Long Range Cordless Burglar Alarm

This long-range cordless burglar alarm circuit makes use of a cordless telephone (CLT) unit with paging facility and a few low-cost discrete components. The circuit is so simple that even a novice can easily construct it without any difficulty. When the ‘page’ button on a CLT is pressed and held in that position, the handset starts beeping to indicate that somebody is calling. This function is used here to build the gadget. The system consists of three sub-assemblies:

1. Wireless beeper. The handset of the CLT.

2. Infrared transmitter. A number of IR transmitter circuits based on the well-known 555 chip have been published earlier in EFY. Just select one circuit with a modulating frequency of 36 to 38 kHz and assemble it on a veroboard. After that, enclose it in a proper cabinet. (EFY note. A typical IR transmitter circuit used during testing is shown in Fig. 1.)

 

3. Infrared receiver-cum-control unit. The circuit diagram of this unit is shown in Fig. 2. Front end of this block is Sharp’s GP1U561X integrated infrared re-ceiver module (or TK1836/ TSOP1836 from Temic/ Telefunken, etc). This mod-ule can demodulate 36kHz modulated IR beam to pro-duce an active-similar  ‘low’ output. You may also use any other module, provided it has an active-‘low’ output. The modulated IR beam from the transmitter is received by the receiver module and its output at pin 2 goes ‘low’. The rest of the circuit is in sleep mode as it does not get power for its operation. The SCR here plays the role of an electronic switch. 

When the infrared beam is interrupted, the output of the receiver module goes ‘high’ to apply a forward bias to the base of transistor T1. As a result, the gate of SCR gets sufficient forward bias to conduct (and latch). The astable multivibrator built around IC1 starts working to control the  ‘on’/‘off’ relay timings. Diode D1 prevents the relay from latching and diode D2 works as a free-wheeling diode.

Normally open (N/O) contacts of the relay are used to close the  ‘page’ button contacts until the circuit is reset by pressing push-to-off switch S1 (N/C type). One may replace switch S1 with a key-lock switch to avoid its unauthorised operation. The astable circuit helps the hand-set user to distinguish between a normal paging call and an intrusion warning alarm.

After construction, fix the transmitter and receiver modules at opposite sides in the door frame as shown in Fig. 3. Carefully open the CLT and solder two wires to the  ‘page’ button terminals with their free ends connected to the relay contacts (N/O). Now your cordless burglar alarm with a wireless monitoring range of about 500 meters (actual range is based on the CLT’s paging range) is ready to detect an intruder.

EFY note. The author has success-fully tested his prototype with the following CLT makes:

• Panasonic KX-T 3611 BH (made in Japan)
• Panaphone WT-3990 (made in China)
• Citizen JRT-5400 (made in India)