Strasburg, Colorado: Remote Controlled Fire Alarm and Disaster Warning System

August 8, 2013 By

In this video, Rae Lynne Hicks from Strasburg Fire Protection Department introduces us to an upgrade to their community’s fire alarm and disaster warning system. At the heart of Strasburg, Colorado you will find a pillar of the community: the fire alarm. This system used to be controlled by a button in the fire station. Now, the system can be remotely triggered using a mobile phone by using the ioBridge IO-204, relay function board, and the free ioApp mobile app for either Android or iPhone. This simplifies alerting and testing for the team of volunteer firefighters.

“The siren is important to our community, because in the event of a tornado or other cataclysmic activity that happens to our community. Then, our siren is set off so that people understand that they need to seek cover immediately,” said Ms. Hicks. “We needed to upgrade how our siren works.”

We are proud to be a part of a solution for the Strasburg, CO community. Awesome project and thanks to Dave Klein for producing a wonderful video.

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Maker Faire Wrap Up

April 27, 2010 By

Over 2000 people came to the first annual Maker Faire North Carolina in Durham, NC. There were makers from all over. It was a blast!

We had on display web-enabled robots, toys, and interactive projects created by the ioBridge community. Some of those projects included, an iPhone and Twitter controlled Donkey Kong, X10 controlled lamp, streaming temperature sensor, and a remote controlled dog treat dispenser.

While we were there, we captured some footage of our projects on display and exhibits that we were able to see. There were so many great projects and so little time. We made a quick YouTube video and posted pictures to the ioBridge Flickr group.

Thanks to all of the volunteers, exhibitors, and sponsors who made the Maker Faire NC such a success.

Looking forward to 2011!

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

EasyDAQ + ioBridge = Web Controlled Relays

February 11, 2010 By

EasyDAQ is the creator of a wide range of relay controllers with USB, Ethernet, Serial, and XBee interfaces. EasyDAQ partnered with ioBridge to web-enable their serial relay control modules. The integrated system includes web-based control of up to 16 opto-isolated relays, a custom serial cable that interfaces the serial relay controller to the ioBridge IO-204 module, and an international / universal power supply.

EasyDAQ Serial Relay Controller and ioBridge System

EasyDAQ and ioBridge Serial Relay Controller System Overview

Web access is provided by the ioBridge.com platform via widgets and the Static Widget API. The API provides a conduit for commands sent by HTTP or HTTPS POST/GET requests. HTML, LabVIEW, Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP and Ajax are access/programming options. Refer to the ioBridge Wiki for protocol and information on controlling the EasyDAQ SER8PRMx and SER16PRMxN relay cards using the ioBridge.com platform.

The system components are available for sale and worldwide distribution directly from EasyDAQ – visit EasyDAQ.biz for more information.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Web Controlled Christmas Lights

November 30, 2009 By

Christmas lights are one way to celebrate the holidays. If you want to take the tradition further, why not web-enable your your xmas lights and let the world watch, control, and interact via the Internet. A couple of ioBridge users did just that – they took their holiday lights to Griswold levels.

Nathan Kennedy of Pacific Lights and Kennedy Technology has created an interactive display of reindeer and Christmas Star stakes covered in Christmas lights. You can watch his display all the way from New Zealand and switch them on or off on his website. He uses the ioBridge IO-204 connected to an arduino to control the lights on his website. It’s lots of fun controlling someone else’s holiday display.

Christmas Lights Controlled via a Web Page

Christmas Lights Controlled via a Web Page

Noel Portugal of Oracle has created an interactive holiday lights display using a mix of technologies. The result is Christmas lights synchronized to songs that are selectable on a web page, www.xmas-box.com. Inside the box are solid-state relays to control the lights, an Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit, and of course, the ioBridge IO-204 module to add some interactivity to his website. Noel details the procedure to create your very own Christmas Light Controller Box on Instructables.com and on his blog. On a related note, Noel also won third-place for his Dropping Spider ioBridge project featured on Instructables this Halloween! His neighbors must love him!

The Xmas Lights Controller Box in Action

The Xmas Lights Controller Box in Action

Happy Holidays!

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Lights around the World

September 26, 2009 By

Julia Tsao created an interactive project for her thesis that turned out to be a social experiment involving her family scattered around the world. Her family spans the globe from California to China and she created a way for her mom, her dad, and herself to interact and ultimately be connected to each other. Julia’s “The Strangers Project” is a lamp with 3 light bulbs. One lamp is controlled by Julia. The other two bulbs are controlled by her mom and dad.

Lamps

Lamps

Using a few ioBridge IO-204’s, light sensors, relays, and wires, the lamps are able to sense when they are turned on and are able to turn on other light bulbs. Each participant received a controller box that houses the electronics and are interconnected using ioBridge.com web services.

ioBridge Controller Box

ioBridge Controller Box

When Julia comes home from a late night of “studying” and turns on her light, her light comes on, and her bulb in her mom’s and dad’s lamp comes on as well. The same goes for her mom and dad – they all know when each other turns on a light.

Light On

Light On

Julia found her mom using it to signal her before she called Julia. They all learned a little about each others daily habits while having a glowing reminder of each others presence.

We were impressed by this novel use of the ioBridge system. Since our modules are connected thru our platform, the modules can interact with each other – Julia was the first one to create a project based on this functionality.

Our hope is that “The Strangers Project” made Julia’s family a little closer and discovered a few unexpected results of her “brilliant” project. For more information about Julia’s fascinating projects visit, juliatsao.com.

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: , , ,