Looking for a door monitor setup/circuit

[jamzm]

Hi everyone. I would like to put togther a door monitor with a normally open magnetic reed switch. I think I have all the materials i need. I want to power it from an 18650 lithium ion battery connected to a piezo buzzer to monitor battery charge. Can anyone refer me to some circuitry that i can start with, please? I also want to send a wireless signal to a fing box that will let me know if the door has been opened or even the status of the door. Thanks

[skywatch]

@jamzm Here is the mysensors dooar sketch.....

https://www.mysensors.org/build/binary

I don't know what a 'fing box' is...... ???

[jamzm]

@skywatch Thank you for the info. Here's the fingbox link. https://www.fing.com/products/fingbox

[Puneit Thukral]

@jamzm From what I understood is that a Fing box is an interface device which adds to your router and it is something related to the WiFi network.

I am no expert - -still loads to learn but then I think there is some disconnect. While the Mysensors network does work on the 2.4GHz frequency range (through the NRF24 or NRF5 radios), the network is an ISM band network and not a WiFi standard. Therefore you need to add a gateway from the door sensor to your network.

Take a look at the Getting Started and Build pages.

The minimum you need is a arduino board of your choice with a radio of your choice for the sensor; an arduino/esp8266 of your choice and the same radio for the gateway and a controller of your choice as well.

Had I been starting and someone asked me to choose a bunch of stuff, I would get scared. So I will tell you what I use.. its just one of the implementations.

For the sensors I use arduino pro mini 3.3v with NRF24L01 and I am experimenting with NRF51822 (stay away from these)
For the gateway, I use an arduino uno with NRF24l01 with an ethernet shield running MQTT gateway
For the controller I use Home Assistant.

Now for the sensor itself - if you want to DIY the same, then I would do it this way (again different people would have different methods)

Use arduino pro-mini with NRF24l01 and a reed-switch. 3D print the case for it and use it.

I hope I was able to help in some manner.

[parachutesj]

I have multiple door/window sensors on 2 AAA batteries and they last forever. They permanently sleep and only send an update on change (open or close) and go back to sleep immediately. Within my controller I can track or take further actions e.g. trigger an alarm, send an email or turn lights on or whatever can be imagined. I would not mix up „dumb“ sensors with piezo buzzers etc. this will need additional power and space at the door/window and at the end it is much more efficient if you have a central control.

[jamzm]

@parachutesj Do you have info that i can use to set up my own?

[parachutesj]

@jamzm what are you looking for in particular?
I use a ProMini with the Door/Window/Button switch. The sketch is modified to always sleep and wake up on change. (https://www.mysensors.org/build/binary), with a reed switch (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32468849883.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dYn4UwZ)

The sensor is powered with two AAA batteries. The case is actually from a real door/alarm system from aliexpress which I first wanted to hack but then decided to strip the electrnics out and build it myself. I use a NC reed switch to save additional power (when door is closed mainly).

If you are interested more in the other part of my answer, I use OpenHAB as a controller. I have extensive rules to react base on an "uncontrolled" opening of a door or window.
This could be anything from turning lights on to send an email to your phone, triggering an external security company or enabling your sprinkler