser.
Cool stuff, I've seen similar tech a few years back. They were playing warcraft 3 on a regular tabletop with touch registry. Looked pretty neat! I'm confident that what we see here is the near future. Our entire house will be controlled by voice. Gonna love it!
Hi all,
I'm relatively new to the WinMo programming, but so far I've been able to capture and process the Gsensor data, but I can't seem to understand how to use the GPS data.
I want an app that will record the GPS position along with all of the Gsensor data so that I can record the route and have data for each point that contains lean angle, acceleration, deceleration, etc. I figure I'll have to have the Gsensor fill in for some of the GPS data and vice-versa.
Why you ask?
Well, let's say you put it in a suspension test mode. You could accelerate gradually and brake. Hopefully the gsensor could catch the dive and bobble of the bike and give you some feedback. Knowing how far you are leaning in some turns is nice. You could possible detect and calculate if you are sliding at all. Perhaps you could even calculate the power output if you included the weight. You could make a mode that would yell at you if you get the front wheel too far off the ground, etc. I think there are all kinds of fun things to do. I know there are expensive and half solutions out there, but having an opensource solution would be nifty.
I'm a relative noob with C# and I'm using SharpDevelop. If anyone has any suggestions for things to implement or can help me acquire and use the GPS data I'd appreciate it.
If this sounds like a dumb idea I can always abandon it too.
Thanks guys.
lol, actually I think its a cool idea to be able to log what your doing. And maybe a top speed via the GPS. I think that would be a really cool app to have when I ride.
gliscameria said:
Hi all,
I'm relatively new to the WinMo programming, but so far I've been able to capture and process the Gsensor data, but I can't seem to understand how to use the GPS data.
I want an app that will record the GPS position along with all of the Gsensor data so that I can record the route and have data for each point that contains lean angle, acceleration, deceleration, etc. I figure I'll have to have the Gsensor fill in for some of the GPS data and vice-versa.
Why you ask?
Well, let's say you put it in a suspension test mode. You could accelerate gradually and brake. Hopefully the gsensor could catch the dive and bobble of the bike and give you some feedback. Knowing how far you are leaning in some turns is nice. You could possible detect and calculate if you are sliding at all. Perhaps you could even calculate the power output if you included the weight. You could make a mode that would yell at you if you get the front wheel too far off the ground, etc. I think there are all kinds of fun things to do. I know there are expensive and half solutions out there, but having an opensource solution would be nifty.
I'm a relative noob with C# and I'm using SharpDevelop. If anyone has any suggestions for things to implement or can help me acquire and use the GPS data I'd appreciate it.
If this sounds like a dumb idea I can always abandon it too.
Thanks guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think its a "practical" idea, not dumb, but for learning how to code and stuff, its a great idea. I'm assuming you enjoy riding at the track, so that'd keep you motivated to continue the app development.
There are already similar apps, but I don't know if they will detect lean angle and brake dive.
That's the first thing I thought of when I saw this app:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=424423
I haven't played with it, but maybe it could give you something to start with.
Check this out too
http://www.racechrono.com/
The newest SpeedoHealer has a top speed recall on it, and its only $100 for the whole system. Much less than having to buy a WM phone just to record top speeds.
Most of us need one of those anyway, but if you could make your app work in conjunction with that system.. could be very useful.
Especially for the initial calibration. Get the correct GPS speed from the phone, and then get on the SH website from the phone for the correct calibration code! Or find a way to integrate the SH code program thing into your app. so you don't have to get online for the code. That would be very useful for gearing changes at bike nights when the dyno is unavailable.
But you could load some track maps in it, have the thing record acc/dec at which points at each corner. Then you could see where you started braking at, and decide if you need to brake sooner and softer, or later and harder.
Maybe if (lets hope not) you go down, you could see how much decel. at what angle caused the loss of control.
Think you could set it up to calibrate the 2 axis independantly?
set the side to side while on a stand, then remove the stand and calibrate the front to back when loaded with the rider at static sag, cuz its going to change from when its on the stand and the stand is the only way you're going to get anything close to accurate verticle calibration, but the front to back will be off with the back wheel raised.
Where you thinking of mounting the phone to the bar/tripple clamps?
or under the tail?
I think I'd be afraid of losing such an expensive piece of equipment if it was mounted upfront. But you can't see anything on the screen under the tail.
Unless you didn't want it to display anything, just collect data.
Not that you'd be able to do much screen touching with gloves on anyway.
Better use large buttons! lol
Do you think you could setup the light sensor to determine if a headlight bulb is getting old? I don't know if the sensor will work when flooded with that much direct light.
Well anyway, just a few ideas for ya.
I don't ride at the track, but I'd like to test the app out when you get a working beta going.
I'm sure it could have its uses on the street.
And I know the speedo is off on my 08 Busa.
KYT said:
Well anyway, just a few ideas for ya.
I don't ride at the track, but I'd like to test the app out when you get a working beta going.
I'm sure it could have its uses on the street.
