How'bout go to Al Lasher's Electronics in Berkeley and see what they have to offer? They have a whole department for DIY security systems.

The most basic requirement is a) entry keypad with ability to have personal entry codes for a sufficient number of persons, b) door intercom with means of buzzing people in from upstairs, and c) additional input for a relay contact closure to buzz people in.

Then optionally, d) means of connecting to (c) via telephone dial-up or secure online connection and entering a code, thereby enabling someone at home to buzz people in remotely, e.g. Alice wants in, calls Bob who's at home or on the road, and Bob calls the system or connects to a screen with a remote code entry to let Alice in.

Then see what hardware Lasher's recommends, and the cost. (It's almost certainly going to be less than the unpaid cost of labor that's gone into this so far.) It's likely they'll have solutions for (a), (b), and (c), but may not have something for (d). In which case you end up with a reliable basic system and a project to build a solution for (d) from scratch. But at least the basics will be working, so the development project will have less stress and more freedom to experiment.

-G

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On 14-01-20-Mon 3:02 PM, Dan Krol wrote:

Not knowing anything about the specific application, I'll risk asking a naive question - any reason not to just get a powered USB hub? Though I'd caution against plugging multiple things into it; a keyboard and a hard drive together had it acting kindof strange for me.
On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 2:50 PM, Andrew <andrew@roshambomedia.com> wrote:
I think that replacing the doorPi with a laptop will solve a lot of the issues. I think our best debugging was pointing to a known usb power issue with raspis.

I have a laptop I can donate to this cause if anyone else thinks this makes sense as a solution.

Thanks,
Andrew
On Jan 20, 2014 1:27 PM, "Sam Tepper" <sam.tepper@gmail.com> wrote:
I know this was tongue and cheek, but the object is (or should be) to have a number of people learn and volunteer to help, and not have to depend on any one person. I'd be happy to learn/help all I need to fix the door when it's broken - I believe I am qualified, and I enjoy slave labor and menial work.

On 01/20/2014 12:51 PM, Max Klein wrote:
Do you want to be lavished with stress, anguish and minimal praise for the the thankless task of maintaining the sudo door "sudoor"? Well now is your chance.

Imagine a your mirth at suddenly being responsible for a critical but poorly working access mechanism!

Why isn't the door electric door opening working reliably? I don't know, but I can tell you how its supposed to work, which parts are the most reliable, and the full history. Then you can fix it.

Requirements: None except patience, and I will teach you whatever relevant skills are necessary to make as poorly a working door as already exists.

Contact me,
notconfusing
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