SMS controlled cabin

My parents bought a new cabin. It’s pretty remote so we needed a way to “talk” to it. I want to be able to turn on the heat before I arrive, check that the power is on, no one has broken in and so on. Since there is no Internet connection GSM was the only alternative. So I've set up a simple remote controlled system with an Arduino. So far I've only done the remote heat part.

For this project you will need:

• A 25 dollar GSM module
• An Arduino
• 230v remote controlled sockets
• A 433 mHz transmitter module
• A buck converter 

See the code here

To not get in trouble with insurance or electrical inspections I did not want to mess around with the main power (230v). To avoid this I bought remote controlled sockets and made the Arduino the remote. I already had most of the code to control the sockets from another project.

I used a cheap GSM module called LoNet. It connects to the Arduino using the serial interface. The module needs around 4v and up to 2A. So it’s not possible to power it from the Arduino. I had to add a buck converter to handle this.