And I know the speedo is off on my 08 Busa.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the input. Until I can find some help on the GPS aspect of it I'm kinda idling.
I'm thinking...
When you start the app you will have to have it mounted and be on the bike. There will be a calibrate button which you will press when you are centered. From there on out you can pick a mode.
Your busa better not have any chrome on it. =/
Keep it up!
Very cool idea! I actually experimented with an analog 'curve counter' mounted to my motorcycle several years ago. Built a box with a steel ball inside that rode along a curved piece of metal and made contact closure with a terminal on each end - different viscosities of oil provided the dampening to keep it from bouncing around. This was coupled to an electronic counter that I built from a kit. It was kinda cool, but a pain to get mounted.
I don't have the experience to lend for application development, but I would certainly be willing to test any versions of the app you would like.
FYI - right now I use Run.GPS for tracking but would love to have lean angle and acceleration/deceleration data to go along with it. The only glitch with lean angle is that I assume the centrifugal force during cornering would prevent the accelerometer from reading the true lean angle...maybe some calculations could compensate.
go for it!
my hayabusa, my tp2 and I would be happy to be in your test team ;-)
and BTW, I am a veteran C# developer, so let me know if I can help.
(experienced in C#, but not in Win-Mo or HTC hardware)
I just ripped some magnets out of an old hard drive and want to use them to make a car dock from a DIY I saw (http://forum.androidcentral.com/evo...completely-invisible-phone-vehicle-mount.html)
I am worried about putting a magnet on phone as it always been common sense that magnets + electronics = broken ****. Though, isn't it magnets in the commercial car docks that trigger car mode to pop up on the phone?
small magnets will not hurt - many phones have magnets as sensors - the blackberry determines holstered or not via a magnet in the holster. Other Moto phones determined if they are docked or not via magnets in the dock.
But, any magnet strong enough to keep the phone from bouncing loose could cause interference issues. I don't think you can do any permanent damage, but if things start acting wonky, it may be the magnet.
ok I ran a magnet over, stuck on a few points but car mode never came up. Know the right location/method?
be very careful of the speakers. I have a friend who tried to do the same thing and his speaker sounded really bad after that
riotburn said:
ok I ran a magnet over, stuck on a few points but car mode never came up. Know the right location/method?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I've read, magnets trigger no dock on the Atrix.
It's thought to be resistances on the USB connectors that trigger different docks to come up.
Worst case scenario is that you create a shortcut on one of your homescreens that manually opens the car dock interface, which is extremely easy to do.
Speaker is ok. Plus I still have warranty and what not, thought id actually take some kind of risk considering all the hard work devs do.
So, FOR ME, rubbing the magnet over the back of the phone did not cause any noticeable harm yet. The magnet would center about an inch above the speakerphone speaker in the center.
SG Pillar said:
As far as I've read, magnets trigger no dock on the Atrix.
It's thought to be resistances on the USB connectors that trigger different docks to come up.
Worst case scenario is that you create a shortcut on one of your homescreens that manually opens the car dock interface, which is extremely easy to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmm, saw that for the multimedia dock. I dont see where to find the car dock program. I looked in apps and dont see it. Is it accessed from somewhere else?
riotburn said:
Hmmmm, saw that for the multimedia dock. I dont see where to find the car dock program. I looked in apps and dont see it. Is it accessed from somewhere else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have my phone on me at the moment (managed to forget it along with some other stuff as I left my house for class this morning).
I think its something like (this is with Launcher Pro):
Long press home
Create custom shortcut
Activities
Select Car Dock -> Cardock.main.cardockmainactivity
Name shortcut
If that doesn't work, I'll try it when I get home tonight.
SG Pillar said:
I don't have my phone on me at the moment (managed to forget it along with some other stuff as I left my house for class this morning).
I think its something like (this is with Launcher Pro):
Long press home
Create custom shortcut
Activities
Select Car Dock -> Cardock.main.cardockmainactivity
Name shortcut
If that doesn't work, I'll try it when I get home tonight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it myself and it works great, thanks.
Yup that works great. Thanks! Now to figure out how it turns on when put in a dock.
Wait so for the mount to work, you would have to setup the charger? that blows, the magnet turning on the phone is better.
riotburn said:
Yup that works great. Thanks! Now to figure out how it turns on when put in a dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, you would press the shortcut
What's really weird to me is that the other day Cardock was showing up in my app list all the time, now it has disappeared and I have to add it the way you listed above. What caused it to disappear?
natious said:
well, you would press the shortcut
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant figure out how putting the phone in the car dock makes the phone turn on. I understood pushing the button would start dock mode
The old flip phones (StarTac) would typically use a magnet to sense if they were open/closed. AFAIK there's nothing in the new phones that understands magnetism at all, much less is harmed by it.
The microUSB standard provides for "sensing" by means of placing a fixed resistance across the new fifth wire. Devices see a set resistance, look it up internally, and determine what device has been attached. I suspect Moto is using this sensing to signal what dock a phone is plugged into--all part of a standard.
