Great Plug In

[Kaje]

Just wanted to say that I went out on a limb and bought some 8315/40315 modules off eBay and implemented Blade's RFID plug-in. Everything went super smooth and works great.

With some quick event creation the garage door opens and closes automatically when the wife comes and goes. Big WAF points!

As such just wanted to post some positive feedback for anyone going down this path.

Ken J.

[Rupp]

Which exact models did you purchase (links would help) and which receiver are you using (link as well). This way other users can replicate your success.

[drozwood90]

Be careful with the automatic closing. Some users have had the door close on things...cars, etc.

Personally, for me, if the door wants to close, I have to authorize it. It can only Auto open. Kind of annoying, since RIGHT NOW, I can't tell if there is anything in the doorway.

I'm trying to put a camera in the garage across the doorway, if the door wants to be closed, HS will pop the video open on HStouch, then I can choose to close it or not.

Just wanted to bring that out there for anyone reading through this.

I do need to get my RFID tags and motion sensor back in the car. I like to use BOTH to give a "FOR CERTAIN" Dan's car came home.

Final thought on the actual door events stuff, make sure you have a 100% reliable way of telling that the door is up/down. It's critical, otherwise the door will be going up when you want it down, etc. Make the code so it can't just keep trying (repeating event?)...otherwise it could close down on your car's trunk, the garage door "safety" feature makes it go back up, HS says, "No close!" and then for the next 20 minutes, you can't figure out what the banging is...until you find out $2000 in body work...

I also (paranoid much?) put in an event that if triggered from HSTouch/web/email/etc. will disable all AUTO opening. I do not keep the garage door opener in my car. So, if someone breaks into my car and steals it, they KNOW where my house is (registration/proof of insurance/Other official documents that are required to be in the car) so why make it easy for them to get in? -- I am using the event right now (since the tags and motions are not setup in my new car yet). For the moment, I use HStouch to open the garage door manually when I come home.

Side note:
In researching this, I had seen a neat product that ties into your high beams. So, you come to your garage door, then flash the high beams twice, which kicks off a circuit that "presses the button" on your garage door opener. Neat idea as it's there and easy to get to, but unless you KNOW to do it, you'll never find the garage door opener.

--Dan

[Kaje]

Rupp,
I got the RFid devices from Ananiah on eBay. They have various packaging and combos to choose from. There store link is:
http://stores.ebay.com/Ananiah-Elect...id=p4340.l2563

Specific devices I got:
- RF8315R (the receiver that plugs into a spare com port...and for the record is also powered by the com port which is pretty convenient)
- RF8315T (an 8 m range active transmitter...I convinced the wife to keep it in her purse)
- RF40315T-xc (a 40 m range active transmitter, in a case with a 4 AA battery holder...which I velcroed into the trunk of the car)

Ken J.

[Kaje]

Dan,
All valid concerns. In my particular setup I have magnetic switches hardwired to an Ocelot SECU-16...so no z-wave or other rf to fail me on whether the door is truly up or down. And the Ocelot is what commands the door...so if the Ocelot is down then no action happens, no matter what HS thinks by itself.

And yes the close event is if it doesn't detect closure it doesn't try for another 15 minutes and if it fails again then it no longer tries.

Most importantly is I've "trained" my wife to make sure the vehicle is pulled all the way in or out...and by "trained" I mean I have a large garage with plenty of room for her to pull in and she always has (even before I told her about the consequences).

Ken J.

[pete@malibubeach.com]

I'm thinking of buying some of these devices. What is the real range? I have about 100' driveway with a gate at the street end. Any chance the 40m device will reach that far? Or does 40 m. mean it will go that far when all the stars, align the sun is out, and the children are quiet (i.e. what is the useful range?)

Does the plug-in support multiple readers (if, for example, I wanted one close to the gate and another closer to the garage)?

You said in this thread that the reader is powered byt he serial port---is that also true if you must use a USB to serial converter (or is there a provision for external power)?

Any significant difference between Blade's plugin and the SimplerRFID plug-in?

