I want to develop a device to locate equipment within my house. This doesn't need to be anything sophisticated, like GPS or GSM. The base station just needs to be able to page the equipment, and sound a beep and/or turn on a light on the equipment. The range does not have to be very far, say, 150 to 200 feet.
Hopefully this can be done relatively inexpensively with existing technologies. I envision using garage door opener technology, but without any motors having to be activated. I think that I would have a base station plugged into a 110-volt A/C outlet, and a battery-operated speaker and light on the equipment to be located.
It would be nice if 2 or more devices could be located, separately, perhaps with different radio frequencies, from the base station. And maybe the frequency could be different for each device, maybe with single side-band or some other way to distinguish between the devices.
Eventually I would like to have the actuator become a thin piece of adhesive tape, with the receiver, speaker, light and battery built into the tape.
I would appreciate links to places which have the microchips and transmitters ready to purchase, which can be assembled as one combined unit. If that is not possible, then I would need help in designing micro circuits for the project. I have a computer background, both hardware and software, so I feel I could handle the programming, but I don't have radio or microcoding experience. So any general help you can provide would be appreciated.
This is a small project, one which I think I would have a lot of fun completing. But I just don't know where to start. Thanks for your help.
Hopefully this can be done relatively inexpensively with existing technologies. I envision using garage door opener technology, but without any motors having to be activated. I think that I would have a base station plugged into a 110-volt A/C outlet, and a battery-operated speaker and light on the equipment to be located.
It would be nice if 2 or more devices could be located, separately, perhaps with different radio frequencies, from the base station. And maybe the frequency could be different for each device, maybe with single side-band or some other way to distinguish between the devices.
Eventually I would like to have the actuator become a thin piece of adhesive tape, with the receiver, speaker, light and battery built into the tape.
I would appreciate links to places which have the microchips and transmitters ready to purchase, which can be assembled as one combined unit. If that is not possible, then I would need help in designing micro circuits for the project. I have a computer background, both hardware and software, so I feel I could handle the programming, but I don't have radio or microcoding experience. So any general help you can provide would be appreciated.
This is a small project, one which I think I would have a lot of fun completing. But I just don't know where to start. Thanks for your help.