Years ago I was an Air Force electronics engineer when capacitors were the size of my thumbnail and 8 bit processors were cool. I have really fallen behind in technology. I am even in a different career field now and have been for years. Besides picking up a few books on electronics here and there and websites like this, I find I am quite a novice again but I would still like to tinker.
I wanted to make a swimming pool float alarm that will alert me on my phone when the water level has reached a certain height. I know how to make a float switch but have never made anything that sent something to my smartphone (which is a Droid Bionic btw). I also am fairly skilled at C#, Java, Python, VB and VB.NET. Not only would this project be useful to me, but I want to learn something new along the way.
I am not sure what the easiest/best way is. I am not necessarily looking for easiest solution. If I can get this to work, I'd like to make one for my mailbox, clothes dryer, clothes washer, monitor temperature of my basement freezer, etc.
I don't want to buy a device that already does this. It defeats the purpose of wanting to learn and giving myself a project.
1) I could encase a Raspberry Pi (or some smaller device) in a waterproof housing and modify a USB game controller as my switch interface and have the Pi text or email me... That's fairly easy and I get it.
2) Learn how to make a standalone device that will use my home network to "talk" to my phone or send a message.
3) Make a Bluetooth device. I don't see this working because the range is probably very limited.
4). something I have not thought of...
I eventually want to build some stuff I can control from my phone, but I'll save that for another time.
Any links to schematics, suggestions or suggestions of books is greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
I wanted to make a swimming pool float alarm that will alert me on my phone when the water level has reached a certain height. I know how to make a float switch but have never made anything that sent something to my smartphone (which is a Droid Bionic btw). I also am fairly skilled at C#, Java, Python, VB and VB.NET. Not only would this project be useful to me, but I want to learn something new along the way.
I am not sure what the easiest/best way is. I am not necessarily looking for easiest solution. If I can get this to work, I'd like to make one for my mailbox, clothes dryer, clothes washer, monitor temperature of my basement freezer, etc.
I don't want to buy a device that already does this. It defeats the purpose of wanting to learn and giving myself a project.
1) I could encase a Raspberry Pi (or some smaller device) in a waterproof housing and modify a USB game controller as my switch interface and have the Pi text or email me... That's fairly easy and I get it.
2) Learn how to make a standalone device that will use my home network to "talk" to my phone or send a message.
3) Make a Bluetooth device. I don't see this working because the range is probably very limited.
4). something I have not thought of...
I eventually want to build some stuff I can control from my phone, but I'll save that for another time.
Any links to schematics, suggestions or suggestions of books is greatly appreciated.
Thank you!