Thanks,
Pete

[nightwalker]

The 40m tags will do a 100ft driveway fairly easy, depending on where you install the receiver. I catch myself coming home long before i get there. The useful range really depends on your situation more than anything else. If the space between the tag and the reader is fairly open it goes a long long way, if you have lots of stuff in-between, buildings, other houses, etc you get a little less. I got much better performance powering the receivers on their own as opposed to through the serial port.

I can't speak to the cheaperRFID plug-in I've never used it but BLRFID does support two receivers very nicely.

[prsmith777]

Did you try the Transmitter antenna accessory that is supposed to boost your distance? Its on the Ebay site and cheap.

Do you notice a difference in the range whether the car is coming or going? Do you think the glove box or center console work OK for placement.

This looks like it would solve the whether someone is home or not question.

[rmasonjr]

I mount my transmitters on the backside of my rearview mirror. That way, they are up in the open and unobtrusive on the inside. I also mounted my receiver to the roof of my garage and ran a long serial cable back to homeseer.

Mine picks up my signal when I turn in my driveway - probably 100' away from the receiver.

[prsmith777]

Good ideas. Sounds like a plan.

Can more than one receiver be used with this plugin?

[Automated]

This is quite interesting to hear that people are having some good success and really using RFID. I had read many threads some months ago, and you can see in the early discussions, there was a lot of enthusiasm, but then over time people seemed to have stopped using RFID due to the drop outs or whatever other problems. Now I see a fresh post with someone having good success, it makes me want to reconsider if there are some automation areas where I might use RFID. Checking eBay, I see these units are quite cheap, so I might have to give it a go sooner or later. Maybe I can track the bicycles with RFID, and then after coming back from a ride, the house can great us and say she hoped we had a good bike ride, hehe.

[prsmith777]

Maybe I can track the bicycles with RFID, and then after coming back from a ride, the house can great us and say she hoped we had a good bike ride, hehe.

And offer you a cold drink too.

I am going to give it a go, I think. Its cheap and something fun to play with. I would like to be able to have more than one receiver though. For the cars, its not a problem. For smaller devices that would be on a keychain or in purse, you would need several receivers to cover the areas around the house. I havent really researched this at all but it would be nice to have more than one receiver.

[rmasonjr]

Tracking vehicles is somewhat consistent for me. There are times when the vehicles are parked just outside the 'zone' and it loses contact - like when we're washing them, etc. I dont do a whole lot of automation with them, though. I send text messages when they leave/return. I think the one in my wife's SUV turns on the lights for her if she arrives and it is dark.

They key for my setup was mounting the receiver in the garage itself.

[stevea]

I currently have the 40m and two 8m tags in each of three cars. The 40m run off the car battery, and the 8m off the CR2032 batteries.

For the receiver, I have one of the "cross" type antennas with a Radio Shack in-line amplifier. It generally picks up the 40m transmitters a good 200-300 yards out (often before the car is in sight from the driveway).

I normally have things set up so that if any of the tags for a car are picked up and have been "gone" for more than 5 minutes, I'll open the garage door (if it is closed). The only event that I have that will cause the door to be closed is if all three cars (all 9 tags) are gone for at least 10 minutes. Both of the garage door events are autmatically disabled when I put HS in "vacation mode", and I have a manual event to disable it when I am working on the tags.

I've had this for several years. The only time I've ever had any problems with it is in the dead of winter if it stays really cold (like below zero) for several days. Two of the cars are in the garage, but the one that is parked outside often has it's tags get pretty flakey in the cold, and we had the garage door open up in the middle of the night twice. It's happened so infrequently that I don't even consider it an issue worth fixing. I'm really happy with the tags, the receiver, and Blade's plug-in.

The one issue I've had with the plug-in every year is with the switch to daylight savings time or back. I forget which way is what, but at the instant it happens all the cars show up as gone, and the only way for them to be "seen" again by the plug-in is to drive them out of range for >5 minutes, then come back. A bit of a pain, but only once per year.

Steve

[prsmith777]

Steve,

Why did you feel the need to put multiple transmitters in the cars??? Is this overkill?

Interested more in the details of your receiver setup since I have a feeling I will only be able to use one and my house is rather big.