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Help with the orientation sensor?

OK, got my Twine today!

So I wanted to see if I could use it to SMS me when my front door was opened. I'm not sure how the orientation sensor rules work. First is this rule possible and if so I exactly do I configure it?

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

  • 13 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Chris is right. Orientation is "which side is up?" (it works by measuring the direction of gravity). When you mount it to your door, the same side is always up, so this doesn't help. The cleanest way to know when a door has been opened is to use a magnetic switch. Another is to wait a few weeks for us to finish the vibration sensing (you'll get a software update) and try that.

Answers

  • ABM. Always Be Monitoring. Vibration sensor is sampling 50 times a second.
  • I was going to use a magnetic switch for the door. I also did the poor mans solution of just placing twine next to the door in such a way that when the door opened it fell, thus alerting me.
    Guys take your time with vibration. Get it right before you update. I expects these kind of delays with such young new hardware companies.
    Love my twine.
  • Some aspect of vibration sensing has to work already. Otherwise they would not have released the hardware. If they did release the hardware, and vibration sensing will never work on it, then they open themselves to lawsuits based on false advertising.

    So if some of it works, allow us to choose whether to activate it ... knowing fully that it is not 100% ready. It's ... what's that word every website used ... oh yeah .. beta.

  • frjps... (and others)

    Remember that you backed an 'idea and its development', you didn't actually purchase a product. The product you're holding is the current fruit of your investment, pretty much as a thank-you for investing, and it's still very much being developed. The TWINE will continue to be developed for quite some time. A few weeks wait isn't long in the world of small scale product development. It's not intended to be used as a "mission critical" device, so if you're concerned about the delays affecting your use, you should probably purchase other items to fill that need, at many thousands of dollars, with lots of complex integrated systems. TWINE is in its infancy, is low cost, convenient and simple to use. Many of us are already enjoying it in various ways, including tinkering as is my case. I have no intended use (yet), but I bought into it because it's cool, and new, and looked fun, and it is.

    Dan... True, it would be nice if we could choose whether to access vibration sensing or not. But it's another feature that they would have to answer more questions about, by everyone who fiddles with it. While they're answering questions, they're not able to develop the firmware to make it work better. And in the event that it doesn't work as everyone expected at first, we'd have people complaining of course.

    Darren and Fabian... Good points, Kudos!

    Sit back and enjoy your tinkering over Christmas / New Years :)
  • I don't think you could use it directly (ie, mounting it on the door). You'd have to use a lever that changes the direction to rotate it in a different axis.
  • Will vibration sensing work in this case? Is the device always monitoring vibration or just when it wakes up?
  • Vibration sensor is sampling 50 times a second. It may depend on how firmly you mount Twine to the door, the frequency and duration of a disturbance, etc, which is why I say magswitch is the "cleanest". But we've tested vibration on a door and it's sensitive enough to detect it being closed normally.
  • John -
    Is the vibration sensor adjustable; i.e. will it have the ability to set a threshold?
  • frjps - Supermechanical did state that vibration wasn't ready yet so you can hardly complain
  • edited December 2012 Vote Up0Vote Down
    its an experimental device from an experimenal company using the users to experiment
  • We have to wait "a few weeks" (see above) for you to finish the vibration sensing? Geez, first we wait a year for the hardware, now weeks for the software to be complete. Since I was planning on using it for the vibration sensor, it sets me back like the delayed product & slow shipping. Not a good way to start a relationship with a customer.
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