The Mailbox Watcher
No power at the mailbox, no patience to check it in person: A low-power, LoRa-connected sensor that reports the moment mail arrives.
There is no power at our mailbox, and the walk there is too far, or, honestly, I am too lazy to check it in person every time. So I needed a smart, low-power solution.
A Heltec CubeCell HTCC-AB01 microcontroller sleeps in deep-sleep mode almost all the time to save battery, and wakes up only when a magnetic switch detects the mailbox flap being opened. It then sends the event over the LoRa P2P network to a receiver.
The receiver forwards the event to my central smart home unit, which evaluates it and sends me a precisely worded notification. The setup currently runs on battery, with a switch to solar power planned. Down the line, an integrated scale should predict, based on weight, what was likely just dropped into the mailbox.
What it does
Deep-sleep microcontroller, woken only by a magnetic switch
LoRa P2P transmission to a dedicated receiver
Events forwarded to and evaluated by the smart home hub
Precisely worded notifications sent to my phone
Currently battery-powered, solar power planned
Planned: Integrated scale to predict what was delivered by weight
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