Sewer clog alert system

posted Jul 27th 2009 6:04pm by Zach Banks
filed under: cellphones hacks, home hacks

xbee

[miketysklar] noticed that a local business was having trouble with their sewage lines. People kept flushing tampons down toilets and it ended up clogging the pump. They had already installed a set of lights and horns to go off when it clogged, but they were hoping for SMS capability so they would know wherever they were. The new system piggybacks off the flashing lights by powering an XBee when they are activated. The signal it sends is recieved by another XBee attached to a computer running a python script. The script then sends a SMS via email to the poor fellow who has to fix it.

Related: Wireless Bootloading

GSM remote control project

posted May 28th 2008 8:13am by Will O'Brien
filed under: cellphones hacks, classic hacks


It’s been a while since we’d seen any new SMS/GSM/serial remote interface projects. [Emanuele] sent in his version of a project to do just that. It uses a PIC16F84 and will send or receive commands. A pair of relays provide options for controlling whatever you want to hook it up to. You’ll need a login, but he’s released the full schematics and firmware. He developed this to find uses for old phones, but an alternative is to pick up a cheap calling card cell and dedicate it to a project like this. This seems like a great way to add an out of band alarm system to your house/car/robotic minion.




Notacon 2008: Dropping humanity in non-places

posted Apr 8th 2008 9:34am by Eliot Phillips
filed under: cons


[Nate Graham] gave a presentation on what he considers ‘new media art’, the convergence of art and technology. He covered quite a few great examples of what new media art is from many categories: a mower that creates pixel art, Cory Arcangel’s famous Super Mario Clouds hack, a whale hunt whose photo capture rate depended on the participant’s heart rate, the bike based SMS printer for protests.

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SMS PIN Sentry reader

posted Nov 3rd 2007 8:57pm by Will O'Brien
filed under: cellphones hacks


[Mr G] in London sent in his pin sentry hack. He wasn’t pleased that the device looks like an old calculator, so he rigged up a SMS board to send him his pin on demand. He multiplexed the output of the display driver to the SMS board. When he authenticates from his phone, the board sends a message with the latest code.

GSM Alarm

posted Aug 28th 2007 10:45pm by Will O'Brien
filed under: cellphones hacks, misc hacks


Fresh from the tips line, [Pedro] sent in his GSM alarm. He combined a GSM phone, a motion sensor and BasicX24 controller board. If the detector trips during a set time period, the alarm sends SMS messages to the terminator, er whoever you want. He was kind enough to release the code, but I’d like to see this with a smaller micro-controller board to keep the cost/size down.




SMS VCR Remote

posted Sep 20th 2006 10:06am by Will O'Brien
filed under: cellphones hacks, home entertainment hacks, misc hacks


You guys love those erricson phones. Mark sent in this SMS VCR remote control. I guess it’s an alternative to a TiVo, or handy for those one man sting operations. I started poking around the site and discovered a few more interesting projects. The toilet telemetry was a bit odd. I want the duck taped kitchen timer for my espresso bar.

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