SMS Garage Door Opener

• Configurable Two Factor Authentication
• Lock and Unlock commands over SMS
• Photos on door open and close
• All photos uploaded to Dropbox for easy browsing
• Diagnostics to stay on top of the Raspberry PI, Dropbox, and Twilio
• Usage reports emailed daily
• Alarm to text warnings if your garage door was left open late at night

Available Text Commands

• Open
  • Opens the garage door if it is closed and not locked
• Close
  • Closes the garage door if it is opened and not locked
• Diagnostics
  • Emails diagnostic information from the PI, Twilio, and Dropbox
• Help
  • Replies back with the list of possible commands
• Lock
  • Lock the garage door which will prevent it from accepting open or close commands until unlocked
• Unlock
  • Remove the lock on the garage door so that it will accept open and close commands (all unlock commands will issue a challenge code)
• Photo
  • Activate the camera on the PI to take a picture and then email it to you
• Status
  • Reply back with the current state of the garage door: opened or closed

Shopping List

• Rasbperry Pi 3 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6FFNY4
• Raspberry Pi Case https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MQLB1N6
• Pi Camera https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012V1HEP4
• SanDisk Ultra 32GB microSDHC https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010Q57T02
• Relay https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057OC6D8
• Case https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017LB9XY4

Extended Shopping List

• LED Light Emitting Diodes https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0087ZT1VO
• Resistors https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016NXK6QK
• Breadboards https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DDI54II
• Wires https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B4ZRPEY
• Soldering Iron https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019BSQAS2
• Soldering Iron Tip Cleaner https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C789EU
• PCB Circuit Boards https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012YZ2PXI
• Helping Hands https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RB38X8
• Screw Mounts https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EZ3QPCU
• Terminals (for Case) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D6AICR4
• Banana Plugs (for Case) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AH0TRTW

Setup Rasbperry PI

Download Raspberry PI Operating System:

• https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/
• zip file

Insert Micro SDC into Windows PC

• Right click: Format
• Copy all contents of zip file to Micro SDC

Initial Boot:

• Hook up keyboard, mouse, and HDMI monitor
• Insert Micro SDC
• Hookup power (wait ~5/10 minutes)

Initial Setup:

• Terminal:
  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt-get upgrade
• Change any router/firewall rules to allow mac address to connect to wifi: ifconfig
• Click top-right menu network, select SID, enter password

Add new user

• sudo useradd -m YOUR_USERNAME -G sudo
• sudo passwd YOUR_USERNAME
• make sure this works: sudo visudo
• sudo raspi-config (Boot to CLI instead of desktop)
  • Boot Options
  • B1 Console
• Restart PI
  • shutdown: sudo shutdown -r now
• Delete default pi user
  • sudo deluser -remove-home pi
  • sudo visudo
  • Change last line from pi to YOUR_USERNAME

Firewall

• sudo apt-get install ufw
• sudo ufw allow 22 (only allow connections on ssh port)
• sudo ufw enable

Locale

• sudo raspi-config
• Internationalisatic

Watchdog

• https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=147935
• https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=125213
• Setup watchdog (bcm2708_wdog) or (bcm2835_wdt)?
  • sudo modprobe bcm2708_wdog
  • sudo sh -c "echo 'bcm2708_wdog' >> /etc/modules"
  • sudo apt-get install watchdog chkconfig
  • sudo chkconfig watchdog on
  • sudo service watchdog start
  • echo "options bcm2708_wdog nowayout=1 heartbeat=13" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/watchdog.conf
• Uncomment two lines in file: /etc/watchdog.conf
  • sudo vi /etc/watchdog.conf
  • watchdog-device = /dev/watchdog
  • max-load-1 = 24
• Reboot - sudo reboot

Camera:

• Run sudo raspi-config and choose in the menu to enable the pi camera. A reboot is needed after this
• Install python libs:
  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt-get install python3-picamera
  • sudo apt-get upgrade
  • sudo raspistill -o image.jpg
• Turn off red light
  • sudo vi /boot/config.txt
  • disable_camera_led=1

Twilio:

• Sign up
  • https://www.twilio.com/
• Remove auto reply:
  • Go to "Manage Numbers":
    • https://www.twilio.com/console/phone-numbers
  • Click on number
  • Replace the https:// demo link for sms with:
    • http://twimlets.com/echo?Twiml=%3CResponse%3E%3C%2FResponse%3E
• On Raspberry PI, install libraries:
  • sudo apt-get install python3-pip
  • sudo pip3 install twilio

Dropbox

• Sign up
  • https://www.dropbox.com/
• On Raspberry PI, install libraries:
  • sudo pip3 install dropbox

Installing and Running the Application

All scripts need to run as sudo/root in order for them to access the GPIO pins on the PI. While I'm not a fan of scripts running as root, the workarounds are convoluted and create more complexity than is necessary.

Python Scripts:

• alarm_door_open.py
  • Will send a text every time it is run if the garage door is in an open state after hours
  • Controlled via cron and set to any desired frequency.
  • Example: Run every 15 minutes between the hours of 10pm and 5am everyday.
    • */15 0-5,22,23 * * * <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start alarm_door_open
• door_up_down.py
  • Watches the reed switch attached to the garage door in order to detect whenever it is opened or closed.
  • Runs in a continuous loop once started
• reporting_daily.py
  • Will run a report summarizing all the commands and door state changes in the past 24 hours as well reporting each one with timestamps
  • Controlled via cron and set to any desired frequency.
  • Example: Run at 10:30pm everyday.
    • 30 22 * * * <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start reporting_daily
• sms_command.py
  • Watches the twilio account for any messages sent in the past 15 minutes that have not already been processed and executes the message command
  • Runs in a continuous loop once started

Control Script:

A control script exists to make it easier to start, stop, and monitor the logs of all the python scripts.

• start
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start alarm_door_open
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start door_up_down
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start reporting_daily
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start sms_command
• stop
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh stop alarm_door_open
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh stop door_up_down
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh stop reporting_daily
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh stop sms_command
• tail
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh tail alarm_door_open
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh tail door_up_down
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh tail reporting_daily
  • sudo <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh tail sms_command

Setting Up Cron:

Anything run via cron will need entered into root's crontab: sudo crontab -e

Script	Cron Entry
alarm_door_open	*/15 0-5,22,23 * * * <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start alarm_door_open
door_up_down	@reboot <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start door_up_down
reporting_daily	30 22 * * * <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start reporting_daily
sms_command	@reboot <BASE_DIR>/gd/garage-door/control.sh start sms_command

Building Opener

Circuit Board

Wiring Guide