The Project

One of my favorite magazines is a DIY magazine called Make.  Pretty much every issue since the magazine started has had a project including an Arduino.

The Arduino is "an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board".  The Arduino has been used as a component in about a bazillion projects.  Everything from robots to "scent dispensers", musical instruments to moisture sensors.  I read (not sure where) that a recent NASA satellite launch had 3 Arduino based sensor projects.

I wanted one.  But I had to have some justification to spend the cash.  It isn't that they are expensive, you can get one for as little as 35 bucks, 20 if you want to practice your soldering skills.  I am just one of those types of people that can't buy themselves a "toy" without feeling guilty.  I had to have some really useful project in order to feel good about spending the time and money.

The Project: Home Security System.  OK, we already have a security system, but it sucks.  I can't control it from my phone or the web and the keypad is ugly.  Was that enough justification?  Too late... already bought the arduino!

The Ardurino Projects Pack.  I decided to go all out, because I might need the extra components (yuk yuk), and went with the Arduino Projects Pack from the Maker Shed.  99 bucks.  Only 2 digits and not too much guilt, after all my wife can spend that on hair cuts for her and our daughter.  It seems to have lots of fun stuff in it like thermistors, tilt sensors, a couple dinky motors, photoresistors, and an NPN Transistor.  Well, the thermistors added an item to my feature list but I will have to think a bit in order to figure out how to use the rest.  Is a RC robot a necessary part of a security system?  Most important part is the Arduino Duemilanove.  Only 14 digital inputs ( 6 analog ) so I am going to have to use one of the protoboards for a couple of multiplexers to give me more inputs.  The ATmega328 microprocesser, 32K of flash memory to hold controller code.  Hopefully that will be enough to give me good control.  This model has a USB link built on which is probably the most important part.  Since I am a software developer "in my real life", there is also going to be a lot I want to do on the server that it is connected to. 

Planned Features:

• Enough sensors for all of the windows and doors.
• Motion sensor.
• Connect to our Fire / CO2 alarm system.
• Key pad & lcd, maybe touch screen interface. 
• House temperature sensor ( got a thermistor, gotta use it! )
• Web based interface.
• Commands and notifications via text message/email.
  

I think that my first task will be to figure out how to do communication between Arduino and Java app.


A quick google for "arduino security system" tells me that I am not alone in thinking that this is a good project.  There should be lots of resources anyway.

Some links:
http://arduino.cc/en
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/arduino
http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-40-arduino-projects-of-the-web
http://www.arduinoprojects.com/
http://www.practicalarduino.com/projects