cell phone ringer to toggle door locks

HummDinger · 12-20-2004, 01:07 AM

I have an interesting idea. I want to use a cellphone to be able to remotely unlock my car doors. I do have power locks and would like to incorporate some type of relay to toggle the power locks when the phone rings. I dont think this is to difficult of an idea, but definately a cool one. Most usefull when you lock the keys in the car.

Please thoughts, comments and ideas required...

schapman43 · 12-20-2004, 01:15 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by HummDinger

I have an interesting idea. I want to use a cellphone to be able to remotely unlock my car doors. I do have power locks and would like to incorporate some type of relay to toggle the power locks when the phone rings. I dont think this is to difficult of an idea, but definately a cool one. Most usefull when you lock the keys in the car.

Please thoughts, comments and ideas required...

Then anyone who knows the phone number could unlock your car. You need to be able to call the phone, have it answer and then use a DTMF code to unlock the doors.

Dominik · 12-20-2004, 04:24 AM

And once you are doing that, you might as well hook it up to a PIC, and decode SMS messages (which you can access through standard serial AT commands), and then have full control over your car (you can program it to only respond to your mobile number).

Silicon Chip (a local Electronics magazine) did an article on how to do this not long ago - there was even a kit you could buy which gave you a few inputs/outputs based on SMS messages.

HummDinger · 12-20-2004, 01:56 PM

This is true anyone could unlock it. But I could set it up to only respond to specific ringtones. My phone has the capability of different ring tones for different callers. THis may be cool. I dont want this run through the carputer because the carputer will not be on when the car is off, for obvious reasons. It would need to be a standalone operation.
I am not too concerned with people unlocking my truck with by calling it. But of course if there is a way around it, this would be excellent.

carpcnoobie · 12-20-2004, 02:15 PM

LOL... a poor man's OnStar. An interesting idea. I'm sure something simple could be made up to respond to this. As was said before, some sort of PIC.

Dominik · 12-20-2004, 08:30 PM

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_102670/article.html

there... full instructions on how to do it. After forgetting to lock my car 2 days in a row while driving to work (only to realise AFTER i get to the bottom of a 2km steep hill on which my car is parked at the top), i have decided i will have to build one of these.

I havent read the article all the way through, but i remember in the actual magazine they printed details of a supplier who had a kit for this (PCB + components), otherwise i will have to get someone to make me a PCB.

This way i can turn on/off my alarm at will; check the status of the alarm, and i hope to be able to query my serial GPS for a location as well... Damn this will be exciting!

Dominik · 12-20-2004, 11:00 PM

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_102994/article.html

Thats the rest of the article...

kozmo · 12-20-2004, 11:46 PM

What about taking this farther I was thinking remote start I have been thinking of this for a while and my office is too far away to use a regular remote start but what about a message to start the truck or a call to start it?

nFiniteTuning · 12-22-2004, 03:07 AM

Radio Shack God! A friend of mine had something that looked like a power voltage meter, and he could steal the transmited code that the remote puts out to the reciever on your car. And you can easily use that code on your phone with a specific fast dial or one touch dial to send out the signal to unlock or lock your doors. I have been meaning to do it, but I'm looking into higher idea's.

Do you know about the pager system alarms...well I want to somehow incorporate some kind of software that I can upload and install onto my cell phone, which will show me the same stuff the pager does, which shows a low quality image of a car, and it will show you alert points, which shows you which area of the car is being infected. For security reasons, if someone is breaking into your car, it will tell you where on your car, so if you call the police, you can give them a description of where the bandit is. Thats been one of the big idea's I've had for my system recently. I have a small key set, I have one of those VW Switchblade keys for my car, and thats it. I dont want to bulk it up with extra keys and remotes. I just want to grab my cell phone, press 69 SEND, and my doors will unlock... Any more development on this would be greatly apretiated by more then one company.

nFiniteTuning · 12-22-2004, 03:08 AM

For those of you who have a car that can be unlocked by that remote button
on your key ring: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are
home, and you don't have "OnStar," here's your answer to the problem!

If some one has access to the spare remote at your home, call them on your
cell phone (or borrow one from someone if the cell phone is locked in the
car too!)

Hold your (or anyone's) cell phone about a foot from your car door and have
the other person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the
phone on their end.

Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you.
Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can
reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the
doors (or the trunk, or have the "horn" signal go off, or whatever!)

(Editor's Note * It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over
a cell phone!)

0l33l · 12-22-2004, 03:10 AM

Wouldn't this mean that you'd have to have a cell phone in the car on all the time listening?

Superduck · 12-22-2004, 03:56 AM

A long time ago, while looking for car projects, I stumbled across a relay board that operates like a POCSAG pager. You page it to turn on or off the various switches.

This is what I'm planning on using, as a cheaper alternative to paying for monthly cell phone airtime for my car. I mean, really, it doesn't even have any friends to phone.

Pagers are a lot cheaper per month. I just need to find a local pager company that will work with something custom like this. Most places say to bring the pager in, so they can program it or whatever, I'm not sure they'd let me use their service for this purpose.

Anyway, just another idea.

Cheers,

Kris

Dominik · 12-22-2004, 06:25 AM

You have to pay a monthly fee for your cell phones in the US? Here in Australia we can get a pre-paid account for like $20 (with $20 credit on it), and it lasts 6 months. And if you top it up (for $10), it lasts another 6 months... That way you can get your phone system to respond to your status requests (e.g. Doors Locked?)

Laidback · 12-22-2004, 06:38 AM

SMS controllers I can understand but holding a mobile up in front of your car while someone clicks your remote into their phone?? how does that work?

Jackboot · 12-22-2004, 07:18 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Dominik

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_102670/article.html

there... full instructions on how to do it. After forgetting to lock my car 2 days in a row while driving to work (only to realise AFTER i get to the bottom of a 2km steep hill on which my car is parked at the top), i have decided i will have to build one of these.

I havent read the article all the way through, but i remember in the actual magazine they printed details of a supplier who had a kit for this (PCB + components), otherwise i will have to get someone to make me a PCB.

This way i can turn on/off my alarm at will; check the status of the alarm, and i hope to be able to query my serial GPS for a location as well... Damn this will be exciting!

Great link - but only the first page on both of those articles works! It asks you to subscribe to the magazine in order to see the rest. Any way you could scan the magazine for us?

I am very interested in the possibility of using this as a method of "remote start" which would be so boss when it is -40c here.