This instructable will show you how to make a web-connected home mailbox alert. Besides emailing you when your mailbox is opened, it will also signal a Raspberry Pi sitting in your house to play an audio announcement. There is also a web-accessible Android/iPhone interface for you to check what time mail was delivered, as well as display the battery voltage left on the sensor.
But this could also easily be used as a web-connected security system, one that both plays an audio alarm in your home and emails you when the someone breaks into your house.
Under normal use (a few door openings per day), the battery powered mailbox alarm Arduino should last over a year on a set of 4xAA batteries. The transceiver has a range of over 700 feet through multiple walls, so this should work for most situations. wireless mailbox alert system.
General Components:
One strip board Arduino, circuit optimized for low battery power consumption
Strip board components (voltage regulator, capacitor, resistors, etc…), see details later on.
Two wireless transceivers (RFM69HW)
Two Arduino Uno’s with selectable 3.3V/5V switch for the gateways
One Raspberry Pi, but could be replaced with your PC/Mac if you don’t mind running the computer 24/7
I’ll explain how to piece all these parts together and provide all the code needed.
Take a look mailboxsensor.com at this longer video to understand how the pieces of this system talk to each other. Then, we’ll start the first step of making the Mailbox Arduino.