- Fri Oct 11, 2013 10:32 am
#164363
Hello all, I'm trying to come up with a way to have an appliance turn on only when home. I have a VOIP gateway hooked up to an old school landline phone that I like to use and I use google voice to forward my cell number to it so that I can use it to both receive and call numbers through my cell account (somewhat like https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/51, but with VOIP rather than cellular). The only problem is that my cell number is always forwarded so the home phone rings even when I'm out and it annoys my wife since I work nights and get calls at all hours. I'm trying to find a way that when I get home, some sort of sensor could activate and turn on the VOIP gateway, and alternatively turn it off when I leave. The best way so far I've thought to sense my presence is to sense if my cell phone is near since it is almost always with me. Some sort of rule like, when my cell phone joins the home wifi network, a relay turns on the gateway. The only problem is that my wifi router is from my cable company and not too sophisticated, and using relays with mains voltage makes me a little wary. Anyone have a better idea of how to a) sense that I'm home and b) activate an appliance based on that state?