Another Wi-Fi Mailbox Sensor Request

Hello,

Has anyone discovered a really good and easy-to-setup battery-powered mailbox door sensor?

Preferably something ESP-based or otherwise Wi-Fi based because I don’t have Zigbee.

I’ve seen a few “projects” but they requires more time than I have to build. I’d rather buy something ready-to-go.

I have good Wi-Fi not too far from the mailbox. And I don’t mind changing batteries every few months.

Running the latest HA, and have MQTT [for a few Tasmota wall switches].

I could do Zigbee if the entry cost/time is low, but not sure I want to spend anything more to get this working just for the mailbox sensor.

I have ESP32 experience as well, but not with building anything battery-powered (low power and all that).

Thanks in advance.

I use Dakota Alert for my mailbox alarm and driveway alarm…

The plus receiver in the house has outputs you can wire into external sensors…

I then used dry contact switches to hook then into Hass, I am sure an ESP32 would work just as well

I did this because low freq RF seemed to work better in a metal mailbox and at the necessary distance

hope that helps

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I had to use Lora. Mailbox was to far away also all metal.

I just used a Yolink starter kit like this

Lora is a protocol that is low energy and good for about a 1/4 Mile.

Works great with the yolink integration. I have an Automation that announces You’ve Got Mail!!!.

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Wish I had mailbox’s like yours that opened from the front… the ones for my building open from the back to take out the mail that arrived and are built into a brick wall so I can’t really do a door sensor for input trigger, still looking at threads like this for ideas otherwise if one comes up that may work with my setup.

One cheap an robust solution I use is a off-the-shelf door window contact sensor (433MHz in my juristication) and a inexpensive esp8266 with an receiver to get the signal into HA. The esp has esphome installed and is solid as a rock. Installed this couple of years ago an still the first set of batteries in the contact sensor.

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I use 433 as well. I desoldered the Reed switch and put on wire so I could position transmitter on the side facing the receiver in the house. Battery does last long but water ingress destroyed 1st one.

Interesting! I’m guessing the receiver would sit inside the house and be connected to the ESP (connected to power), which would in-turn send the signal over Wi-Fi back to Home Assistant. Is this correct?

Would you please share your parts list and any schematics for the ESP connections to the receiver?

Greatly appreciate it.

I also started looking at Zigbee. It seems that the USB dongle isn’t too expensive ($29.99) and a Zigbee sensor is less than $10. I’m not sure about the range, but it seems the battery life is pretty good (over a year). Does anyone have experience with this type of setup for a mailbox sensor?

Indeeed! And the range of 433 is quite good (depending on the device) but 20 meters is probably on the lower side what’s possible.

  • Esp of choice (8266, 32, …)
  • rf receiver
  • cables of choice (e.g. DuPont)

VCC - VCC (preferable 5V usually)
GND - GND
GPIOx - Data

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I used to have some ZigBee and a few matter devices but got rid of all because of lack of functions and stabiltzy. Today I only have some RF and BLE devices and a army of rock solid esphome devices which work great (opposite to my ZigBee mileage)

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Here are 4 devices I have used to collect 433Mhz signals from the mailbox. esp8266 with a SRX882 is the cheapest. The RTL-SDR and Heltec V2 are about the same price and the most expensive but they have a good coverage with home made ground plane antenna. The SONOFF RF device requires a bit of cutting and reprogramming with serial connectors.

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For an update, I did go the Zigbee route. Purchased the SkyConnect for $38 and an Aqara door sensor for $12.99 which I attached to the mailbox door to detect opening. Here’s my automation YAML that seems to be working so far:

alias: “Mailbox: Mail Arrived”
description: “”
trigger:

  • platform: state
    entity_id:
    • binary_sensor.lumi_lumi_sensor_magnet_aq2_opening
      to: “on”
      condition:
  • condition: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.mailbox_acknowledged
    state: “off”
  • condition: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.mailbox_opened
    state: “off”
    action:
  • variables:
    acknowledge: “{{ ‘ACKNOWLEDGE_’ ~ context.id }}”
  • service: input_boolean.turn_on
    data: {}
    target:
    entity_id: input_boolean.mailbox_opened
  • service: input_datetime.set_datetime
    data:
    datetime: “{{ now().strftime(‘%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S’) }}”
    target:
    entity_id: input_datetime.mailbox_first_open_time
  • service: notify.alexa_media_kitchen
    data:
    message: The mail has arrived
  • service: notify.mobile_app_iphone
    data:
    message: Acknowledge?
    data:
    actions:
    - action: “{{ acknowledge }}”
    title: Got It
    title: The Mail Arrived
  • service: notify.mobile_app_iphone2
    data:
    message: Acknowledge?
    title: The Mail Arrived
    data:
    actions:
    - action: “{{ acknowledge }}”
    title: Got It
  • wait_for_trigger:
    • platform: event
      event_type: mobile_app_notification_action
      event_data:
      action: “{{ acknowledge }}”
      context: {}
      timeout:
      hours: 6
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 0
      milliseconds: 0
      continue_on_timeout: false
  • service: input_boolean.turn_on
    data: {}
    target:
    entity_id: input_boolean.mailbox_acknowledged
    mode: single

I have a few helpers used to capture the states. And I have another automation which resets the helpers at midnight. Any suggested updates would be greatly appreciated.