ZigBee Arrival Sensor For Car

@aaiyar. The PCB is designed to fit on this box.

I also would love to make a 3d model that copy the above box. I am not very good at mechanical drawing. But, I will try hard to make it happen.

Thanks
Iman

1 Like

No - I can get that box!!

1 Like

@aaiyar, I think you bring a good suggestion. I am looking for a plastic case as well for us who want to use the microwave motion sensor. The Aluminum case will render the microwave radar useless unless you route it outside the box.

We just need to find a way to replicate the aluminum box.

1 Like

I will take 4 if that helps.

1 Like

I can't imagine antenna size matter :wink:
I use ST arrival sensors and they are tiny compared to this project - no offense intended as this is great work. But, How much of an antenna can there be in that little fob? They work just fine and are detected 20 M from the house. The pistons all fire in plenty of time to open the locks etc.
As the ST fobs are Unobtanium I might invest in of few of these myself. :slight_smile:
That's if @iharyadi can do USPS as the shipping would probably be more that the product to Canada. We're sooooo far away :rofl:

Size does matter. lol I have used a little 3 inch one got about 90 feet or so. Gate is 120 feet from house. I put a 2 foot long antenna I had sitting around and it gives me about 500 feet. My size is solely based upon physical. Both antennas are 2.4 wifi antennas.

1 Like

I sent some sensor using USPS in the past to Canada. There should not be an issue other than the cost of shipping is bit higher.

@aaiyar, @tmcdonald and @dnickel
Thanks for your interest. It is useful in my planning to make the sensors. I should be able to fulfil your request with the incoming batch of 10.

1 Like

I am interested in one, if #3 below is ok.

  1. I was concerned about operation in extreme temps, which you have addressed.

  2. Next request is for a plastic case instead of aluminum, which you are also looking into. Would vents have to be cut into the case to cool down battery and circuits in the summer?

  3. Finally, would this work for a car regularly parked on the street instead of pulling into the garage? This sensor would be about 25-30 feet from the front of house and 40-45 feet from hub. Would I need a zigbee repeater? There is a lot of wifi pollution around us, so I don’t generally use zigbee devices, just zwave.

I have an Alexa auto, though I would prefer not to use it for this. I don’t need interactive feedback, other than maybe a pushover notification.

@neerav.modi thank you for excellent questions/comments. I like to start sharing with everyone with some insight about the device power consumption. Then, I will get to your questions.

First, the sensor is a Zigbee End device. As an end device, it is probably 99% of the time sleeping.
The average consumption of the sensor is less than 100uA. During charging, the battery will be charged at 350mA approximately until full. Then, there is practically not much current is used to maintain the battery. Charging can only start when the temperature is between 0 and 40 degree Celsius. We are working on electronic that is not anywhere close to generate heat. We are not dealing with a Tesla, the car, or even a Dashcam.

Here are the answer to your questions.

I am using this sensor and I am concern as well. I want we all take this topic seriously.

I personally will not install the sensor on my windshield. I install my sensor under the arm rest (in my CRV) where it has USB connector. We should use our car to protect the sensor. There is no reason to install the sensor at the hottest part of your car.

The plastic case has nothing to do with heat control. The plastic case is intended so that I can install the microwave radar inside a case. The microwave radar does not work inside aluminum enclosure

The range should not be an issue as long as you have a good Zigbee mesh. If you only have a hub without any Zigbee repeater, it will be tricky to answer. It would depend how isolated your hub would be. I know that there are a lot of talk about WIFI pollution with Zigbee. I do leave in one of those neighborhood. I do not observe any issue myself.

I want to go back to heat concern. We are all should be concern with the heat and take it seriously. I expose the capability to report temperature. I will take advantage of this capability. I will be monitoring my car temperature as well. Starting around 40 degree C (or 104 degree F), we may want to take some precaution. At this temperature, there are issues starting to be a concern beyond the arrival sensor and its battery. This is why I think it would be nice to know the temperature as well.

For those who live in extreme heat, I would look into something like below.

  1. Get a good battery like below specification.

  2. Additional step that you can take is to use temperature switch in series with your battery. You would cut the power to the battery above certain temperature.

1 Like

@mebejedi, Here is another vendor.

1 Like

This has become my favorite box for inside-the-car devices:

Screen Shot 2022-03-05 at 3.59.10 PM

after stripping off the shrink wrap, of course. Otherwise the kids grab the box and shake it to find out how many are left. :smiley:

6 Likes

Hi @iharyadi

Very nice work. Please sign me up for two.

Steve

2 Likes

Hi @steve.maddigan, thank you. I will let you know when I go the new batch of these sensors.

2 Likes

@aaiyar, I make couple of 3D printed cases. I have the models here.

There are a couple versions. There is a short and big cases. They are intended to accommodate different battery size. I made the case using a software called DesignSpark Mechanical. I am not an expert on making cases. However, this software is easy enough for me to learn. I include the project files if you like to make changes to the case.

I printed it using my 3D printer. Here is a picture of it installed.

6 Likes

I just want to let everyone know that the batch from manufacturing test has arrived.

I am happy with the result. I will be contacting you who has sent me a PM. I have more requests than what is in the picture. Some of you may not get one from this batch. I am sorry.

I have started a discussion with the manufacturer to make them at larger quantity quickly. I will have some detail in term of final pricing very soon.

Thanks
Iman

6 Likes

I just notice that I have never posted a link to the driver. Here is the driver for Arrival Sensor.

Here are my personal notes for installation.

  1. Once everything is assembled, I personally power the sensor without battery connected. I use a stable DC power and pair the sensor with the hub. I do not have issue paring the sensor with battery. However, I know internally that I coded some slow down during battery powered to save energy. Therefore, I like to pair my sensor while it is in DC mode. Once paired, you can power down the sensor and install the battery. I recommend you charge the battery fully before you install it in the car for convenience.

  2. I am told that you should have the antenna installed when the module is powered. If you do not have the antenna installed, it may damaged the radio. On my personal sensor, I did forget install the antenna a few times while on power. I immediately taken care of the issue. I did not observe any issue. I would re-qualify the recommendation that we probably should not leave the sensor on power without antenna for a long time. If you have to do this for short period of time (a few second), I would not worry about it. I find the module is quite hardy.

  3. if you get your motion radar sensor here is the pinout where you can wire it.

  4. Once you have the sensor ready to install in your car, I recommend that you find a place in the car where it is not exposed to the sun. Putting the sensor behind the windshield is probably not a good idea. I want everyone of us to be careful when handling battery.

  5. The module should be in paring mode out of the box. There is no button press needed to pair. However, at this time, I tested each module before I ship. When I remove the module from my hub, it may not be removed cleanly. Therefore, you may want to perform factory reset.

4 Likes

Can you provide an image of the device with the radar sensor connected?

Yes, I will take a picture later.

1 Like

How to get the device into pairing mode? My hub cannot seem to find it.