Re: HA Holy Grail #1: Occupancy Detection

["Frank Mc Alinden" <frankmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Guys

Thought some might be interested in this post Gerry made  to Coccoontech
regarding the Maxbotix sensor.............

HTH
Frank

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A particularly cool use of these sensors has been for beam break detectors
in doorways.

In particular, if you are interested in not only knowing if someone came
through a door, but which way they came through, in the past, you'd need
two
beams and figure which got crossed first, etc.

If you install a EZ1 at a high enough angle to the door, you can figure the
measurement when it first change and last changed to determine which way
the
person went. The controller has a ranging mode where you can tell it that
you only want reports about changes in a certain range of measures. This is
important because if they beam is at a sufficiantly high enough angle,
it'll
probably go further than the door and you really don't want to gets reports
when someone just walks by the door.

The controller will report when the range is entered and exited and from
which direction the range was entered and which direction the range was
exited, making it easy to track direction of passage.

Actually, I've been impressed with the range of uses folks are putting the
EZ1's to (I'm talking to a number of folks who are ordering the controller
trying to see what sort of variety there is out there).

Here are a couple of the things that folks have told me they are using the
EZ1 and the controller for (all of these could be done with just the EZ1
and
more processing on the client side -- the controller is doing nothing magic
to make any of these possible):

Occupancy sensing
Car placement in the garage (i.e. parking in the right spot
door/beam break tracking
The now classic salt-tank tracking
The less classic oil tank measuring
Bomb defusing robots (seriously -- very cool robot with 12 sensors)
Sump pump measurement/tracking/alerting
Rain barrel/cistern tracking

The next version of the firmware has the ability to use an otherwise unused
sensor channel as a digital output. You can program a sensor so that when
something is in a given range (or not in that range), the digital output
goes high (or low). I'm adding this because there are a few places where I
just really need to light a light or sound a buzzer when things are in a
certain range or not and I don't need a whole computer. Since the
controller
can control 12 sensors but I rarely use more than 2 per board, that is up
to
10 digital IO pins available. It won't handle all uses, but there is a
range
of small tracking uses that it will simplify (for me, if nothing else)

Gerry




----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Mc Alinden" <frankmc@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 5:48 AM
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] HA Holy Grail #1: Occupancy Detection


> Hi Guys
>
> Gerry Duprey has produced a pcb for the Maxbotix  sensor and also has
a
> driver board for RGBLEDs .......
> http://www.rgbled.org/store/index.html
>
> HTH
> Frank
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ian.bird@xxxxxxx>
> To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 9:38 PM
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] HA Holy Grail #1: Occupancy Detection
>
>
>>I did indeed. I was composing you a mail when I saw this. I have
one or
>> two here for you, let me know your choice. I'll send the other
details
>> off
>> list.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Ian
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Paul Gale" <groups@xxxxxxx>
>> Sent by: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>> 22/08/2006 10:48
>> Please respond to ukha_d
>>
>>
>>        To:     <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
>>        cc:     (bcc: Ian Bird/CV/Novartis)
>>        Subject:        RE: [ukha_d] HA Holy Grail #1: Occupancy
Detection
>>
>>
>> Ian - did you not go ahead with a BB on the ultrasonic sensors? I
>> remember
>> emailing but can't remember if anything happened from there???
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Paul.
>>
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
>> Of
>>> ian.bird@xxxxxxx
>>> Sent: 22 August 2006 10:33
>>> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>>> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] HA Holy Grail #1: Occupancy Detection
>>>
>>> Hi Andy
>>>
>>> I use this in the kitchen and have two observations.
>>> 1) Ambient light in the room should be considered and
>>> 2) As Paul mentions PIR lag and subsequent X-10 transmission
delays (if
>>> you use X-10 that is) make the lights slow to _very_ slow at
times.
>>>
>>> As for my system - I have just had some ultrasonic range
sensors arrive
>>> from the States and I hope to use these to cover the kitchen
area and
>> then
>>> with some wizardry I can note the 'normal' distance returned
and thereby
>>> know when it varies. If it varies it must mean something is in
there,
>>> hopefully a person. With some programming this could become
intelligent
>>> too and adapt. This might be relevant in the winter for
example when we
>>> hang washing from the ceiling dryer (there is an AGA in the
kitchen so
>>> everything dries overnight). If all this works I will retire
the PIR
>>> gladly as no movement switching off and long off times to
compensate are
>> a
>>> pain. This is probably a winter project though.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Ian
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Andy Laurence" <andy@xxxxxxx>
>>> Sent by: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>>> 22/08/2006 09:49
>>> Please respond to ukha_d
>>>
>>>
>>>         To:     <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
>>>         cc:     (bcc: Ian Bird/CV/Novartis)
>>>         Subject:        [ukha_d] HA Holy Grail #1: Occupancy
Detection
>>>
>>>
>>> I've finally puched down all the CAT5 in Node0, so it's time
to think
>>> about lighting.  I've got the switches and lighting
controllers sorted,
>>> but what I'd really like is automgic lights.  This leads me in
pursuit
>> of
>>> the holy grail.  Occupancy detection.  Has anyone got a
reasonably
>>> reliable method of occupancy detection?  I'm thinking a
sensitive PIR,
>>> which triggers a timer and turns the light on.  When the timer
reaches
>>> zero the light goes off.  Whenever the PIR is triggered, it
resets the
>>> timer.  I suspect I can do this with xAP Floorplan, although
I've not
>>> checked yet.  Has anyone implemented this?  If so, any
recommendations
>> for
>>> PIRs?
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Andy
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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>> Yahoo! Groups Links
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