DIY Electric Imp WiFi Garage Opener

The project deals with the making of garage door opener via a phone app. The making of this opener is handy in nature with simple electronics and code and could be done in one evening with limited equipment and in pocket-friendly price. This device allows you to open your garage door from your phone and it gives complete information about the opening and closing of the door.

Parts required for this project are 5V Keyes Relay Module from Deal Extreme, Ultrasonic sensor from Deal Extreme, MINI USB cable + wall charger from eBay, and Electric Imp + April breakout board from DigiKey, 22-gauge hookup wire, Mini breadboard and 0.1″ Header pin. Tools required are Soldering iron, 60/40 Rosin core solder and INNOVA 3320 Digital-ranging multimeter.

It does include circuit diagram and thereafter, setup and preparation of Electric Imp along with Electric Imp Agent code is done. A rolling authentication code made from a Google AppEngine app to be a gatekeeper and for the smartphone UI to open/close the door.

It helps to take advantage of AppEngine’s built-in authentication to control who can access your app and when an authorized person taps “Open”, save a random “rolling code” comes into your web app’s DB. Then you can tell your Electric Imp to “Open” and pass it the rolling code you have just generated. Finally, when your Electric Imp Agent receives the “Open” command, it checks the received rolling code with your AppEngine webapp and if the rolling code matches the latest code in the DB, the webapp destroys the codeand the Imp Agent tells the Imp Device to open the door

The hardest part while making of the device is the soldering of header pins to the Imp, and soldering wires to the Ultrasonic sensor. Then the rest of the stuffs are pretty much plug and play. The Keyes Relay and an Ultrasonic sensor are the beauty of using the Imp and all the electronics are nicely packaged in each of them, so all you have to do is connect them with wires.

Everything is stuffed into a small cardboard box and tied to the frame of the garage door control box. The Imp’s USB adapter is plugged into the same outlet that powered the garage door control box and lastly, the Ultrasonic sensor is secured to a bolt under the garage door rail using a twist-tie.

Videos, codes and detail information is available on the following website