Any suggestion of kit required for remote door activiation & status

Hi im looking for what Arduino kit I will need to do the following.

I need to control the opening of 5 gates over wifi from 3 locations with 5 buttons at the three locations to remotely open or close them. In addition I want to know the status of these gates with a light on when open at each of the 3 locations and light off when closed (5 lights to match the 5 switches which match the 5 gates)
Additionally I want this to be secure (encrypted communication) so it cannot be hacked by someone to take control. Finally I would like to also see status and activists the gates from my phone / phones.
What would be the cost of this kit?

thanks
Paul

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Hi Paul,

Welcome to the forum.

If you are looking to connect an Arduino to WiFi I’d have a look at the ESP32.
Its hard to cost a system without knowing exactly which parts you want; microcontrollers or SBC’s, the actuators you use, peripherals and all of the lil bits, LED’s switches, mounting hardware, etc.

If you piggy back off of WiFi you will already have a level of encyption, though depending on how you program the modules/have them setup there could be weak points.
Connecting from anywhere is a much harder task, Adafruit IO lets you get into it with minimal setup :smiley:

I’m keen to see what you come up with!

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Hi Liam
Is WiFi the answer here. You have not even asked how far away the gates are. It sounds like a farm and if the gates are anywhere further away than the back yard (as there are 5 of them they could be anywhere) WiFi won’t be much good I don’t think.
Cheers Bob
EDIT. Sorry Liam. I just noticed it was Paul who suggested WiFi not you.

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hi all, wifi coverage is fine for the whole property as its not a farm. i have fence to fence coverage.
i will have read switches on the doors to detect open/closed status. there will be push buttons remote from the doors that will have an led light to indicate open/closed. i’m not able to run wires to the doors given access issues.

i’m seeking advice on which arduino models to use at the button end and door ends and if i will need any other boards with additional functions.

appreciate the responses guys.

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Hi Bob and Paul,

Bob does bring up an excellent point though, is it the same LAN across the whole property?

I’d have a look at an ESP32 for both, they’re super :smiley: From the sounds of it you wont need any analog inputs or outputs (you can kinda vary voltage with a PWM).

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Hi Paul and Liam.
Would encryption be really required. WiFi by its very nature is pretty local and for any one to hack it they would have to be almost at the front door with a laptop and get past the WiFi’s built in encryption which I believe is pretty good if you use the advanced system. I haven’t had any dealings with this as for personal uses I just use the password printed on the modem.

The feedback to the phone(s) would have to be on the phone system. Most burglar alarms do this (the one on the local men’s shed does) but I am not sure how but may be worth investigating.
Cheers Bob

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Hi Paul,

We don’t have an Arduino kit as such that will do what you want right out of the box. There are is an Arduino Uno with Wifi for around $90 or an Arduino MKR Wifi for around $65.
The MKR Wifi incorporates an ESP32 module, when you compare this to an ESP32 Thing Dev board from Sparkfun with the same module that also incorporates a LiPo battery charger for around $35 you can see why ESP32 is a popular value proposition.
The catch is that ESP32 is not yet well documented for beginners and although very powerful is not easy to set up.

Personally my recommendation would be to weigh up the cost of ESP32 versus the difficulty in programming them, it’s not ideal for a first coding project but the hardware is very nice with fully integrated wifi and bluetooth as standard, instead of being a co-processor that has been retrofit in later revisions.

Also, I’d leave smartphone control of your system till after you have it working with one master control unit with buttons, you can always add it later and it’s nicer to have a system that is working with minimal features, than a complex system with lots of features that isn’t finished enough to do anything yet.

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thanks trent great suggestions for me to consider.
much appreciated

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hi Trent is there a reason why Arduino Nano 33 IoT would not be suitable?

Hi Paul,

Well spotted, I missed that one. The Nano 33 IoT is a 3.3V board and is not 5V compatible so as long as you use a logic level converter if you want to interface with a 5V device then it should also be suitable for your project.

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