FWIW, cell phones going back at least to the original Palm Treos have done something similar, they look at the impedance of whatever is plugged into the ear/mic socket, and then configure themselves for earbuds, mono ear/mic, and other different devices all plugged into the same socket. This is mature and invisible technology by now.
I'm working on a system for my vehicle which needs a device that has Bluetooth and at least one (preferably a couple) "thing" (GPIO or useless LED or whatever) that I can have an application set and hold to either high or low. The device needs its own battery, so that it can operate without draining the vehicle's battery. What I'm ultimately trying to do, among other things, is to use Blueooth proximity detection to unlock my car - and a bunch of other things while the car's on. Because cell phones (and, to a lesser extent, tablets) already have batteries that will last for days with all the radios shut down, the screen off, apps suspended, and the CPU in a low-power mode, that seems an ideal approach - made better because older phones cost near-nothing on eBay. I don't have to have a visible display, but a working touchscreen would simplify a lot of other things I'd like to do.
But it seems darn near impossible to figure out what device would be be appropriate. Specifically, I haven't been able to find a good way to identify what devices have something like unused / repurposable GPIOs. I don't know if I need to just repurpose an LED, or if there are phones (or tablets) which already have something to interface with. Or if there are newer devices that I can use something like a USB serial port on, or if I just play a "sound" which makes the audio output seem to be "on", or what. The important thing is that the phone/tablet has to be self-contained, as charger power will be disconnected when the vehicle is off - and it'd be best if I could get an extended-use battery for this device which could maximize availability while the vehicle is parked (likely for several days). Since that covers just about every phone, the next most important thing is to figure out how to make it interface with the outside world without the outside world needing to provide any additional power to enable that communication (i.e. I can turn on a transistor, but I can't have something like the daisy bluetooth GPIO devices running as that will use car battery power).
So, I guess I'm asking how people usually interface with the outside world using a hard-wired connection, and what devices to look for (or how to identify those devices) which make that relatively easy. Can someone get me pointed in the right direction? I'm currently just wandering the web trying to find a starting point, and since the odds are good that this forum is going to be a stop somwehere along the path anyway, I figured this'd be a good start.
dannysauer said:
... What I'm ultimately trying to do, among other things, is to use Blueooth proximity detection to unlock my car - and a bunch of other things while the car's on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What other things? And what do you mean by proximity detection? You want it to unlock your car automatically, as soon as your phone is in range or is it ok if you have to run an app and press "unlock my car" button?
qubas said:
What other things? And what do you mean by proximity detection? You want it to unlock your car automatically, as soon as your phone is in range or is it ok if you have to run an app and press "unlock my car" button?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean "poll bluetooth and unlock when I'm near". If I have to push a button, I may as well use a regular keyless entry fob.
While the car's running, I'd like to be able to run some standard apps, like an mp3 player, Wigle wifi scanner (presuming I find something w/wifi and gps) , and similar standard car pc stuff. That's all easy, though. And the programming to poll bluetooth is not that hard (I'd probably just use llama to start with). The hard part for me is really just how to hard wire a relay or transistor, and get a program to turn it on or off.
In that case you should think about IOIO (google "IOIO for Android"), it gives you a lot of digital I/O and analog input pins.
Hey guys,
So I've been loving the crap out of my nexus 4... that is, until a random stranger on a crowded subway knocked it out of my hands as I was taking it out of my pocket. So the front of the screen is messed up pretty bad glass-wise; the lcd works fine but the digitizer is messed up so I can't use the touchscreen at all.
I'm going to have to shell out on a new screen soon, but I'd like a workaround in the meantime. I figured if I could get a bluetooth mouse connected I could at least navigate around my phone, but of course I need to use the touchscreen to pair with the mouse. Or maybe not, that's why I'm posting.
Can it be done? Through adb or some other means, could I pair a bluetooth mouse without using the phone directly? The only method I could think of might be to pull the bluetooth address config file and insert the MAC address of the mouse into it to potentially trick the phone into thinking it had already paired with it. Does that make sense? Even if it does, I'm most likely going to need some guidance in figuring out how to actually pull it off.
Let me know if it can be done somehow, and thanks! :fingers-crossed:
should have knock the guy out and drop his phone...sound like a fair deal...eye for an eye
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
pak-stars said:
should have knock the guy out and drop his phone...sound like a fair deal...eye for an eye/QUOTE]
Ha ha maybe I would've, but the station was so busy that I couldn't tell who bumped into me... It was on an inclined walkway so the phone actually slid away from me by a few feet, by the time I got it whoever did it was long gone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use the play store webside to load a remote desktop app on it so you can take over it's screen (assuming those apps exist and it's not stuck at the PIN entry screen)
I haven't found any screen sharing/control apps that don't require me to use the phone to generate a code/url, but I'll keep looking
well I figured it out... for future reference you can use the input keyevent lines to navigate around the phone. It's a bit tedious but it's only until I connect it to a bluetooth mouse