[Cialug] Pressing a button remotely

[Allen Kiddoo]

Menards has a "remote switch" on sale for $5. Saw it on endcap display
last night. Range 30 feet.


On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 3:03 PM, Nathan Stien <nathanism at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 2:31 PM, Nathan C. Smith <nathan.smith at ipmvs.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> If you wanted to open your garage door or turn something on or off from a
>> remote location what would you use to do it?
>
> In the past I have used a relay driven by a pin from a printer port.  It's
> not pretty, but if you have an old machine with a printer port, it's one of
> the easiest devices to interface to.  You'll get +5V or 0V relative to case
> ground depending on the bit status.  Beware, though: it's not much current,
> but it can drive a small relay fine.  And your relay will need a current
> limit resistor, so you'll have to look at your current requirements and bust
> out some Ohm's law.  Then you write a script to flip that bit, and ssh in to
> call it.
>
> I would probably wire it to a standard wireless remote control for the
> garage door, as I wouldn't want to run an entire computer in my garage
> (+wifi) just for this.
>
> I had this type of ghetto-rig back in high school on an ancient OpenBSD 486,
> and it worked for several years.  It is very low on money-cost but higher on
> time-cost -- a compromise which makes sense for a teenager, but possibly not
> for a working adult.  Now that I have money instead of time, I would
> probably look for a bluetooth/wifi/usb-operated power strip or something
> like that.
>
> - Nathan
>
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