Is tinkerforge suitable for my project?

[Gast ramanoop]

Hi!

 

I just joined about 20 seconds ago. You see, I have a project I'm going to implement, and Tinkerforge looks like it might be an elegant way of doing it.

 

I live in an apartment block. All the letter boxes are inside. There is no access for couriers, etc. to the mailboxes unless someone can let them in. The official postman has a key. I often have couriers turning up while I'm away, who don't need a signature for the parcels, but they can't exactly leave the parcel on the street. They phone me at work, and I have to apologetically tell them to try again another day.

 

So I want to be able to unlock the main door for 30 seconds following me sending a message via my mobile phone, via an app or by SMS.

 

At first I thought about just getting a cheap phone, connecting the vibrator to a relay, and leaving it permanently plugged in and connected to the door unlock latch on my intercom. Simple and effective, but not very elegant: the door would unlock if someone called the wrong number and got my phone!

 

Then I thought about doing the same with a cheap android phone, and writing an app which, on receipt of an SMS with the right password, would do the same thing. This could be cooler, because I would also be able to get it to trigger the camera flash with a different SMS and unlock the door to my flat, in case I forget my keys, or to allow a cleaner entry without giving her a set of keys! But that still feels a little botched together - soldering wires to the vibrator just feels a bit... 1980s.

 

Tinkerforge looks like it may provide a more elegant solution. I’d really be very grateful for your thoughts on whether this might work:

1. Android phone permanently connected to Tinkerforge master brick via a USB cable.

2. Tinkerforge master brick is powered by a step-down power supply bricklet, which in turn also keeps the android phone charged via the USB cable.

3. When the Android phone receives an SMS containing a command, it figures out what to do, and in turn sends an instruction to the master brick via the USB cable.

4. The master brick triggers a relay brick, which in turn unlocks the door.

Thoughts? 

 

 

[raphael_vogel]

Nice idea, but the main problem is that brickd (see http://www.tinkerforge.com/en/doc/Software/Brickd.html) is not supported on android devices. You need brickd to route between TCP/IP coming from the language bindings and USB protocol.