Gmail Photon Notifier

Have you ever been distracted by your phone while studying, but you still need it for schools email. We've got the solution for you!

IntermediateFull instructions provided4 hours617

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Photon

Solderless Breadboard Half Size

Software apps and online services

IFTTT Maker service

Particle Build Web IDE

Google Sheets

Story

Studying while your phone is next to you is really hard, especially with social media these days. It can be a distraction and with distraction, it is hard to focus and pay attention to what you're doing. For instance, there was a class that one of us took last Fall that was tough and needed too much attention in order to understand the whole concept of that class. So one day one of us had an exam to study for. The material was too much and we, collage students are big fans of playing with the phone and we need to check our emails every now and then to keep up with university stuff. So because of that, we came up with this project. watch the video below for more information about our project. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million words.

Video Explanation of the Project

We have two different photons. The first photon which is the notifier is connected to Gmail by If This Then That (IFTTT). Once I receive an email, the notifier will give a blue light signal as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: notifier Photon LED light on

The notifier photon is connected to Gmail by IFTTT. The Configuration for the IFTTT is shown in figure 2. It is subscribed to the IFTTT once an email is received it will publish as a light. Then, the notifier will send signal to the other photon which is control panel that an email has been received.

Figure 2: IFTTT Gmail configuration

The control panel photon is subscribed to the notifier photon in order to know if an email have been received. Then, The Control panel photon is connected to google sheet by IFTTT. The Configuration for the IFTTT is shown in figure 3 and 4. The signal will be published to google sheet by IFTTT to be sketched. The sketch of how many emails we have received in a time period. The sketch is show in figure 5. Finally, in order to dismiss the notification, just press the setup button in the control panel photon which is subscribed to the notifier photon and the signal will be sent, then the light will be dismissed.

1 / 2 • Figure 3: IFTTT Google sheet configuration

Figure 5 shows the plot of number of emails received in a period of time. The control was subscribed to the to google sheets and then plotted. Live link for google sheet.

Figure 5: Plot google sheet

Code

SYSTEM_THREAD(ENABLED)
bool buttonset = false;

void setup()
{
Particle.subscribe("email011", writetoscreen); 
//receive from IFTTTT send to function
}

  
void writetoscreen(const char *event, const char *data)
{
    if(strcmp(event,"email011")==0) 
    { //compare variable and determine meaning
        
        Particle.publish("email100","email011", 60);
}}

void loop() {
    if (System.buttonPushed() > 500) {
        Particle.publish("done100", "buttonpressed", 60); 
        buttonset = true;
        delay(5000);
    }
}

int boardLed = D7;


void setup()
{
    Particle.subscribe("email100", flickerled);
    Serial.begin(230400);
    pinMode(boardLed,OUTPUT); // Our on-board LED output
    Particle.subscribe("done100",button);
}
void flickerled (const char *event, const char *data)
{

    if(strcmp(data, "1")==0)
{
        digitalWrite(boardLed,HIGH);
        Serial.println("1");
}
}
void button(const char *event, const char *data)
{
    if(strcmp(data,"buttonpressed")==0)
    {
        digitalWrite(boardLed,LOW);
        delay(15000);
}
}