Help with a couple of projects

[SiliconAngel]

Hi guys,

Sorry for the not particularly informative thread title but I wasn't sure what to put in it. Mods feel free to alter if necessary

So I have a couple of projects I wish to undertake and I've gotten to the point where I just don't know where to go from here. To give you some idea of my (in)competency, I'm an IT consultant who's been working with computers and releated tech for over a decade, and I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty on projects whether its cars, house renovations or basic electrical repairs. However I have very limited experience with 'real' electronics so while I may have plenty of ideas of the things I might want to do, I usually fail at the execution 'cause I just have no idea where to begin.

I'm sorry if there are already places to go to find this kind of stuff, but as I'm sure you know, when learning anything new people are often intimidated by the sheer mass of information on a subject they know nothing about and I'm not immune to this phenomenon... But I'm excited at the idea of conquering it!

So on to the questions at hand - I have to projects I wish to undertake and I'll outline them below:

1) Automatic Roller Door Addon Controller
Our house has a B&D Electrical Roller Door that only has a single controller, but we park two cars in the garage. I contacted the manufacturer and they said the model is too old to buy a new controller and the only option is to buy a whole new roller door system, which I think is a little bit stupid because it still works ok.

I've tried using an aftermarket UHF scanning remote to copy the signal from the factory remote, but the remote only sends out its activation signal for about two seconds, which is far too short for a scanner to pickup and record. I've taken the remote to a specialist electronics place and after some analysis of the remote they told me there was no way to copy the signal and I just had to suck it up and buy a whole new system.

Not being one to just accept the conclusions of the unimaginative, I'm wondering if there is another solution. Either some way of copying the code from a chip in the remote or wiring in a new system that will activate the roller motor's on/off signal using an external wireless source.

Any thoughts or suggestions highly appreciated!

2) Miniature Slave Flash
My other project should be fairly simple in theory, although I have no idea how to implement it in practice. Basically what I want is a small light sensor and camera flash bright enough to light up a standard piece of A4 paper from a distance of about a foot, either in normal light or infra-red (preferably both). I need the whole device to fit into something about the size of half a matchbox. I'm thinking the kind of flashes that can be found in mobile phones these days. Assume a remote power source of 12V for simplicity - I don't care if it has wires to it, I just want the sensor and flash(es) to be close together, responsive and fairly compact. Once again thoughts / ideas / suggestions highly appreciated!

Thanks!

Trevor

 

[ikalogic]

I think it shouldn't be very comlicated to build (Even buy) a 2 channel RF kit, to open/close the door. If you need more than one transmitter, you can buy two kits.

what about trying to duplicate the transmitter, the whole hardware... what's inside? a uController? or simple logic chips?

 

[fingaz]

Hi,

If the roller door has 'manual' controls on the unit (ie. it can be controlled without the remote), it would be simple to buy an RF remote unit and connect it in so that you'd have 2 controllers for it.
You can pick up a 2 channel RF remote off ebay very cheap. I bought the unit below, and am impressed with the range.

**broken link removed**

Shouldn't be too difficult to connect up.

 

[SiliconAngel]

what about trying to duplicate the transmitter, the whole hardware... what's inside? a uController? or simple logic chips?

I thought about this, but how would I copy the code? I'll try to take some photos of the circuit board and post them up.

If the roller door has 'manual' controls on the unit (ie. it can be controlled without the remote), it would be simple to buy an RF remote unit and connect it in so that you'd have 2 controllers for it.
You can pick up a 2 channel RF remote off ebay very cheap. I bought the unit below, and am impressed with the range.

**broken link removed**

Shouldn't be too difficult to connect up.

Thanks for the suggestion, that sounds like a great idea! Do controllers like this use encrypted security codes? Is such a thing possible? I keep a lot of tools in the garage so obviously I don't want it to be openable by anyone using the same channel, even accidentally... Or am I being overly paranoid?

 

[fingaz]

Thanks for the suggestion, that sounds like a great idea! Do controllers like this use encrypted security codes? Is such a thing possible? I keep a lot of tools in the garage so obviously I don't want it to be openable by anyone using the same channel, even accidentally... Or am I being overly paranoid?

I don't think these units use encryption, they do seem quite basic. I'm sure you could find a unit which uses encrypted codes if you look on the net.

I think that this would be the easiest way to solve the problem though.