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IoT Garage Door V2

A year or so ago, I hacked a Belkin WeMo switch and coupled the WIFI board to an Arduino Uno along with a little code and sensors to create a way to control my garage door. The system worked well as I could not only control the door, but I could see the door’s state in the WeMo App on my iPhone. The only problems were that the parts were fairly expensive ($50 for the WeMo and $20 for the Arduino + sensors) and the sensors (magnetic reed relay or hall effect) were difficult to install reliably in the garage. So I set out to simplify the design. I wanted to reduce the price and also make the installation something a typical homeowner might be able to do. The new design uses an internet development chip/system called the Particle Photon. The system is essentially an arduino type processor coupled to a WIFI chip on a single board the size of a couple of postage stamps. The Photon is just $20 compared to $70 for the first design.”

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