Our local club has over 1100 menbers and getting everyone a new key every year is getting to be a drag. One menber even went so far as to get a quote for an electronic key operated gate, looked marvelous but the quote was $26,000 PLUS about $300/mo maintainance. No way!
Now I have been operating an electric gate on my farm for over 15 years, only cost $400 new but I've probably put more than that into maintainance; still cheap. This uses a RF 'garage door opener' type of control, not really suitable for 1100 menbers. The QUESTION; What would it take to adapt a battery powered laptop (need to operate during power failure) to accept an electronic key and send out a gate opening signal? There would have to be say 2000 different electronic keys and it would have to read the key and log the time entered. A program would set which keys are valid (who paid dues). I would have no problem making the gate, needing only a voltage signal or contact closure. What I don't know about are the programs and card readers (& writers?) and storing & downloading the collected data. And would this be any easier with a (ugh) PC? I'n thinking of a laptop since older ones should be cheap and the programs should be small and there is no need for internet speed or connections. We would probably need 3 systems, at least one of which is nowhere near AC power. For this application a buggy monitor screen would probably be fine, and we would make a little doghouse to shelter it from the weather but no temperature control. This is near Knoxville TN, weather is not too bad - gets to 100F or so in the summer sometimes and we occasionally see snow and freezing temps. Since this club is a shooting range the use rate gets real low when it snows. ANY helpful suggestions appreciated, am I even looking in the right direction? Any groups that might be more fertile? It might seem a wierd use but there seems to be a lot of sharp people here. TIA Nick Committees of Correspondence Web page: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5357/ - free men own guns, slaves don't -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
