Arduino Burglar Alarm Sends SMS

https://github.com/mattwilliamson/arduino-sms-alarm

by aimatt • 14 years ago

61 34 14 years ago

github.com

revelation2• 14 years ago

This seems to need a computer to actually send the SMS. Would've been far more flexible to buy a cheap AT GSM modem.

aimatt5• 14 years ago

But a lot more expensive

excuse-me2• 14 years ago

Does anyone know of a cheap and simple SMS only GSM modem?

All the ones I have used were expensive industrial spec units with complex data channels.

gravitronic• 14 years ago

This project's pretty awesome.

The cheapest way to solve the issue would be to hook it up to something like a nokia pay as you go phone over serial/bluetooth.

ragmondo• 14 years ago

I know it's "just" an arduino talking to another PC .. but after doing some drilling, soldering, glueing, screwing and general arduino-ing myself ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Rj-NegE6E ) well done on actually getting something designed, done and "ready". If you inspire one person to pick up an arduino then that's compliment enough !

standingstone• 14 years ago

I have been told that Burglar alarms that send SMS alerts are vulnerable to blocking devices. These are allegedly available on ebay and are already being used for this purpose.

ceejayoz• 14 years ago

This wouldn't be vulnerable to that, as the SMS is sent via a web-based API. You'd have to block the Arduino's wifi/ethernet connection.

ajross• 14 years ago

This isn't sending SMS over the radio network, it's hitting TelAPI over (presumably) the land line. A jammer would prevent the reception of the SMS at the site, which wouldn't harm this application because the whole point is that the owner is not present and needs an alarm.

It is, however, vulnerable to the outrageous latency problems (minutes, often) the unofficial messaging gateways have. I send my wife texts to her company blackberry because it's convenient, but ultimately had to duplicate them to her gmail address to ensure that she got them fast enough.

aimatt5• 14 years ago

You're right there about the jammer. But in testing, it hasn't taken more than 20 seconds so far.

georgieporgie• 14 years ago

I don't think the meth addicts burglarizing my neighborhood are that sophisticated. ;-)

rorrr2• 14 years ago

So what's the total cost?

- What's the cheapest Arduino board that would work with this sensor? Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a Raspberry Pi?

- How much is the power supply?

- It would also be cool if there was a way to send SMS over the regular wireless, like with one of those cheap emergency cell phone plans. That would make it a really nice alarm, no need for the internet, and it can work off a PSU even if burglars shut down the power/internet.

simcop2387• 14 years ago

He shows it on a teensy, which if you're decent with a soldering iron can be done for as little as $16 + shipping. power supply is usb so no extra cost there. not sure how well talking to a phone would do directly but worth checking into.

aimatt5• 14 years ago

That's right on the money, but technically I'm using a nano. Any Arduino will work though. There are knockoff Arduinos out there too, but I like to give back to the Arduino organization by buying an official board.

rorrr2• 14 years ago

$16 for the whole thing? The board, the sensor, the connectors, the power supply? I don't think it's even close to that.

aimatt5• 14 years ago

You can get the cheapest Arduino you can find. About $50 total probably.

I would love to see this on a Raspberry Pi, but you will likely have to do some 3v3 to 5v translation or use the upcoming Gertboard.

pyoung2• 14 years ago

Are there any functional benefits to doing this with a Pi instead of an Arduino?

cullen2• 14 years ago

1. You can get your hands on a Raspberry Pi?

2. Do you really want to try and optimize for cost on sub 30 dollar items in quantities of approximately 1?

3. ADH8066 GSM Modules are approximately fifty bucks. Serial port, AT commands, etc. Who knows where you can get a data carrier for reasonable cost in this country.

dlf• 14 years ago

Really cool. It reminds me of a project my brother-in-law did to receive an SMS when the Ph levels in his salt water aquarium change.

SigmundA• 14 years ago

Both an Elk M1: http://www.elkproducts.com/product-catalog/m1-gold-cross-pla... and a HAI Omni:http://www.homeauto.com/Products/HAISystems/OmniPro2/omnipro... can do this via email and can call your cell phone and speak the alarm to you and are UL listed fire/burglar system as well as fully programmable automation controllers.

They cost significantly more (about as much as a decent PC) but I would not trust my property or life to anything less honestly. My Omni has been running without reboot for years and does security/fire/hvac/irrigation/lighting/garage door control and has an iPhone app for control.

johnohara• 14 years ago

I know a lot of people like the Arduino Uno but IMHO the Nano has a better layout. Bread board friendly with the same ATMega328 as the Uno.

Nice job aimatt. Good learning project.

thehigherlife• 14 years ago

Anyone know a good source to get Arduino stuff (sensors, boards, etc.) in the USA?

joshu3• 14 years ago

Sparkfun.

cullen2• 14 years ago

Adafruit, Sparkfun, Pololu, Seeed Studios, Leaf Labs Also see Mouser, Digikey, Allied, et al http://leaflabs.com/distributors/ Radio Shack carries Arduino now, some do anyway. My personal favorite is Adafruit because this one time, I whined to her about her webform not accepting my name+spamtagger@emailaddress.com and she fixed it and wrote me back in like five minutes, no joke. I do not know her personally and that was the first time I had ordered anything from her.

tl;dr Limor Fried is a bad ass, buy things from her store.

pyoung2• 14 years ago

If you are new to electronics I would suggest the arduino inventor kit. Comes with everything you need to get your feet wet.

s_henry_paulson• 14 years ago

You can get stuff dirt cheap straight from Hong Kong on eBay with free shipping.

I pay about half the price of what I see in most web stores.

joshu3• 14 years ago

I built something similar. I used a PCEngines Alix (x86, 5w, $100ish) and the serial port on my home security system. Fun stuff!

sshumaker• 14 years ago

This is really cool. I've actually been working on something really similar.

Early last year, we built a a breadboard with a Teensy microcontroller (instead of an Arduino) to decode signals from off-the-shelf door and window sensors. At the time, we had to reverse engineer the protocol using a oscilloscope. :) The breadboard was tethered to an Android device, which was the brain of the system (and this let us do other cool stuff, like video, networking etc).

We're much further along now (with working prototype units). If you're interesting in this kind of thing, we ARE hiring. :) (http://elarm.com)

Arduino Burglar Alarm Sends SMS

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