Wireless control boost ?

Thread Starter

Jaycarnewbie

Joined Apr 15, 2007
7
Have farm gate 1km away. Broken line of sight. Gate is powered by solar. Can I have some kind of booster midway for a 433Mhz signal?
 

Gadget

Joined Jan 10, 2006
614
Dunno what the regs are for your location, but the use of high gain directional antennae at each end might provide a simple solution.
 

windy

Joined Apr 19, 2007
26
The gizmo you are looking for is called a "repeater." It recieves the signal from your remote, and repeats it to your gate.
They make this kind of thing for infered signals for tv,vcr,cd players to be used in houses. What you will need to be sure of, is the repeater should receive on one freq and send on another. If not you could have unreliable opporation of your system.

You might use a wave guide as a passive amplifier, but they are quite directional and may cause other problems in the systems use. Increasing the power of the transmitter would work but would change the FCC status of your equipment.

One more thought, you could use an old set of FSR radios and get a 5mile control distance. Because the combo of filtering options it is highly unlikely someone else would trigger your gate. this would be done using a freq generator on one end and a PLL setup on the other to trip a relay with the lock signal sent out by the PLL. transmit the freq over the FSR, the receiving FSR would cause the PLL to lock and trip the relay.

thats it no more ideas, I am idead
 

Thread Starter

Jaycarnewbie

Joined Apr 15, 2007
7
for the moment i am alpying around with relays and motors. sorry bout the jumble i just drove 1200km and a bit fuzzy. anyway appreciating all the replies.

The searching I have done for products here in aus, found several commercial sites, which are dedicated to automation and even dedicated to gate operation. However unbeleviable none of them cater to long distance. It is all about urban driveways and the like!!!

I have seen the 'home repeater' stations. I think I am in need of a better solution. with its own solar panel. It could be a lot of trial and error.

I am interested in the FSR radio idea. But sorry what is FSR ? I need to sleep :)
 

Gadget

Joined Jan 10, 2006
614
I think it's a bit like UHF CB. Here in NZ I think one of the 40 channels can be used for Data, possibly the same over there. Thats data at 5 watts at around 477 Mhz. Might pay for you to check local regs. Over here there are also a number of frequencies listed as GUL (general user licence.... i.e. anyone can use with approved gear) at various frequencies, and output powers up to 1 watt. I think over your way this is called a "Class Licence".

Just googled the Aussie "Class Licence"
http://www.comlaw.gov.au/comlaw/leg...7075001CC8A9/$file/RadcomLIPDClassLic2000.pdf
40.66 - 41.0 Mhz @ 1 watt, and
26.957 - 27.283 @ 1 watt look like great contenders.
 

windy

Joined Apr 19, 2007
26
Sorry I transposed it is the FRS around the 462.mhz range. Totally unregulated in the US. The equipment can't be modified but what goes over the air is not regulated. Consists of 16 channels that can be digitally incoded to give less interferrence between users. the frs stands for family radio service
 

Gadget

Joined Jan 10, 2006
614
Don't think FRS is an option in these parts.
UHF CB or PRS (personal radio service) or PMR in Aussie.......477 Mhz, 5 watt 40 channel is... but although it is public and free, it is regulated, and I think digital/telemetry is only available on 1 channel (if at all.... can't remember).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Radio_Service

Ahhhh, found it. Channels 22 and 23 can be used for Digital telemetry. Heres a Silicon Chip mag article that may help you out. (any Aus or Kiwi should recognise this neat wee mag...)

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_104060/article.html
 

Thread Starter

Jaycarnewbie

Joined Apr 15, 2007
7
thanks for the further leads. the picaxe idea might be usefull in various ways.I'll get the article. I just started to buy silicon chip :) It would be useful to have voice communication at the gate and maybe this is getting their. Ill let you know in a good little while how it turned out.
thx.
 

Gadget

Joined Jan 10, 2006
614
I have the article and just looked it up. It just uses the Picaxe to generate tones on UHF that are used to transmit the value of an attached temp sensor with decoding done by using your ear to listen to the tone sequence at the other end... 2 long tones and 3 short tones means 23 degrees. i.e. no receiver/decoder at the other end. Not really what you were after.

But I'm sure that by using a DTMF encoder at the TX end, and a decoder on the RX end (DTMF decoders and encoders are readily available) you could build a basic 12 channel remote.
 
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