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Hello, noob needs a lot of help

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 Medu
(@medu)
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Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 3
Topic starter  

Hello my name is Alin, and i want to surprise my father for his birthday, making him an "alarm" system, let me explain, he has a small house at about 2 km range with no direct vision and with no electricity there, it is used to store his land working tools, and many other things, and i was thinking in makin some kind of alarm that works with rechargable batteries or solar powered, and transmiting him somehow the data when the door has been opened with some kind of a pir sensor. All the help is very apreciated.   

Pd sorry for my bad english


   
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 Medu
(@medu)
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Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 3
Topic starter  
Posted by: @medu

Hello my name is Alin, and i want to surprise my father for his birthday, making him an "alarm" system, let me explain, he has a small house at about 2 km range with no direct vision and with no electricity there, it is used to store his land working tools, and many other things, and i was thinking in makin some kind of alarm that works with rechargable batteries or solar powered, and transmiting him somehow the data when the door has been opened with some kind of a pir sensor. All the help is very apreciated.   

Pd sorry for my bad english

quick update do you guys think that a nano v3 with a infrared pir, and a sim800l module, powerd up by 18650's and a solar charger could do the trick?


   
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(@davee)
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Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 1596
 

Hi @medu,

  This is a fair sized project and breaks into a few parts, each of which you need to research, etc. As an example:

  • Break in sensing. PIR sensor detects a 'warm' body moving around. They can be 'fooled' by small mammals, etc., so you might get false alarms. Testing that you only get an alarm when it is a 'human' must be feasible, as they are commonly used in commercial alarms, as well as ensuring it always detects a real break in, but it may need some patience and perseverence. False alarms 2km away could be a real nuisance.
  • Consider using reed switch and magnet to detect door being opened ... cheap and usually reliable, providing the intruder actually comes in through the door, etc. Some intruders can be inconsiderate and find another way in! Can easily have more than one of this type of sensor. Could be used in addition to PIR or on its own.
  • Power source ... must have capacity to support continuous monitoring, plus whatever communications, etc. is required to raise the alarm. This requires some simple maths, once you have a rough system design, to predict the size of battery, etc. required.
  • An Arduino would have the computing power, but you must also check the power consumption ... the lower the power consumption, the easier your battery/power source requirements become. This requires some thought, but is probably one of the easier parts of the project. I suggest you map out the other parts first, so that you have specification of what each part demands from the central controller.
  • Solar cell ... output obviously depends upon capacity of device and amount of solar radiation. In some parts of the world, the light during the winter can fall to low levels, with only short days. It depends upon where it is situated. Once again, this depends upon the power demands of the system.
  • Ensuring the alarm is difficult to disable. If it is in an isolated location, a prospective intruder might smash an obvious alarm. 2 seconds with a well-aimed rock could be suffcient to permanently silence the alarm, in a poorly designed system.
  • Communication back to your father ... 2km, and no line of sight, is a considerable range and perhaps the trickiest problem.  Most countries have restrictive regulations that would generally prohibit setting up transmitters with that range, as well as the technical challenges. In my part of the world, I could consider using mobile phone/cellphone technology (e.g. modules that can be connected to Arduinos, etc, that 'mimic' a cellphone text .. not a great solution and obviously requires cell phone coverage) . I suggest you find a solution for this aspect before investing in the other aspects of this project - sorry I can't help you with this one.

Good luck with your research. Dave


   
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(@mark-bolton)
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Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 108
 

Does your Dad have mobile 'phone coverage and a mobile 'phone? The networked ESP32 - CAM is a wonderful tool to check out any alarms to see if you actually have a "fire" or just a false alarm.


   
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 Medu
(@medu)
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Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 3
Topic starter  

Hi, i think i will try a normal infrared PIR conectes to a nano v3 and a GSM 800l small module powered by 3.7v and 4000mh or so, and yes @Mark Bolton, he haces even 4g coverege, but i changed muy mind, i wont do It by sms, i think direct phone call is better, and about the pir false reads its kinda hard because i will put the sensor inside and that door can be opened ir by force or by ley, se don't have that strong animales aroud, but do you think that if i change the nano v3 to a D1 or esp32 would be better?

This post was modified 2 years ago by Medu

   
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