Mailbox Notification System

Ever wanted a way to see if you have mail without having to walk to go see? Well we have the thing for you!

IntermediateFull instructions provided5 hours2,172

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Photon

LED (generic)

Jumper wires (generic)

SparkFun Pushbutton switch 12mm

Photo resistor

Breadboard (generic)

resistor 200 ohm

Resistor 220 ohm

Software apps and online services

IFTTT Maker service

Google Sheets

Particle

Story

Have you ever wanted a way to know when you received mail without having to go all the way to the mailbox to check for it?

We have designed a prototype system where one portion will be mounted within a mailbox to sense light when the mailbox is opened and the second portion will be mounted inside your home where an L.E.D. will light up when mail has been received. After checking the mail, there is a push button on the panel mounted inside the home that will deactivate the L.E.D.

The project is explained in the video below.

A video depicting how our project functions

MEGR 3171 Project

This project was devised through an assignment for our Instrumentation class (MEGR 3171). The project was required to have two communicating particle photon IoT devices. It was decided by our team that a mailbox notification would be a good project for us to complete.

The idea of our project is to have one photon mounted inside the mailbox.

Photon system to be mounted in the mailbox

This is the photon setup that would be mounted in the mailbox. It has a photo-resistor that will sense a change in light levels that takes place when the mailbox is opened. This will trigger the photon to send a signal to the photon that is mounted inside the home.

Photon system to be mounted in the home

Above is the photon setup that would be mounted in the home. It features a green L.E.D. that will flash when it receives the signal from the photon that is mounted in the mailbox that the mailbox has been opened.

After you have checked the mail, you can press the button that is on the breadboard that is mounted in your home. This will deactivate the flashing L.E.D. and reset the system so it will be ready for the next time mail is delivered.

Light levels given by photo resistor

This graph represents the light levels detected by the photo resistor mounted in the mailbox. the steep dip at the end is when the light was shined upon the system to emulate the mailbox being opened. The rest of the graph is the normal low-level of light that would be detected in the mailbox while it is closed. The data that was collected was sent to the spreadsheet to create the graph.

This is the data that is used to create the above graph. Google sheets was used to create the graph.

In addition to setting off a light to notify you, the photon will send you a message via Facebook messenger that will tell you when you have received mail. This message system is generated using IFTTT.

This project was originally going to be mounted in our apartment's mailbox, but the mailboxes are mounted in a shaded, dark room. So then it was changed to a normal mailbox, but due to unforeseen circumstances, this became impossible. So the idea was to leave our project as a working prototype.

Code

int led2 = D7; 
int photoresistor = A1;

void setup() {
  pinMode(led2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(photoresistor, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
      if (analogRead(photoresistor) < 500) {                //If the photoresistor reads a value less than 500
        Particle.publish("Mailbox","there is light");       //Publish event "Mailbox", with data "there is light"
        
        String value = String(analogRead(photoresistor));           //read the photoresistor again and set value to equal this number
        Particle.publish("Graph",value);digitalWrite(led2, LOW);    //publish event "Graph", with data "photoresistor value"
        
        digitalWrite(led2, HIGH);           //turn blue LED on
        delay(1000);                        //wait 1 second
        digitalWrite(led2, LOW);            //turn blue LED off
        delay(100000);                      //wait 100 seconds before trying to read the photoresistor again
        }
}

int Button = D0;                      // button is connected to D0
int LED = D1;                         // LED is connected to D1
int FORCEON = D5;           // forces on the green LED
int SignalIN = D6;          // toggel signal for powering FORCEON

void setup()
{
  pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);                 // sets pin as output
  pinMode(Button, INPUT_PULLDOWN);      // sets pin as input
  pinMode(FORCEON, INPUT_PULLDOWN);     // checks to see if the toggel is HIGH
  pinMode(SignalIN, OUTPUT);        // is the toggel by the mailbox PhotonBo
  pinMode(D7, OUTPUT);              // is the standby light for program DEBUG
  Particle.subscribe("Mailbox", GreenOn);       // looks to see a published event "Mailbox" has happened
}                                               // and if it has then will run function GreenOn


void GreenOn(const char *event, const char *data)   // this section is focused on 
{                                                   // seeing if the mailbox ParticleBo 
    if (strcmp(data,"there is light")==0) {         // has published "there is light"
     digitalWrite(SignalIN, HIGH);                  // and if so will turn SignalIN to HIGH
    }
}

void loop()
{
  
    digitalWrite(SignalIN, LOW);          // DEFAULT is that the system will 
                                        // not have the green mail light blinking
  
  //FROM HERE ON STUCK LOOP
    while(1==1){
        digitalWrite(D7, HIGH);     // sets the BlueLED on
        delay(200);                 // waits for 200mS
        digitalWrite(D7, LOW);      // sets the BlueLED off
        delay(200);                 // waits for 200mS
        
        // blink the LED as long as the button is pressed
        while(digitalRead(FORCEON) == HIGH) {
            if(digitalRead(Button) == HIGH){                        // if the button is pressed
                Particle.publish("Mailbox","I got the Mail");       //Publish event "Mailbox", with data "I got the Mail"
                digitalWrite(SignalIN, LOW);                        // will turn SignalIn to low
                delay(500);                                         // which will then stop the next itteration of the FORCEON loop
            }                                                       // next itteration of the FORCEON loop
            
            else if(digitalRead(FORCEON) == HIGH) {
                digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);          // sets the GreenLED on
                delay(200);                       // waits for 200mS
                digitalWrite(LED, LOW);           // sets the GreenLED off
                delay(200);                       // waits for 200mS
            }
            
        }
    }
}