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[on:]

Hi, I'm new here and love the site. I would like my project to be very small, able to mount in the garage door opener assembly. Basically what I want is: Arduino Pro Mini, connected to a WiFly so I can open/close/check status of the door anywhere in the world using http. Is this remotely possible? I don't know where to begin as I'm new to Arduino, I have some programming experience in making iPhone apps, but that uses Objective C 2.0 language. I will take any information on what hardware I should use if my thoughts are wrong. I basically want the tiniest way hardware wise to do this over wifi so it can be used remotely let's say while I'm at work. Thanks in advance!

These products would work best?
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9218
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9954

[Reply #1 on:]

Hi,

if you are new to Arduino I would go to a more user friendly for beginners board like the arduino nano with an integrated USB on board. If not, with the pro mini you will also need to get an FTDI basic o FTDI Cable 5V. Alternatively you can use the Uno which is also a very nice integrated environment.

There are plenty of tutorials in the main page and lots of useful information in the playground and community contribution section. I suggest you start with the sample files that come with the Arduino IDE and the browse through the libraries and the reference manual in the help tab. The programming language is a thin down version of C++.

As for the WiFly, I can't tell you much as I haven't had the pleasure to experiment with it what I've seen is that the shields can be mounted on the Uno or the Arduino clasic.

[Reply #2 on:]

Thanks for some helpful info. I'm pretty good at soldering, so using the Pro mini doesn't scare me at all. I've seen several examples about controling arduino through a web browser on local host, but not a whole bunch on controlling it remotely anywhere in the world.

[Reply #3 on:]

If you set up a web server on your arduino, it is like any other web server. To access it outside of your home network, you would need to follow the same steps you would if you were setting up a typical webserver. Namely, port forwarding and dynamic dns, so you can access it over the internet.

[Reply #4 on:]

Is there any examples out there on how to do it from step 1 purchasing an Arduino?

[Reply #5 on:]

Well you said you have found tutorials on how to set up a WiFi webserver on your arduino, a quick google search yielded this as one of the many results: http://marioboehmer.blogspot.com/2011/01/wifi-webserver-with-arduino.html . I am sure there are many more out there.

Once you have set up a webserver to your liking, which can be accessed from within your local network, you have to set up port forwarding on your wifi router, that sends any port 80 requests to the IP address of your arduino. Then, if you, like most, have a dynamic WAN ip, it would be very useful to set up dynamic DNS forwarding, so you pick a free domain name, say test.dyndns.com (there are other services as well) and this redirects to your home IP address, and thus, where requests are forwarded by your router to your arduino. Ta-da!

Keep in mind you will need parts to interface with the garage door as well.