Door security recording device

[Stonkin]

Not sure what to call this thread

 

I've just been asked if i know of a device that can record when (time and date) a door has been opened. This is for the back of a horse truck. The data needs to be stored for 3 years, eith sms or email for example.

 

The item recommended is about 3k apparently. I've had a look about but a bit stumped, anyone got any ideas please?

[stevie_b]

3k! It sounds like something an electronics hobbyist could do for a tenth of that.

[mellonman]

surely there is a program or app you can make on a smart phone/ lap top that would work off a switch on the door, i know that some lift controlers have a feature like this its only a date and time record from a signal like pressing enter on a key board. i expect you could make something work very well for under £500

 

have a look at maplin/ rs they have things that might work well

 

 

thinking about it there are some trackers that have something like that, says where it is if the engine is running so instead of the engine running you could have doors open,this wouldnt stop the people shorting out the switch though

[Digsy]

Sounds like the OP wants something that will sit in the lorry and log the door open / door closed to remote storage (he says by SMS or e-mail). You could make something PIC-based relatively cheaply that would sit in the lorry and record to its own internal memory. With a suitable PIC you could probably even make something with an RS232 or USB connection so the data could be regularly downloaded to a laoptop, but that wouldn't be any use if the lorry was stolen.

[Purity14]

It would need to be powered as well, what a nightmare - is there a market for such devices?

We do door access at our company, but not for horse boxes

[Digsy]

If it only needed to be working when the lorry was parked in a certain location then something like the MyHome247 system might be suitable. You could have the base station inside a nearby building, within wireless range and then have a door sensor or even a CCTV camera inside the lorry. As long as the lorry was in range of the base station it would log the door open / closed events to the MyHome server at their headquarters. You could also add an alarm and/or security light that would trigger if the door was opened outside of a certain time window.

 

If you only wanted a door sensor then they are battery powered and that would be the only bit actually inside the lorry. The rest is mains powered and lives indoors. If you wanted a camera inside the lorry then its a bit more complex because I don't think the run off anything as friendly as 24V or 12V so you would need a transformer to drop the voltage down. Fiddly, but not the end of the world. The building with the base station in it would need a nearby broadband router for its connection to the internet.

 

Its not how the system is designed to work (its all meant to be installed in a single location) but it might work as long as it doesn't see the dorr sensor on the lorry going out of wireless range as an "alarm" event.

 

You do have to pay for an account to store your data, which is about £12 a month for 250Mb. I don't know if this would be enough to store three years worth of data - certainly not if a camera was added.

 

You can see the system and prices at www.myhome247.co.uk I have had my system installed at home as well as a normal alarm for a few years now and its generally been pretty good.