I noticed I was not getting getting my mail most days. After a few weeks I contacted the post office about the issue, who contacted the mail carrier who claimed “my car” was blocking the mailbox. The post office also delivered a packet about rules for postal delivery to my door.
Since my car is in the garage during the day, I put a camera up and found someone was parking there to pickup their kid from the school bus. And that was usually the same time when the mail truck came to drop off mail.
After asking them stop parking there failed, I started taking pictures of the car, driver, and license plate. Couple days after that they started parking elsewhese.
I also placed a fake video camera in a very visible spot pointed at that area since my real camera wasn’t really noticeable from that spot.
Ahh. Also known as a Faraday cage. Luckily I have a plastic one…
You could always mount the sensor in a small plastic waterproof box on the outside bottom of your mailbox and run a wire inside to a reed contact on the door. That way it’s unobtrusive and protected from the elements.
I tried the garage door tilt sensor mounted on the inside lid, and so far I’m having success! It probably helps that when the lid is “opened”, the sensor is no longer inside the cage.
It basically had to be installed “upside down” though, in order for the mechanism to trip when the door was partly opened, otherwise, it would need to be opened almost all the way. (Technically, I did not install it upside down, but I bent the sensor inside in such a manner so that it performs the way I want.)
One other note, the ecolink door sensor installs as a “motion detector” device. Not sure if there is any way to have it install with a native tilt sensor device. Not a big deal since the motion sensor has all the triggers you would really need.
I’ll let you know how it performs over the coming week.
[quote=“JoeyD, post:45, topic:185724”]I tried the garage door tilt sensor mounted on the inside lid, and so far I’m having success! It probably helps that when the lid is “opened”, the sensor is no longer inside the cage.
It basically had to be installed “upside down” though, in order for the mechanism to trip when the door was partly opened, otherwise, it would need to be opened almost all the way. (Technically, I did not install it upside down, but I bent the sensor inside in such a manner so that it performs the way I want.)
One other note, the ecolink door sensor installs as a “motion detector” device. Not sure if there is any way to have it install with a native tilt sensor device. Not a big deal since the motion sensor has all the triggers you would really need.
I’ll let you know how it performs over the coming week.[/quote]
interesting. my door opens sideways, so that might be tough to figure out. hmmmm.
Hey, JoeyD, we’re building a zwave mailbox sensor with a plain sight range of up to 500 feet and a solar panel.
If one or more of your neighbors would have a mailbox sensor, it will be even more sophisticated, think distributed network of connected home mailboxes.
We’re going to kickstarter next month, If you’re interested, I can shoot you a PM with a link.
[quote=“zwavefan, post:49, topic:185724”]Hey, JoeyD, we’re building a zwave mailbox sensor with a plain sight range of up to 500 feet and a solar panel.
If one or more of your neighbors would have a mailbox sensor, it will be even more sophisticated, think distributed network of connected home mailboxes.
We’re going to kickstarter next month, If you’re interested, I can shoot you a PM with a link.[/quote]
[quote=“tomgru, post:50, topic:185724”][quote=“zwavefan, post:49, topic:185724”]Hey, JoeyD, we’re building a zwave mailbox sensor with a plain sight range of up to 500 feet and a solar panel.
If one or more of your neighbors would have a mailbox sensor, it will be even more sophisticated, think distributed network of connected home mailboxes.
We’re going to kickstarter next month, If you’re interested, I can shoot you a PM with a link.[/quote]
[quote=“zwavefan, post:49, topic:185724”]Hey, JoeyD, we’re building a zwave mailbox sensor with a plain sight range of up to 500 feet and a solar panel.
If one or more of your neighbors would have a mailbox sensor, it will be even more sophisticated, think distributed network of connected home mailboxes.
We’re going to kickstarter next month, If you’re interested, I can shoot you a PM with a link.[/quote]
[quote=“korttoma, post:52, topic:185724”][quote=“zwavefan, post:49, topic:185724”]Hey, JoeyD, we’re building a zwave mailbox sensor with a plain sight range of up to 500 feet and a solar panel.
If one or more of your neighbors would have a mailbox sensor, it will be even more sophisticated, think distributed network of connected home mailboxes.
We’re going to kickstarter next month, If you’re interested, I can shoot you a PM with a link.[/quote]
[quote=“zwavefan, post:49, topic:185724”]Hey, JoeyD, we’re building a zwave mailbox sensor with a plain sight range of up to 500 feet and a solar panel.[/quote]I’m curious how you plan to accomplish this range.
Oddly, today the sensor does not even appear on my vera…I’m thinking it’s just not going to work or work reliably.
I had a look at zwavefan’s kickstarter project and PMd him my comments. I think it’s a bit overkill for what we (already having a zwave controller) really need, but I would buy / contribute for one myself depending on the price and pending the answers to a couple of my questions.
Oddly, today the sensor does not even appear on my vera…I’m thinking it’s just not going to work or work reliably.
I had a look at zwavefan’s kickstarter project and PMd him my comments. I think it’s a bit overkill for what we (already having a zwave controller) really need, but I would buy / contribute for one myself depending on the price and pending the answers to a couple of my questions.[/quote]
Luckily I have a plastic one…
