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Thread: Stairs

  1. #11
    Automated Home Guru Geps's Avatar
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    Looking at the stairs as a room idea...if you have a pressure mat on the top and bottom treads doesn't it all fall over when two people go upstairs but the one behind forgets something and turns back? You then have a "room" with 2/3 people in when realistically you only have 0/1.

    I was thinking about this and decided you could use a rangefinder down the middle of the stairs. If the length is less than the length of the stairs then someone is on the stairs.

    In the end though I've specced in a 'censored' PIR sensor look down the stairs so it only sees the stairs and not the landing.

    Viv out of interest is there a recommended or known-to-work dual beam sensor that's available off the shelf?

  2. #12
    Automated Home Sr Member
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    Good point. Although in our case I think we'll be OK as the stairs only lead to the ensuite.

  3. #13
    Automated Home Legend chris_j_hunter's Avatar
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    we've looked for a beam breaker sensor - sounds easy, but all we've found have been expensive and/or far from compact / simple to install ...

    this seems to offer a slightly different approach that avoids such issues - it comes in two versions :

    http://www.oomlout.co.uk/infra-red-d...ble-p-229.html

    http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/cata...GP2Y0A21YK.pdf

    the A-type gives a signal that hopefully could be used with an QAI module & a suitable trigger setting, and the D-type that hopefully could be used with a digital input on any of many modules ...

    either way, it would be positioned as a beam-breaker - ie: looking across the direction of passage ...

    hopefully, because the inputs & outputs are not quite ideal - ie: one or two extra components might be required to power it off IDRAnet and make it compatible with module interfaces

    any thoughts, might it work ??
    Last edited by chris_j_hunter; 15th January 2012 at 06:15 PM.

  4. #14
    Automated Home Jr Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by chris_j_hunter View Post
    we've looked for a beam breaker sensor - sounds easy, but all we've found have been expensive and/or far from compact / simple to install ...

    this seems to offer a slightly different approach that avoids such issues - it comes in two versions :

    http://www.oomlout.co.uk/infra-red-d...ble-p-229.html

    http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/cata...GP2Y0A21YK.pdf

    the A-type gives a signal that hopefully could be used with an QAI module & a suitable trigger setting, and the D-type that hopefully could be used with a digital input on any of many modules ...

    either way, it would be positioned as a beam-breaker - ie: looking across the direction of passage ...

    hopefully, because the inputs & outputs are not quite ideal - ie: one or two extra components might be required to power it off IDRAnet and make it compatible with module interfaces

    any thoughts, might it work ??

    I have been testing one of these on my network recently. I have it connected into a QAI. The response of the unit is quite good up to about 50cm which is perfect for what I need them for i.e doorways with no doors and stairs etc.
    Also they can be set just hight enough in the door frame that the cats do not trigger them
    With a little tweaking it may be possible to use them to detect direction of motion by inserting them into the frame at an angle and reading + or - deltas in the resulting input. (Still to be perfected though)

    Mark

  5. #15
    Automated Home Legend chris_j_hunter's Avatar
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    that's interesting ... how did you wire it in to IDRAnet - simple resistance voltage dividers, perhaps, on both input & output, or ... and, if so, what values did you use ???

    another & lower-cost approach, we've been thinking-about, might use this :

    http://www.oomlout.co.uk/tilt-switch-p-243.html

    mounting it so that, as people pass-by or open a door, it waves in the draught ...

    more fragile & likely less-reliable, maybe ... !

  6. #16
    Automated Home Legend chris_j_hunter's Avatar
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    stairs as a room ..

    how about treating stairs & the two landings as just a Room ...

    eliminating the Stairs as a Cortex object ...

    and having the Rooms on separate Floors joined by just the Room ...

    would Cortex be OK with that ?
    Last edited by chris_j_hunter; 16th January 2012 at 12:16 AM.

  7. #17
    Automated Home Jr Member
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    The sensor was wired directly into the QAI units inputs and took power from the idranet connector.
    I have not yet calibrated it to return the measured distance. It is just activating on measurement deltas at the moment.
    It has been on the network for about two months so far and seems to be very quick and reliable. It would be nice to play with it a little to get motion direction working but with a new born just arrived into the house we are a little distracted at the moment

    Mark

  8. #18
    Automated Home Ninja Viv's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Geps View Post
    Viv out of interest is there a recommended or known-to-work dual beam sensor that's available off the shelf?
    I have not installed any dual beam units so cannot recommend any.
    Also cannot really say that the efficacy of a dual beam unit is significantly better than a single beam unit.


    We recently installed one of these...

    http://www.rollatek.com/-Photoelectr...65_573489.aspx

    The Retro reflective photo electric sensor. This was outside mounted across a drive and seems to work well. This is in contrast to a similar looking unit from CPC which seemed to be affect by sunlight.

    Viv.

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