how to design a Fax alert?

[gfs]

I have a fax machine in a separate area than my office...is there some kind of sensor i can set up to rig it to send an x10 signal when there is a fax? some use of ds10? i cant rely on motion. thanks

[mrhappy]

When you say motion do you mean anything at all that the machine physically does, ie you want to distinguish if it gets a line signal?

If not do you have a paper tray that you could you use a IR gate/slot sensor mounted to so when there is a received fax the beam is broken by the paper? It could also be set up with a reminder to tell you every five minutes if the beam is still broken.

A small circuit would be needed to interface it with a powerflash or DS10.

Failling that would a ring detector work? Is there a seperate phone line for the fax machine? Something like this circuit...



The problem with the first method is that it does not know if a fax has been received in memory if you are out of paper...the problem with the second is that if you forget to pick the fax of the machine it does not know, all it knows is that you received a signal on the line.

[Rupp]

I have a fax machine in a separate area than my office...is there some kind of sensor i can set up to rig it to send an x10 signal when there is a fax? some use of ds10? i cant rely on motion. thanks

Does the fax machine make a noise? You could tap into the speaker and use a powerflash module to activate when sound is emitted.

[skybolt]

If you want to spend the money, this box could be hooked to the fax line and the relay output to an X10 power flash module.

http://www.vikingtelecomsolutions.co...odel_LDB-3.htm

[bmora]

How about just putting a hawkeye motion sensor in the output tray?(I don’t know what your fax machine looks like) I'd think the paper that goes over the hawkeye would trip the sensor. Set up a condition if you're in the room to not alert you if it picks up other motion. Rudimentary but may be a cheap and easy solution.