Simple Wireless Security System

(last updated: 2006/11/03)

Purpose: A wireless garage door sensor that detects open/closed state and raises an alarm if the door is open during a specified time. Entry for Circuit Cellar "Atmel AVR Design Contest 2006" - received "Distinctive Excellence" award.

Overview

This project allows you to remotely monitor the open/closed state of a door. It was designed for a garage door; however, there is nothing about the design that prevents it from being used to monitor anything where an object moves away-from and close-to the sensor. Even though this design shows only one sensor, it can be expanded to be a multi-sensor system.

The Maxstream XBee (802.5.14/Zigbee transceiver) is used to wirelessly send data that is collected by an inexpensive, low pin-count, microcontroller. The data is received by another XBee that is interfaced to a PC through an FTDI USB-to-RS232 module. A PC program runs in the system tray and changes its icon depending on the sensor's state. If the door is open during a specified time period, an audible sound is played and the icon flashes.

See the documentation for the full specifications and design details.

Block Diagram

Download (see Attachments)

SimpleWirelessSecuritySystem - all project files including documentation, source code for the Atmel ATtiny45 (AVR Studio using WinAVR), and source code for Visual C# (used Express Edition)

Notes:

1. This project was submitted for Circuit Cellar magazine’s "Atmel AVR Design Contest 2006". Received "Distinctive Excellence" award.

Terms of Use

Home