SparkFun Forums

[nukez]

Hi there,

i'm very new to the world of electronic ( i'm waiting my first prototype board it's an Arduino Uno)

I've a project in head, i want to detect if a car enter in my terrain. My terrain have a length of 500 ft ( now you know why i want to build this project )

So for the communication i found that Xbee will be great for that purpose, but i want to know to your mind what could be a great sensor that i could use for this.

After searching a while i've found a sharp proximity sensor ( long range version ) if arduino detect a huge change in proximity it could notify me.

And do you have a idea of how we could calculate the amount of current that a arduino FIO could draw with xbee and one 5v sensor (i will need a 3.3v to 5v step-up for this )

Well i'm waiting your idea about this,

Thanks in advance,
Kim

[Philba]

Examples
http://www.smarthome.com/71721/Probe-w- ... ble/p.aspx
http://www.smarthome.com/7170B/Vehicle- ... nly/p.aspx
http://www.homecontrols.com/Dakota-Aler ... sor-DAMAPS

Think of it as a metal detector that is buried in the ground. You can probably make this yourself but you'll need to experiment with the sensing coil and amplification.

[nukez]

Great Idea phil,

i can imagine a little bit how metal detector should be made but i think that i will got false-positive when the earth is vibrating ( a big truck passing near or even an earth quake)

i will read about it that sure thanks for the hint !

I've tinked about the garage door detector i don't know how these how made but when an obstacle obstruct them they send a signal to stop the door.

May be with a laser sight ?

[stevech]

Examples
http://www.smarthome.com/71721/Probe-w- ... ble/p.aspx
http://www.smarthome.com/7170B/Vehicle- ... nly/p.aspx
http://www.homecontrols.com/Dakota-Aler ... sor-DAMAPS

Think of it as a metal detector that is buried in the ground. You can probably make this yourself but you'll need to experiment with the sensing coil and amplification.

Note that the inductive coil sensors can be vulnerable to false alarms due to distant lightening.
I've used the dakota - works well, but does have some false alarms. Much less than IR motion detectors.

[evanrich]

Garage Doors work based on light.. you have an infrared beam that is focused to a mirror on the other side of the garage, which gets bounced back into a detector above/below the infrared light source. its basically an optical switch. IED's are starting to be produced this way unfortunately as well. Same concept, on a smaller scale is done in 7-11 and other convenience stores.