Using wifi card to operate garage door

Hey all!!!

I was wondering if there is any possibility to operate my garage door using my laptop (using it's wifi card)

I already know that the "standard" frequency are different, but, you never know...

Any ideas, tips, etc...

Gino Vives

Reply to
ginovives
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yes there is a way!

install an access control system on your computer,buy a door controller leave the software running on a pc in the home and remote control it from your laptop to issue the unlock command to your garage door..

not easy but its the only way...

unless you want to use a small processor like the rabbit 2000 that can be connected to network chip..make a small program in C to make it react when it will receive a packet from your laptop network car Mac address so it will activate a small relay to open the door..

to do this you will need to connect to a wireless network in your home from the laptop outside and send a predetermined packet to the Rabbit..

no easy gizmo I know can do it..

a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

Reply to
petem

Not even close to the same frequencies. Even if they were close, how readily would you want J.Random Script-Kiddie to be able to hack your garage door opener? No thanks.

What you could do is use a device like an X-10, Radio RA or other contact closure device. Have that device act as a button switch to open/close the contact switch on your garage door. There's no way to directly get to them from the WiFi-equipped laptop so you'd have to either add an X-10 wireless firecracker serial device to the laptopn OR use a desktop PC to make the connections via serial and connect to the PC from the laptop.

There are developments underway with systems like Control4 that /might/ allow for more direct connection from the wireless laptop to a wireless ethernet equipped switch. But I'm not sure any 'contact closure' devices are yet shipping for this purporse.

A generic relay controller with wired ethernet might make it possible. But none currently include the sort of 'user friendly' interface for easy operation. Not to mention they're usually not cheap.

In short, the expected market for such a device is pretty small, tiny enough that nobody's bothering to expend the considerable effort to make it work. Not enough customers to pay back the costs to do it. At least not from anything beyond the mere hobbyist or very high-end home perspective.

Reply to
wkearney99

There are many ways to do it. We could be more helpful if we knew what your goals were. Do you want the lowest cost, build-it-yourself solution? Or do you want an out-of-the-box solution, even if it's quite expensive? Do you plan on expanding the control to other areas of the house?

One way is the Barix Barionet

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's close to an out-of-the-box solution. It has a built-in web server for control; you can connect sensors to it that detect open/close status, and you can use its outputs to operate the garage door button(s).

- Mark.

Reply to
Mark Thomas

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