Garage Door Reminder

Status: Complete
Update: The battery life is too short so I need to revisit the firmware

I live in a pretty safe neighborhood, but I still did not like forgetting to put the garage door down at night. My brain is pretty hard to upgrade, so I decided to build a reminder device instead.

For wireless communication I designed a two part system, consisting of a transmitter/receiver from a table top RC car like these. A couple of years ago I purchased two of these for about $5 with some other items, so this was a cheap way to go wireless. The transmitter sends pulses when the garage door is up. The receiver blinks a bright green LED for 3 seconds every time it receives a pulse.

Receiver Section

garage_minder.jpg

The receiver from the car interrupts a sleeping ATtiny12 when it receives a pulse from the transmitter section.

garmind3.jpg garage-door-reminder-012.jpg
Receiver module from car Battery, RX module and AVr in enclosure
garage-door-reminder-005.jpg
Enclosure with LED and power switch

Transmitter Section

garmind6.jpg garage-door-reminder-001.jpg
Transmitter module from car Installed in enclosure

Receiver Source Code