Fig. 5: Magnet and reed switch fitted in the door PRADEEP G. C ommercially available electronic se- curity alarms with remote control are generally very expensive. Here is a circuit, with construction details, for a low-cost door-opening alarm with remote control. However, you need not despair as here we present a low-cost door opening alarm with remote control. It uses readily available components and is easy to as- S .C . D W IV E D I CONSTRUCTION semble. The circuit Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of the door- opening alarm with IR remote control. The circuit has two main parts, namely, a small infrared remote transmitter unit and a receiver unit with alarm. Tr ansmi tter unit. Fig. 2 shows the circuit of the re- mote transmitter unit. Its working is very simple. I C NE555 (IC1) is used in astable multivibator mode to operate a fre- quency of 1 kHz. A pnp transistor (T1) drives the IR LED. Connect a +9V battery to the cir- cuit. Now on pressing switch S1, the trans- mitter emits a modulated infrared beam up to 7 metres without the need of any lens or reflector. DOOR-OPENINGALARMWITH REMOTE CONTROL Fig. 2: Circuit of IR remote transmitter unit Fig. 4: Circuit of IR receiver unit with alarm Fig. 3: Bottom view of L14F1 IR photo- transistor Receiver unit with alarm. The circuit diagram of the IR receiver unit with alarm is shown in Fig. 4. IR signals sent by the transmitter are received by Darlington IR phototransistor L14F1 (T2) whose bottom view is shown in Fig. 3. Thus phototransistor T2 is used here as a sen- sor. As IR signals are very weak, these re- quire amplification. So the signals are am- plified by the amplifier stage comprising transistors T3 and T4. Amplified signals are fed to the triggering circuit comprising transistors T5, T6, and T7 to trigger the monostable multivibrator wired around IC2. When IC2 is trig- gered at pin 2, its out- put pin 3 goes high for 5 to 10 seconds. Time delay can be set by a 220k p r e s e t Fig. 1: Block diagram of door-opening alarm using IR remote control CONSTRUCTION ELECTRONICS FOR YOU JULY 2003 (VR). During this time, transistor T8 con- ducts to keep reset pin 4 of astable multivibrator IC3 low. Then the alarm gets disabled. Within the preset time period if some- body opens the door, i.e. the magnet is moved away from reed switch S2, pin 4 of IC3 goes low due to the conduction of transistor T8 and hence the alarm is not activated. After completion of the preset time period if somebody opens the door, reed switch S2 also gets opened and pin 4 of IC3 goes high due to non-conduction of transistor T8 and hence the alarm is acti- vated. The actual use of the remote control is that you can disable the alarm while you open the door. You can keep the remote control in your pocket. When you enter the room or go out from the room, simply direct remote control to the sensing phototransistor and momentarily press switch S1. Thus the alarm is disabled for 5 to 10 seconds. So during this time, you can open the door without activation of the alarm. After this time duration completes, if anyone tries to open the door, the alarm will sound. Assembling The door opening alarm uses a simple magnet-operated two-leads reed switch as a sensor. Reed switch S2 is fitted on the door frame using an adhesive like Feviquick. The magnet is fitted on the moving part of the door as shown in Fig. 5. When the door is fully closed, the magnet is close to switch S2 and the internal leads of the switch get shorted. When the door is opened, the magnet moves away from the reed switch and hence the internal leads of the reed switch get opened. Assemble the transmitter unit and the alarm unit on separate PCBs. The PCB of Fig. 6: Circuit of power supply with battery backup Fig. 9: Actual-size, single-side PCB for receiver unit Fig. 10: Component layout of the PCB in Fig. 9 Fig. 7: Actual-size, single-side PCB of transmitter unit Fig. 8: Component layout for the PCB in Fig. 7 PARTS LIST Semiconductors: IC1-IC3 - NE555 timer T1, T9 - SK100 pnp transistor T2 - IR L14F1 photo Darlington T3-T4 - BC549C npn transistor T5 - BC558 pnp transistor T6-T8 - BC548 npn transistor T10 - 2N3054 pnp power transistor IR-LED - LD271 infrared LED LED - 5mm red LED D1 - 1N4148 switching diode D2-D5 - 1N4001 rectifier diode Resistors (all -watt, 5% carbon, unless stated otherwise): R1 - 150-kilo-ohm R2 - 1.5-kilo-ohm R3, R4 - 470-ohm R5 - 4.7-ohm R6, R15, R17, R18, R22, R25 - 10-kilo-ohm R7, R13 - 4.7-kilo-ohm R8 - 470-kilo-ohm R9 - 2.7-kilo-ohm R10, R21, R23 - 1-kilo-ohm R11 - 100-kilo-ohm R12 - 120-ohm R14 - 22-kilo-ohm R16 - 3.3-kilo-ohm R19 - 680-ohm R20 - 47-kilo-ohm R24 - 2.2-kilo-ohm R26 - 100-ohm, 1W VR -220k preset Capacitors: C1, C2, C5, C9, C13, C16 - 0.01F ceramic disk C7, C8, C11 - 0.1F ceramic disk C3, C4, C14, C17 - 100F, 25V electrolytic C6 - 47pF ceramic disk C10 - 2.2F, 25V electrolytic C12 - 10F, 25V electrolytic C15 - 0.047F ceramic disk C18 - 1000F, 25V electrolytic Miscellaneous: X - 230V AC primary to 12V-0-12V, 500mA secondary transformer S1 - Tactile switch S2 - Reed switch LS1 - 8-ohm, 1W speaker LS2 - 5-ohm, 10W speaker - Magnet - IC bases - +12V battery - +9V battery the transmitter should be small. All compo- nents, excluding timer IC 555, can be directly soldered on the PCB. Use 8-pin IC bases for timer IC. Try to keep the length of the wire between the I R phototransistor and the receiver PCB as small as possible. Dont over- heat the sensor while soldering. Use a 25W soldering iron for sol- dering. The unit requires back-up during power supply failure. There- CONSTRUCTION ELECTRONICS FOR YOU JULY 2003 Fig. 11: Power amplifier circuit for loud sound component layout in Fig. 10. If you want the alarm to sound loudly during the unauthorised open- ing of the gate, use the power ampli- fier circuit shown in Fig. 11 with another suitable power supply. This circuit uses another power supply with a 230V AC primary to 12V-0-12V, 2A secondary transformer and two di- odes of 2A rating (D2 and D3). fore use a 12V DC power supply with battery for back-up as shown in Fig. 6. Connect this power supply to the IR re- ceiver unit with alarm. The actual-size, single-side PCB for the transmitter circuit (Fig. 2) is shown in Fig. 7 and its component layout in Fig. 8. The actual-size, single-side PCB for the receiver circuit with alarm (Fig. 4) and power sup- ply (Fig. 6) is shown in Fig. 9, and its AVAILABLE Complete Kit of Remote-controlled Audio Processor using Microcontroller (EFY Sept. 99) for Rs 850/- KitsnSpares 303, Dohil Chambers, 46, Nehru Place, New Delhi 110019 Phone: 26430523, 26449577; E-mail: kits@electronicsforu.com Please add 10% C.S.T. and postage charges of Rs 50/- Please send your remittance by DD/MO (not cheque) to: