DTMF X-10 PHONELINE project

steve213

hey everyone - so i want to do the following:

have my Bs2SX hooked up to the phoneline "listening" for it to ring.· when the phone rings it picks up and beeps a couple of times prompting me to enter a password. i type in my 4 digit code.· then it beeps me the status of my window airconditioner (if its on or not) i can then hit a number on the phone turning the A/C on via X-10 with stamp.

this would be AWESOME but....can it be done?

thanks
steve

steve_b

Sure it can!

My question to you is, have you worked much with stamps? If not, I'll suggest the "What's a Microcontroller" text from Parallax. It's free to download and has lots of neat tutorials to help you learn the stamp.

As far as you project idea goes:
You could have an old external modem connect to the stamp for comms.
Have a couple of I/O's on the stamp monitoring the Airconditioner. Now the question is, what on the air conditioner are you going to monitor? You could put a couple of temperature sensors in there...one for ambient air and one right in the A/C's flow.
OR, you could put a small microswitch with a foil "sail"....when the air is flowing, it blows against the "sail" and switches the microswitch (we used to use this all the time in our radars with minimal failures).

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Steve

"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."

steve213

hi

its a window unit...a simple plug into the wall outlet style. all it would do is simply turn the thing on via X-10 because the dials would be set up already - it would just need power.

to interface the stamp to phone that my only obstacle. i saw in the owners manual that circuit to hook the stamp to a phoneline with a transformer and everything. i thought i could just do that? i need a modem?
steve

stamptrol

Steve_b is right, the way to do this properly is to use a modem, get one at a yardsale for a buck or two. All you need is an old 1200 or 2400 baud unit that can be put into 'auto answer'.

The chief advantage is that that the modem has already been approved to plug into the phone system, can auto answer by itself and is easy to interface with the stamp serially.

Cheers