I am being asked to work up a plan for a building with multiple doors to have a WiFi Door sensors on a number of doors that would alert staff via a app on there phone that a specific door has been opened.
I have done some Googling and see a bunch of "stuff"!!
Never did anything like this before so I am very old and a lot green.
;-)
So I thought I would ask the question here to see if anyone could give a good hint or suggestion that might help.
At this point it is a guess at 6 doors with each a separate ID.
Real time wifi cellphone notification. The fully baked applications I am aware of that "might" are subscription based and go through a remote server. Usually via the cellular data network. Even if everything is t*ts and the cellular data network is relatively idle there will still be a lag. It would have to be local to have any chance of approaching real time. This may mean hiring a coder to write the cell phone ap and figuring out how to bypass the ApStore/PlayStore to load it on the phones. You would probably also need a program running on an individual PC (could be a micro with embedded OS) to manage the data.
Here is the real problem. The employees themselves will ignore the notifications knowing other people are also getting the notifications. "I was busy, didn't feel like it, and management is evil for pushing this on us." Well, if they are commission based sales people you might get the opposite problem. A gang of fanged carnivorous starving seagulls descending on an unsuspecting victim. "MINE! MINE! MINE!"
I have done something to similar to this in a hardwired non cell based application. I drew floor plan of a building, laminated it on a board covered with polycarbonate, installed a programmable relay board in an alarm panel, wired the relays to light LEDs cut into the floor plan. Then I set all the keypads in the building to chime.
A similar mass produced product is a waitress call system. I've never installed one, but I have repaired a couple. Wait staff are motivated to look at the light board, because generally better service equals better tips.
Upon second thought, there are a number of wifi trigger devices on the market that send data to a remote location. You might be able to adapt something that is off the shelf. IT "professionals" are always trying to monitor IT hardware remotely. Power, data, heat, battery alarm, etc... If you can send texts (most cell services have an email to text format) from a PC it could all be done without an ap, but then you are dependent on the cellular network again. You still need some kind of controller to monitor the input and managed the output. Scripting under Windows might be possible. Never really looked at that. Local wifi direct would be better.
Looks like Android seems to support peer to peer communication on the development side. Don't know about Apple iOS. Again, getting your doors into that communication is a hurdle.
Search Android P2P and search WiFi Direct for some great background. From there its a matter of seeing if somebody has already developed something you can use.
Thanks Bob, I knew this was going to be tricky. The signal delay thing was not what I was thinking about. Thanks for that thought.
I did find this:
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No matter I would have to get one of "something" just to 'test evaluate' to make sure it can do what they want.
As for the staffing challenge....... Well that will be a challenge no matter what.
Setting up a full system with relays and LED's, etc. will be a very difficult install on this building. Not impossible but difficult.
The one advantage here is that the whole building has WiFi installed. I just don't know at this time how strong the signal is at each door.
Well, I don't even know which specific doors they want to cover. There is a meeting being setup next week to discuss. I am trying to get my thoughts and concerns together to be ready for that meeting.
Les, I once saw something from a Garage door company that allowed you to use the cell phone (two buttons) to control the garage door (up or down) .. Sorry but I didn't read any more about it at the time, didn't have a need.. Might be something worth looking into though.. .. Then there is also that "Arduino" Their UNO (mini computer module) can be tailored to do a lot of different thing.. It has modules to do a lot of different things...
Hey Les, Sorry I haven't been around but I've been up to my cheeks with work lately. Had a Mental health facility where I could only work after hours. Getting in 11:00 12:00 o'clock at night. . Anyway, you can use the Napco Starlink Connect. It has a feature where it will send a text message every time a "opening" is opened even if the alarm system isn't armed.
If it's not too late, and you need further info, give me a call.
Well HELLO Jim!!! I am glad you made it back from the Dark Side!!! :-)
As for the door question they decided to pass on the project. Maybe after I described the challenge that staff is going to have should there be a door that is opened.
As for the Napco Starlink, I did not know it had that feature built in the units. Does it require a Napco panel to make that happen??
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