using mobile to control appliances at home?
 

[Apologies to denizens of uk.d-i-y who've already seen this, I thought folks
on uk.telecom.mobile might have a clue about this too. (I did consider
uk.tech.home-automation but there's very little usage on that group.)]

In a Maplin email flyer I've just received:

Remote Control Via Mobile Phone
Only: £9.99
Save: £10.00
Code: N34BF
· Turn equipment on & off from your mobile phone
· Compatible with most mobile phones
· No phone charges incurred
· No need to open or modify your phone or connect with other devices
· Applications include turning lights on & off, activate a car alarm,
control the heating etc.

Any ideas how it works?

Someone on uk.d-i-y suggested it worked by just ringing the home phone a
number of times, and the 'mobile' angle was a crimson fish, but that doesn't
entirely square with the "Compatible with /most/ mobile phones" bit.


--
John Stumbles
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-|-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
-+
Just because you're paranoid doen't mean They're not out to get you.

using mobile to control appliances at home?
 

"John Stumbles" ] wrote in message
...
[Apologies to denizens of uk.d-i-y who've already seen this, I thought
folks
on uk.telecom.mobile might have a clue about this too. (I did consider
uk.tech.home-automation but there's very little usage on that group.)]

In a Maplin email flyer I've just received:

Remote Control Via Mobile Phone
Only: £9.99
Save: £10.00
Code: N34BF
· Turn equipment on & off from your mobile phone
· Compatible with most mobile phones
· No phone charges incurred
· No need to open or modify your phone or connect with other devices
· Applications include turning lights on & off, activate a car alarm,
control the heating etc.

Any ideas how it works?

Someone on uk.d-i-y suggested it worked by just ringing the home phone a
number of times, and the 'mobile' angle was a crimson fish, but that
doesn't
entirely square with the "Compatible with /most/ mobile phones" bit.


--
John Stumbles
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-|-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
-+
-+
Just because you're paranoid doen't mean They're not out to get you.




Velleman used to do a DIY kit for remote switching using a phone. I built
one and regularly used it to turn on the central heating on my way home.
It worked by picking up the sound of the phone ringing. You had to allow the
phone to ring a preset number of times, hang up then redial within a preset
time window and repeat. This minimised the risk of false switching by other
callers.
It sounds fiddly, but wasn't in practice. Another sequence allowed you to
switch equipment off again. After a preset period, the system switched off
anyway.
Because the call is not actually answered, you could control your equipment
from anywhere in the world at zero cost! The main limitation - no feedback.
However, it worked reliably for me so I didn't feel the need.
Don't know about this Maplin gadget, however. I thought maybe it worked
using DTMF tones, which would explain the 'most mobiles' bit, but then you
would incur a charge.

Blippo

using mobile to control appliances at home?
 

"Blippo" wrote in message
...

"John Stumbles" ] wrote in message
...
[Apologies to denizens of uk.d-i-y who've already seen this, I thought
folks
on uk.telecom.mobile might have a clue about this too. (I did consider
uk.tech.home-automation but there's very little usage on that group.)]

In a Maplin email flyer I've just received:

Remote Control Via Mobile Phone
Only: £9.99
Save: £10.00
Code: N34BF
· Turn equipment on & off from your mobile phone
· Compatible with most mobile phones
· No phone charges incurred
· No need to open or modify your phone or connect with other devices
· Applications include turning lights on & off, activate a car alarm,
control the heating etc.

Any ideas how it works?

Someone on uk.d-i-y suggested it worked by just ringing the home phone a
number of times, and the 'mobile' angle was a crimson fish, but that
doesn't
entirely square with the "Compatible with /most/ mobile phones" bit.

[...]
Velleman used to do a DIY kit for remote switching using a phone. I built
one and regularly used it to turn on the central heating on my way home.
It worked by picking up the sound of the phone ringing. You had to allow
the
phone to ring a preset number of times, hang up then redial within a
preset
time window and repeat. This minimised the risk of false switching by
other
callers.
It sounds fiddly, but wasn't in practice. Another sequence allowed you to
switch equipment off again. After a preset period, the system switched off
anyway.
Because the call is not actually answered, you could control your
equipment
from anywhere in the world at zero cost! The main limitation - no
feedback.
However, it worked reliably for me so I didn't feel the need.
Don't know about this Maplin gadget, however. I thought maybe it worked
using DTMF tones, which would explain the 'most mobiles' bit, but then you
would incur a charge.

Blippo

Whilst at university, a group developed a system like this as part of a
final year project. It was controlled by self-built hardware and did indeed
work by calling a dedicated exchange (i.e. land line number) at the "house"
(in this case it was the electronics lab). As far as I know the landline
number DID in fact answer the call, but the calls lasted only a few seconds,
hence not much expense spared.

I'd be interested to see how Maplin can implement this for only 9.99. Have
you got a link to this?

IIRC there was a Java midlet being sold on the internet not very long ago
for the 7650 that allowed you to do this. Again, no idea how it worked.

using mobile to control appliances at home?
 

Blippo wrote:
"John Stumbles" ] wrote in message
...
[Apologies to denizens of uk.d-i-y who've already seen this, I
thought folks on uk.telecom.mobile might have a clue about this too.
(I did consider uk.tech.home-automation but there's very little
usage on that group.)]

In a Maplin email flyer I've just received:

Remote Control Via Mobile Phone
Only: £9.99
Save: £10.00
Code: N34BF
· Turn equipment on & off from your mobile phone
· Compatible with most mobile phones
· No phone charges incurred
· No need to open or modify your phone or connect with other devices
· Applications include turning lights on & off, activate a car alarm,
control the heating etc.

Any ideas how it works?

Someone on uk.d-i-y suggested it worked by just ringing the home
phone a number of times, and the 'mobile' angle was a crimson fish,
but that doesn't entirely square with the "Compatible with /most/
mobile phones" bit.


--
John Stumbles
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-|-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
+
-+ -+
Just because you're paranoid doen't mean They're not out to get
you.




Velleman used to do a DIY kit for remote switching using a phone. I
built one and regularly used it to turn on the central heating on my
way home.
It worked by picking up the sound of the phone ringing. You had to
allow the phone to ring a preset number of times, hang up then redial
within a preset time window and repeat. This minimised the risk of
false switching by other callers.
It sounds fiddly, but wasn't in practice. Another sequence allowed
you to switch equipment off again. After a preset period, the system
switched off anyway.
Because the call is not actually answered, you could control your
equipment from anywhere in the world at zero cost! The main
limitation - no feedback. However, it worked reliably for me so I
didn't feel the need.
Don't know about this Maplin gadget, however. I thought maybe it
worked using DTMF tones, which would explain the 'most mobiles' bit,
but then you would incur a charge.

Blippo

I got the email flyer too and looked at the item. It did appear to be a
Velleman kit.
It seemed to be a pcb, not mounted in a box.
Can't find it on their website now ...

using mobile to control appliances at home?
 

Don't know about this Maplin gadget, however. I thought maybe it worked
using DTMF tones, which would explain the 'most mobiles' bit, but then you
would incur a charge.

I seem to remember talking to an Orange operator once who claimed that the
first second of a mobile phone call was free...

Colin

using mobile to control appliances at home?
 

Colin wrote:
I seem to remember talking to an Orange operator once who claimed
that the first second of a mobile phone call was free...

Yes sort of. They allow a margin of error, partly as the exchange clocks may
differ by up to 3 seconds. This means Orange only start charging after the
third second reported, which may be the first second of the call in reality.

--
Toby. (ex telecoms billing)

'One day son, all this will be finished'