bratnetwork

I'm a diesel mechanic by trade and in the winter I have a problem with guys opening the garage door all the way multiple times a day just to put a 3 inch hose through to hook up to a tank in my garage. Not only does it get cold, but then the heat has to work extra hard to heat the garage back up and then the owner calls me crying about the heating bills... No matter how much we tell them to not open the door so much they never listen especially if I'm not around. Time to take things into my own hands....

My idea is to use the infrared distance sensor to stop the door from opening more than 6 inches unless I manually allow it to through the computer in my office. Obviously ill have to do some tinkering with the garage do switches and figure that end of it out but I have a few questions about the sensor end.

My original idea was just to mount the sensor right next to the door 6 inches off the ground and then once the door wasnt there anymore it would trigger the stop sequence. My fear with that is that either someone will hit and break it or get it wet... So my next idea was to mount it at the top of the door, but then how would it know when to stop? Is there something i can glue to the door to "trick" the sensor into a different reading?

Also i see the infrared is limited to 150cm... I'm not worried about getting an actual measurement but just sensing a change in distance, so if the door opens and there is nothing within the 150cm range will it still give a reading to my brain thats higher than a a few cm would give me?

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greenman100

It'd probably be easier to do it with a timer - only let the motor have power for a short duration.

2k1Toaster

But if you wanted a feedback system, then What about at the top, is it chain driven? Perhaps put something reflective sticking out of the chain and the IR sensor pointing at it. Then how far the chain moves, you know how much the door is open.

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bratnetwork

Its a large commercial garage building so it has metal roll up doors, not like in a house garage where there is a long chain from the motor to the door.

I was even considering something like using the IR near the top of the door then 6 inches down drill a small hole in the door so the sensor would trigger at that point.

But i've been out of work for 6 weeks from a knee surgery so i haven't been there to look at the set up of everything in detail since i thought of this idea, but ill be back there on monday so if i'm not swamped with work to do ill see if I can look into the design of the door... i might even just be able to add a micro switch somewhere and use that to trigger the brain.

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