Enhanced Garage Door

Light up a "welcome" sign when you open your garage, and a lamp in the living room whenever you close it (to find your way when it's dark).

IntermediateFull instructions provided3 hours1,111

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Photon

Magnetic Sensor

Relay

Jumper wires (generic)

hookup wires

Breadboard (generic)

Software apps and online services

IFTTT Maker service

Google Sheets

Story

Introduction

Ever wanted to open your garage door through your smart phone? I know you do. Since almost everybody walks around with their smart phones, this can be useful if you're lazy, your garage wireless key doesn't work, or if you just want to do it because its awesome. Also, it has a feature where a lamp in the living room that goes on few seconds after the garage closes. Most of the times I return home late and everything is dark inside so I don't have to struggle to find the light switch and get tripped. It may sound like too much effort to just find the light switch, but it's much comfortable going in when there's some light for you to go straight to your room.

Our Project's Video

This project includes three photons, one for the garage, and the other two are for a welcome sign and a lamp in the living room.

Photon 1

The first photon is connected to the garage through a relay, and magnetic sensors opposing each others that are connected to the garage door it self and its frame. If you already have a wireless garage key with one button it would operate when the garage is open or closed. Unlike the code we built that has two separate buttons, "Open" and "Close". These buttons work separately based on the magnetic sensors, depending on where you place your opposing sensors. Our sensors get in contact when the garage door is open, so when we press "Open" it would not close the garage door because the sensors are in contact, and that because the condition we specified for "Open" in our code. This helps us to keep track of the operations of the garage, unlike the factory wireless key.

Opposed Magnetic Sensors Tapped on Garage Door Frames

Photon 2

The second photon is connected to a welcome sign through a relay in order to light up the sign when the garage opens. We chose the welcome sign just for fun and decoration, it can be replaced with anything else like an extra light bulb for more brightness.

Photon 3

The last photon is connected the same way as the second one but with a lamp in the living room that goes on when the garage closes. The time it goes on is adjustable for yourself to find your way to your room, or just have enough time to turn on the light switch if you want to chill in the living room.

Code

int analogPin = A1; 
int garage = D0;
int val = 0;

void setup(){
  pinMode(garage, OUTPUT);     
  pinMode(analogPin, INPUT);
  Serial.begin( 9600 );

Particle.function("Function_Name",Hello);
}


void loop(){}
 

 int Hello(String command){
  val = analogRead(analogPin);

  if (command=="on" && val<4060) {
         
        digitalWrite(garage,HIGH);
        delay(100);
        digitalWrite(garage,LOW);
        Particle.publish("Event_name_for_when_the_garage_opens","OPEN");
        return 1;
  }
   
    else if  (command=="off" && val>4060) {

        digitalWrite(garage,HIGH);
        delay(100);
        digitalWrite(garage,LOW);
        Particle.publish("Event_name_for_when_the_garage_closes","CLOSED");
        return 0;
  }
  
  else {
      return -1;
  }
  }