Skip to content

MBX-IOT

This repo contains the software used for my mailbox IoT project, it will:

  • Detect when the U.S. mail has been delivered (when the mailbox door is opened)
  • Detect when a car passes by the mailbox
  • Once detected a message is sent via a radio signal to my house where it is recorded and notifications sent

mbx-gateway


Apps

There are two apps (TinyGo binaries) contained in this repo

mbx - This app is loaded onto a Raspberry Pi Pico along with several peripheral devices. The unit is contained in a weather proof electrical junction box mounted on my mailbox. It perform the following functions:

  • detect when the mailbox door is opened
  • detect when a car passes by
  • charge the battery from a solar cell

gateway - This app is loaded onto a LoRa-E5 Dev Board that is connected to a server located in my the house. The server hosts a K8s cluster running monitoring and alerting software. The gateway performs the following functions:

  • receive radio signals from the mbx device
  • sends the message to an application running in the K8s cluster via serial port
  • once the messages are received in the K8s cluster they are stored in a time series db so that graphical dashboards and be produced and notifications sent