I have a remote home on the lake that is 10 about miles from my house. I was wondering if there was a system that could radio my house if the lake house is in trouble; no electricity, no heat, or flooding...
I would prefer to avoid a monthly bill associated with an alarm system.
any ideas?
Greetings,
First you need to have water, temperature, and heat sensors. We are going to assume you have all of those and that your only question is about communications.
purchase a prepaid mobile telephone with the ability to speed-dial a number by holding down a number key program in your phone number as the speed dial number remove the battery and plug the telephone into the AC adapter. plug the AC adapter into a alarm system or computer controlled relay power the computer and replay with a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) caller-id tell you there is a problem with the house Some might consider this setup as "rigged" but the price is right!
If your computer is the device controlling the relay you can set the phone in front of the computer and play a looped sound out of the computer speaker to tell you what the problem is. It might call you once a week to yell weekly-test at you for 45 seconds until it turns the phone relay back off.
Hope this helps, William
Me not have much wampum but have many teepee to protect. Me have buffalo wallow woman send smoke signal when waters rise. When little horse see big smoke signals rise he throw rock at my teepee.
How! much-em to rent-em your buffalo wallow woman? I do like the wire the prepaid phone idea.... john
I just saw something in the local paper that might work. Check out
Cathi
nice product but it uses a phone line to call you.... I was thinking about a vhf radio with a pre recorded message or some such nonsense provided I could use a Public band that permitted such messages without freaking out the FCC. However, since I believe broadcasting pre recorded stuff on the airwave necessitates a radio station license... the cell phone might be the way to go. prepaid cell phones are about 10 bucks a month to keep in service.
How much power will a computer take to run 24/7 and cost. 300 watts would cost me 30 a month, and prepaid cell cost 10 a month, UPS 2 $ apx. a month. Then you have computer, UPS and phone cost. You come out cheaper with a land line plus you have the reliability of not using a computer, UPS and cell .
Greetings,
You don't need a computer to make this work if you have basic electronics knowledge. You only need a relay / ups / phone. Most alarms sound a buzzer. Wire the buzzer to activate the relay. If you don't want to wire anything to the alarms use a $2 mic and a $0.50 741 op-amp. Use a $0.50 555 timer to keep the relay on for a set duration. If the alarms sound different you might be able to hear which one it is over the telephone.
I estimate the TOTAL MONTLHY costs (including electricity) at < $10 month. I estimate the TOTAL CAPITAL OUTLAY at < $200.
"Chamberlain Communications and Tracfone offer you a year of Prepaid Wireless with a FREE Phone for under $100 for the whole YEAR! (Less than $10.00 a month!) Included is nationwide long distance. 30 day guarantee. Sign up Now - Offer Ends Soon! "
I like this but what tells the phone to push the number that is programmed to call you? John
Greetings,
The button is always pushed down on the phone. The phone just normally doesn't have any power so it doesn't dial. When the relay turns on the ac adapter and thus the power to the phone the button is already down and the phone dials right away.
Hold the button down with a spring clamp of some sort (0.25c mouse trap screwed into a block of wood?)
Hope this helps, William
Cool idea! I know most folks wouldnt like the "hacking" part of this but I like it a lot cause I always try to do the same thing. That is make use of "pieces" that already are available to come up with a solution.
What makes this one even better to me is, when you arriove at your remote home, cabin, whatever, you can unhook the mousetrap, and now you have a phone!
Even at the really good price of less than $10 a month for monitoring, now you have a wireless phone you can use only while you are there if needed.
John
Greetings,
It doesn't have to look bad. Put it all behind an access panel that requires a little key to open built into the wall in the laundry room.
Hope this helps, William
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