SharksAndLasers Mark's Garage Door Closer Sharks and Lasers Project
This code supports a personal garage door monitor project for Mark Olson. It involves lasers and light detectors to monitor garage door position. The laser goes through a beam splitter and then to two light detector targets: one is called "LaserCheck" and the other is called "Bond" (see below). The LaserCheck should always be off when the laser is off and on when the laser is on. The Bond should be off when the laser is off; when the laser is on and the garage door is fully open Bond obstructs the laser and it is off; otherwise Bond is on.
Also there are "hall effect" magnetic sensors; both off when the garage door is in between else either HallSensorClosed or HallSensorOpen for full closed or open.
Additionally there is a light sensor for the garage opener light, which comes on for a while whenever the garage door is operated.
There is an output for a relay that will either close or open the door. We try to use all our sensors to be really sure we are closing the door and not opening.
There is a momentary contact self-destruct button which causes us to play a self-destruct countdown on the "bomb" speaker - a small speaker in the shape of a bomb. I don't know why these were ever manufactured but I found one at Fry's. Frys.com 7073311 Manufacturer: DGL GROUP UPC 822248838241 Model HY-527-WNK See below for explanation of why we do this.
When we think the door is open we can close it and we can send an SMS text message to some telephone numbers from a text file we read. We will only try to close the door once but we may send periodic text messages; not sure yet how I want that to work.
We log info to a Network Attached Storage NAS disk. We make efforts to reconnect and write saved status lines if it goes offline for a while.
We create two simple web pages and try to keep the webserver operating if we notice it died. The webpages give status. One for a cell phone, one for a large screen.
Why Bond? Because where there are lasers, there must be sharks, and therefore there must be sharks shooting lasers at James Bond, and there must be a self-destruct button. That much is clear.
The original James Bond laser scene
The original James Bond shark scene
The first Austin Powers sharks with lasers scene
The second Austin Powers sharks with lasers scene