Mighty Mule FM231 driveway sensor and Insteon I/O Linc

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Mon Apr 24, 2017 10:28 am
tornado offline
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Joined: Jun 30, 2014

Mighty Mule FM231 driveway sensor and Insteon I/O Linc

I have been extending my home automation system to support driveway sensors. I haven't found one that natively works with Insteon, so I cobbled together one from about $135 worth of equipment and some soldering.

Here's how I did it:

You'll need the following items:
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/img_9966/

    Mighty Mule FM231 Wireless Driveway Alarm ($50 on eBay)
    Smarthome Light ProbeLinc LED and Fluorescent Light Detector Probe 8013 (or similar) ($30 on eBay)
    Insteon 2450 I/O Linc (~$50)
    Icstation Mini DC Step Up Voltage Regulator Power Converter Module 0.9-5V to 5V 480mA ($5 on Amazon)
    A soldering iron and solder.
    A drill if you want to make it purdy.

First thing, put your MM alarm in the driveway at your appropriate spot. For my house I actually bought two so that I could control gate and garage openings depending on which one "fired" first. For the two I have I spaced them pretty far apart so as to get good independent firings.

Once the MM is in the ground and tested working you're ready to go.

Drill a hole through the case at the top to allow the probelinc wire to go through.
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/img_9970/

Solder a wire pair to the speaker pins on the MM logic board.
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/img_9968/

Solder the other end of the wire pair to the ground and the Vinput traces on the Icstation.
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/img_9977/

Cut your light probelinc end off (I tried using it and the lights on the MM are not bright enough to trigger it).
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/img_9972/

Tie a knot in the wire once you've threaded it so it can't be yanked out easily
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/img_9984/

Solder the probelinc wires to the Icstation Voutput and ground traces.
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/img_9979/

Plug in the MM. Plug the probelinc headphone jack into the Insteon.
Test the MM by hitting the reset button. If it works, the light on the side of the Insteon should blink rapidly.
https://vimeo.com/214528527

At this point you can button up the case.
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/img_9988/

Success!
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/img_9986/

If you have questions feel free to message me.

Joe
P.S. Is there a way to drop images inline in these posts?

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