Re: Re: [OT] Pager for car alarm

[Dave McLaughlin <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

The beauty of using a GSM module as opposed to a GSM phone is the easy
access to the audio interface on the device to allow amplification of
the microphone for such things as listening to the surrounding area etc.

The only downside is that you need to do some work on the design of a
PCB etc.

Not such a big deal if you have access to PCB software and are familiar
with embedded design but for the average UKHA'r, this is ruled out.

This is an idea I was looking at myself, and with the addition of the
voice idea that was mentioned, I have an urge to have a go at a design
myself. What we need is some feedback on the features needed. I would be
happy to design and build the system based around a microcontroller and
the GSM862 module with as many of the features as we could get on there.
The software design would be free for anyone to write with a small
library for access to the onboard features. I would propose to use the
Atmel AT90MEGA128 microcontroller for this as it has 128K of flash rom
and would allow some complex software to be developed. Also because I
have all the tool chain and emulators for this device. As it happens,
the tool chain for this is very low cost compared to other
microcontrollers on the market. Ask Ian Bird, he is now a fan of the AVR
:o) Right Ian?

Anyway, fire away with some ideas and I will collect them together and
see if we can come up with a solution. By the way, I will offer this as
a free design to the UKHA group as a non-commercial venture only. It
will be up to you to get the PCB's made up and I can provide details of
how to do this too. I might also be able to negotiate a lower price on
the GSM module if we can provide enough orders, which I will check out
in the next few days.

Regards
Dave..
PS.. If any other hardware/software designers fancy getting involved in
this, give me a shout.

---
Very funny Scotty, now beam down my clothes!!
---
http://www.v8carlton.com
http://www.embeddedcomputer.co.uk
---



big_red_frog wrote:

>
> Most annoying thing about all this is that writing embedded software
> for mobile telecoms is what I do for a living, and have previoulsy
> spun up my own builds to do the odd bit of "unspecced"
behaviour.
>
> However, right now my contract is not with a handset manufacturer,
> therefore, I don't have access to the toolchain that I have had for
> the past 8 years :-(
>
> Still I am sure the next contract will be handset based, so will
> start musing requirements.
>
> I can then tie in just about any functionality I want.
>