In my defence, I think what happened was: I bridged a break, a bit more difficult to detect than your average bridge, the break is only displayed on the component side... anyways, it works now and I'm one happy man!

Just the same question again, I think you said battery becomes irrelevant, why? How long will the battery last of this masterpiece? I wanna use 580mAh Alkaline battery 9V... or something in that range. Are we talking months, years, decades?

 

The finished product:

 

@MrChips: would you please give me a indication of how long this marvellous creation of yours will last on battery, I checked the datasheet but not sure how to read it...
Quiescent Current is the one I think I need; 0.0010uA = 0.0000001mA; 580mAh = 5 800 000 000hours = 241,666,666.667days = 678,838.951311 years! That can't be right can it? Is this device that low on energy? OR did I make a digit fault / datasheet fault somewhere?

 

The quiescent current of MC14584BCP is 0.0010μA which is extremely low as you have noticed. We can ignore this current because the current drawn by R1 = 1MΩ will be much higher.

When S1 is closed, the current through R1 = 9V/1MΩ = 9μA.
We will round this up to 10μA to take into account the rest of the circuit.

At 10μA, a 580mAh battery will run for 580000μAh/10μA = 58000h = 2416 days = 6 years

Now when you take into account falling battery voltage and power consumed when the buzzer is turned on, you should be comfortable with 1 year battery life.

Of course it depends on how often the gate is open and closed. If the gate is never closed, then the battery will last for a long time.

(You have one too many zeros in converting from 0.0010μA to mA.)

 

The quiescent current of MC14584BCP is 0.0010μA which is extremely low as you have noticed. We can ignore this current because the current drawn by R1 = 1MΩ will be much higher.

When S1 is closed, the current through R1 = 9V/1MΩ = 9μA.
We will round this up to 10μA to take into account the rest of the circuit.

At 10μA, a 580mAh battery will run for 580000μAh/10μA = 58000h = 2416 days = 6 years

Now when you take into account falling battery voltage and power consumed when the buzzer is turned on, you should be comfortable with 1 year battery life.

Of course it depends on how often the gate is open and closed. If the gate is never closed, then the battery will last for a long time.

(You have one two many zeros in converting from 0.0010μA to mA.)

Thx!

 

@MrChips @cmartinez I'm not exactly completely done yet... Hall sensor! I still get spurious magnetic errors... The switch can draw electricity right? So what does that do to my battery power, or is it wiser to have the hall sensor have its own ~4.5 (3.6)V power supply. All of this... the most difficult part is the enclosure, rain... and if I use aux power supply, what do I do with the ground pin, just share it? (switch wire ground connected to 3x1.5V ground) or should the ground be the gate itself? I'm looking at

http://www.unisonic.com.tw/datasheet/UH8104.pdf
http://www.mantech.co.za/datasheets/products/A1302K-67Y.pdf
http://www.mantech.co.za/datasheets/products/A130XXX.pdf
http://www.mantech.co.za/Stock.aspx?Query=hall+sensorand

Please advise, maybe I just wrap the completed unit in cling wrap, that could work ;-)

 

@MrChips @cmartinez I'm not exactly completely done yet... Hall sensor! I still get spurious magnetic errors... The switch can draw electricity right? So what does that do to my battery power, or is it wiser to have the hall sensor have its own ~4.5 (3.6)V power supply. All of this... the most difficult part is the enclosure, rain... and if I use aux power supply, what do I do with the ground pin, just share it? (switch wire ground connected to 3x1.5V ground) or should the ground be the gate itself? I'm looking at

http://www.unisonic.com.tw/datasheet/UH8104.pdf
http://www.mantech.co.za/datasheets/products/A1302K-67Y.pdf
http://www.mantech.co.za/datasheets/products/A130XXX.pdf
http://www.mantech.co.za/Stock.aspx?Query=hall sensorand

Please advise, maybe I just wrap the completed unit in cling wrap, that could work ;-)

A hall sensor will always draw some current, so I do not advice using it for this purpose. How long is the cable length on your reed switch?

 

A hall sensor will always draw some current, so I do not advice using it for this purpose. How long is the cable length on your reed switch?

83cm

edit gonna measure again quick

edit: still the old buzzer, need to fix my box for the new board (the board works, just not installed yet)

 

83cm

edit gonna measure again quick

I'm pretty sure you could make that cable length work reliably if you were to use shielded cable. Just connect the shield to the circuit's ground, and leave the other end of the shield (then end closest to the reed switch) unconnected.
EDIT: if that doesn't work, try changing R1 from 1M to 470K, see what happens.

 

I'm pretty sure you could make that cable length work reliably if you were to use shielded cable. Just connect the shield to the circuit's ground, and leave the other end of the shield (then end closest to the reed switch) unconnected.
EDIT: if that doesn't work, try changing R1 from 1M to 470K, see what happens.

I'm still using the old box, have to fix up (water tighten) the new board's box/enclosure before I can install it

edit: need silicone, dunno when I'll get transport or somebody who have silicone... my normal story... no transport

edit: and it is 83cm, looks like I'm going to have to redo that wire in shielded form.. now off to find a supplier

 

@cmartinez with the old box, what would 83cm be? EMI or is it magnetic spurious activity (it false buzzes about once a day)

http://www.mantech.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?Item=45M0374

 

@MrChips with the old box, false buzzing, what would 83cm to the reed be? EMI or magnetic spuriousness? I'm still fixing the box for the new board, need silicone!

 

@cmartinez with the old box, what would 83cm be? EMI or is it magnetic spurious activity (it false buzzes about once a day)

http://www.mantech.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?Item=45M0374

I couldn't be 100% sure, but I lean towards EMI

 

could it be failing battery? gonna put new one in anyways, waiting for that silicone and shielded wires, then new box!

 

I couldn't be 100% sure, but I lean towards EMI

@cmartinez: between these 2:
http://www.mantech.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?Item=45M0374
http://www.mantech.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?Item=45M0310

 

@cmartinez: between these 2:
http://www.mantech.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?Item=45M0374
http://www.mantech.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?Item=45M0310

Sure, any 2-conductor wire that has a shielding jacket would work. The jacket can be either a wire-mesh type or the conductive-plastic type.

 

so I'll go for the cheapest then
@cmartinez: the one says 100 and the orther 500, know what that means?

 

so I'll go for the cheapest then
@cmartinez: the one says 100 and the orther 500, know what that means?

From what I see, they're sold in minimum lengths of 100 and 500 meters... not good...
I suggest you scavenge this wire from some other source instead of buying it.

 

From what I see, they're sold in minimum lengths of 100 and 500 meters... not good...
I suggest you scavenge this wire from some other source instead of buying it.

I was also confused about their minimum qty tag, that's for cape town branch ordering from johannesburg HQ, I can get only 1m if I need only 1m.

 

would normal electrical mains power cord work?

edit: I guess not http://www.newark.com/pdfs/techarticles/alphaWire/Understanding_Shielded_Cable.pdf

you have to have either braiding or aluminium or both