The open/closed status of various doors in the clubroom and Cameron Hall can be obtained using a Jabber instant messaging client. Register a user on ucc.asn.au and then add the following as friends:
Currently the door sensors use reed switches plugged into a DECserver which we probe over LAT by sending serial characters down the line. If our serial characters are returned to us, because the circuit is complete, the reed switch is in its closed position. Using a funky combination of Python and Perl scripts, the appropriate Jabber user changes status based on the condition of the door. An online user represents an open door and an away user a closed one.
Most of the hardware work on the current door status system was completed in late 2004 by Mark Tearle and Davyd Madeley while the software side of things was handled later with a combined effort from Bernard Blackham, Mark Tearle and Grahame Bowland. Many thanks to them and anyone else who lent a hand.
The door can either be unlocked by members of Door Group through the dispense interface, or by using the keypad on the snack machine (pictured left).
The door lock is switched using the On-Hook relay of a modem (pictured above left). This provides a cheap, reliable serial interface to the door lock.
In the past, the doors worked off a simple reed switch hooked up though a serial port multiplexer. The multiplexer (Blackbox - now dead) is told to changeto a certain port and a signal is sent through the port to be echoed back if and only if the reed switch is closed.
You used to be able to finger door@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au to get the results of the doors being open or closed. Much of the programming for this was done by the mad Mark Tearle.
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Last updated on Sun Apr 30 11:22:23 WST 2006.