Use your cellphone as a remote door-opener

What do you get when you put together a couple of bottles of water, some motors harvested from a Lego kit, a circuit board linked to an old PC and a cellphone? You get the cellphone-controlled door-opener, where the water bottles act as a counterweight, and the motor controls the door. A creative hack, but one with broad implications; if this can be done as a homebrew project, why not a version that we can use for our garage door, so we can ditch that separate remote? As long as we don't have to rig up a few of those five-gallon Poland Spring jugs to make it work, that is.

[Via Hackaday]

[ninja_in_pajamas @ Jan 18th 2006 2:10PM]

Heh, setting this up on a garage door should be very easy. You would be using your existing wall mounted garage opener, set up a small motorized arm that pushed the button on the wall unit when you dial a certain number.

[Can0Spam @ Jan 18th 2006 2:27PM]

No need for a mecinacial arm. A serial or USB tripped relay wired into the switch would close the circuit with fewer moving parts.

[HenryXChung @ Jan 18th 2006 2:35PM]

Neato. In a previous loft-apartment, I had my lights, stereo and AC controllable via SMS. It just required a Linux box, procmail, some cheapo X10 modules, some Linux X10 tools, and the x10 TWC. It was very silly, but super-cool-neato.

[Grant @ Jan 18th 2006 2:35PM]

In a way, I'm surprised nobody has thought of this yet... and in other way, I'm not surprised at all that it hasn't been done.

Seems to me that it'd be easy for ingenious bad people to get access to your home if they had the right amount of sticktuitiveness. Which could lead to lawsuits against the manufacturer for negligence, or worse.

[Josh S. @ Jan 18th 2006 3:21PM]

I actually already have this, but it's not as creative :)

A special door opening module wired to X10. A VB phone system software handles calls, and you can open the door with a menu command. You need to enter in a password though.

[Brett P @ Jan 18th 2006 3:42PM]

If Jack Bauer can detonate a terrorist's explosive vest with his cell phone, then I think opening a garage door isn't too much of a stretch.

[Dave @ Jan 18th 2006 4:31PM]

Josh -
What VB software do you use?

[DevonJensen @ Jan 18th 2006 7:08PM]

I want to know more about this.. can someone explain step by step

[DevonJensen @ Jan 18th 2006 7:11PM]

How the hell?

[JincoJalupo @ Jan 18th 2006 8:14PM]

Sorry to blow the lid, its nothing new at all:

http://www.dpspro.com/easygate.html

[Josh S. @ Jan 18th 2006 11:22PM]

Hi Dave,

Sorry for the long delay...it is a program called VBVoice.

It's really made for use with a phone system like the one's panasonic makes. I'm sure that there are programs that can fully replicate a phone system though.

[baz @ Jan 19th 2006 12:59AM]

You wouldnt need jugs of water to open the garage door...just enough to operate the garage opener (button) inside the garage.

[ZEROCOOL60544 @ Jan 19th 2006 11:08PM]

Hey guys someone told me on the autoitforum that i was famous. I got here and WOW!!! I AM!!! Thanks so myuch for your intrest but the software came with the relay board.
http://electronickits.com/kit/complete/elec/ck1601.htm
I do not yet know VB or C but I plan to learn and I recommend AutoIt at www.autoitscript.com
I LOVE IT
The door thing consists of an Autoitscript, PHP Script, and a HTML
get it all here
http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=20094
Thanks again guys