YAMBP -Yet another "Super Smart" Mailbox Project

This all started when we moved to the country and getting the mail became a war of who/when/how far. We run a business and getting checks deposited in a timely manner can mean the difference in making payroll or not. So there’s a vigil of constantly walking the 1/4 mile to the mailbox to see “if” the mail had arrived. My wife wore me down, and I finally finished the project. It seems to work really, really well, and I solved some of the challenges the vast majority of all other solutions overlooked. Namely:

  • door open/closed monitoring is highly ineffective. Both my wife and I put outgoing mail in the box, sometimes multiple times a day. this results in false triggers.
  • how to discern between outgoing mail and legitimate delivered mail?
  • we have a big mailbox. it holds several packages sometimes. how do you detect a small letter in a big box?
  • the box is 1/4 mile walk. I’m not keen on loRa long range solutions. They can quickly over complicate things.
  • Batteries are challenging. Standard Lithium ion batteries wont work when its below freezing which it is here 6 mos out of the year.

So,those are the PRDs and challenges. I address each one in my GitHub repository:

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Nice write up.

I have almost forgotten about checks. NZ banks don’t accept them any more. Electronic or cash only.

Thanks Nick!

Yeah I sell Ford Model T parts to old men who write checks. They can barely use an iPhone, let alone figure out how to place orders on my website :slight_smile:

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