Figured I’d ask here since I’ve seen a few different ideas here in regards to mailbox solutions. I’ve been futzing with a solution for a week now and can’t get anything reliable. I have a magnetic switch inside the mailbox running out to a ecolink door/window sensor which is mounted in a project box for protection. The box is about 40 feet from the house and I have a zwave repeater in an outdoor outlet with clear line of site. It seems that if I stand in front of the mailbox or a car is blocking the sensor in the right spot, it stops communication with the repeater. Not sure if the plastic project box is cutting the signal and if I need to remove it from that, if I perhaps need another repeater, or if I need to reorientate the sensor to optimize the antenna signal. Any suggestions?
I am using the ecolink door/window sensor as well and it over 50 feet from the nearest wave repeater. I am using a normally closed reed switch so that I can mount the battery portion under the mailbox in a protected place. So far its working
I’ve been using an ecolink tilt senser with a reed switch just as you do with the window/door sensor. Same setup and it works great. I have only had one hiccup in a year. The sensor locked up and I had to power cycle it.
I’m think it is even the same reed switch.
I’ve tried contact and tilt sensors, but they were always too finicky.
The best solution that I’ve found is a motion sensor. No moving parts and the only maintenance is swapping the battery once or twice a year. Currently using an old Iris motion sensor that also gives temperature. It’s been running for 4 years now
recently i read that someone put a smartthings v3 motion detector in the back inside of the mailbox. its the motion detector with the magnetic backside to the ball stand. the motion detector attaches to the inside back wall of the mailbox. this way there is nothing blocking mail upfront and no one sees it unless they look deep into the mailbox. so, i tried this an it works. it did take about 2-3 hours for the sensor to find the repeater about 50 feet away in the garage. interesting to watch the tenths of degree changes. didn’t know it gets up to 115 degrees in there on a warm day. waiting to see just how hot it gets on a triple digit day.
I’m in Georgia and have been using the smartthings multipurpose sensor along with the now deprecated but still fully functional and available “Mail Arrived’ smart app from SmartThings.it uses vibration to trigger and overall seems to work very well.
I do occasionally have a false positive is there is a very loud and close thunderstorm that vibrates the house or someone drive by with an extremely loud exhaust.
Battery life seems to run about 18-24 months for me.
That’s exactly how mine is setup - in the back of the mailbox aimed towards the front. I’m guessing that the mail carrier doesn’t even know that it’s there.
The only “issue” I had was when the mail carrier kept leaving the box open. I’d get notifications every time a car drove by lol. Hasn’t happened in quite a while though
usually an anonymous complaint call in with just your street name will get their attention. dont give name or number as carrier could be rogue purposely mis-deliver your mail.
I’m need some suggestions to set up a Bunker Hill motion detector (from Harbor Freight, about $15), which does send a good signal to its receiver in our house from the mailbox about 200 feet away, when the detector unit is outside the metal mailbox. I would like to attach an external antenna to the detector. The original antenna looks like a little spring about an inch long. Can I remove that spring and attach a short wire to outside the mailbox? Or would it be better to try and solder the wire onto the end of the spring and then run that through a hole and outside the box? I don’t have a st setup, trying to just make the wireless motion detector work. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!
Here’s a piston I wrote for this mailbox sensor to notify me once per day. Works best with a virtual switch if you also use Action Tiles.
Is the reed switch still holding up? Any problems with extreme hot or cold weather?