What is the best way to connect an external device to a Z-wave network?
Briefly;
I want to have a driveway alarm trigger a scene.
Details:
I have a cabin with a 900 foot long driveway through the woods. I want to install a driveway alarm at the end of the driveway far out of sight of the cabin. I will probably use a pair of light beam detectors into an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi to detect the direction of travel and set a time limit to minimize falsing caused by deer or some other animal life which may be hanging out by the sensors. I can have the Arduino provide a contact closure or a level change as necessary. I want this event to activate a scene to turn on a bunch of lights maybe some sound affects like a loud TV or a barking dog perhaps. This way any potential intruders will hear sound and see lights already on as they near the cabin and with a little luck believe the place occupied and just leave.
Is there any easy way to make the link from external device to Z-Wave?
I hate to do something destructive like hack into a Z-Wave window sensor if I can avoid it.
Thanks
Integration Question
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- Last Post 29 August 2013
What is the best way to connect an external device to a Z-wave network?
Briefly;
I want to have a driveway alarm trigger a scene.
Details:
I have a cabin with a 900 foot long driveway through the woods. I want to install a driveway alarm at the end of the driveway far out of sight of the cabin. I will probably use a pair of light beam detectors into an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi to detect the direction of travel and set a time limit to minimize falsing caused by deer or some other animal life which may be hanging out by the sensors. I can have the Arduino provide a contact closure or a level change as necessary. I want this event to activate a scene to turn on a bunch of lights maybe some sound affects like a loud TV or a barking dog perhaps. This way any potential intruders will hear sound and see lights already on as they near the cabin and with a little luck believe the place occupied and just leave.
Is there any easy way to make the link from external device to Z-Wave?
I hate to do something destructive like hack into a Z-Wave window sensor if I can avoid it.
Thanks
If you are able to get a signal from your Pi to your InControl PC when this happens (or have InControl ask your Pi about the status on a regular basis), then you could build a plugin that would add that driveway alarm as a new InControl device and be able to trigger scenes from it. You would make it a custom plugin. Here is some sample code for the Foscam controller - you could start with that and drop in your own logic.
In short though, I think it could work like this:
1 - On your Pi, setup a little http server that would respond with a 0 or a 1 when your alarm is "normal" or "active."
2 - From your custom controller, setup a thread that would query that URL on an interval (i.e, every 30 seconds)
3 - Parse the on or off value of it and set that value in an InControl-tracked device (the plugin framework provides this mechanism)
If you want some implementation help, send me a message and I can give you some contact info (skype, G+ hangout, etc.) to chat a little more easily.
The trick is getting a data connection that far without resorting to fiber. 900 feet is 3 times the spec for Ethernet and there is too much vegetation for either 2.4/5.0 GHz Wifi. I was thinking of more of a hardware based solution as I am more comfortable in that arena. However you have given me some Ideas; I need to place only the detectors at the far end of the driveway. Some of these units such as ABT-100 beam detectors provide a contact closure when activated, which I can terminate into an inexpensive USB to GPIO device attached to my server. This way I will not need the Arduino or Pi.
I suppose I better get some wire buried before the ground freezes. Seems like a long way off now, but winter can come early in northern Minnesota. I have all winter to work with the software. I may take you up on your offer to help when I get to that point.
Thanks
