When you are waiting for a very important letter to come, it’s really bothersome to go and check the post box again and again. The problem gets worse when you are not at home and anxiously thinking if the letter arrived or not. Well, now IoT or Internet Of Things is your savior.
Following this project by CuriosityGym, you can make your own smart IoT post box that sends you an email as soon as a letter is dropped into it.
Requirements :
- Arduino UNO
- idIoTware shield
- USB cable (A to B)
- Esp 8266 – 01 programmed with ESP-link firmware
- One jumper
- One Postbox (You can make it yourself)
- External 9v 1A Power adapter
- Double sided sticky tape
- Arduino UNO code (Download it)
Description :
The concept is not complicated at all. The idIoTware Shield has a set of RGB LED and an LDR. The RGB LED always emits white light and it’s received by the LDR. As soon as a letter is dropped, there is an interruption in light. The change in light intensity is sensed by LDR and processed by Arduino. Finally, ESP 8266 connects to IFTTT network and sends an email to a saved email ID.
IFTTT: IFTTT is a free web-based service that allows users to create chains of simple conditional statements, called “applets”, which are triggered based on changes to other web services such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. IFTTT is an abbreviation of “If This Then That”.
This can be explained using a simple analogy: “If the battery is empty then charge it”.
Watch this video for more information on IFTTT.
Procedure :
Simply place the idIoTware shield on Arduino UNO and Connect the esp8266(01) module to the ESP-01 header on the top right, such that the antenna is facing outside (See the image given below). It’s important to connect a jumper to CH_PD pin on the shield.
Read more: Smart IoT Postbox with Arduino, ESP-01, and idIoTware Shield
