Mailbox Alert

thingiverse

Mountings for components of an alert system that alerts me when my mailbox is opened. My mailbox is about 150 yards away from my house, and can not be seen from my house. I was looking for a way to alert me when my mailbox was opened so that my mail would not sit in the box all day for someone to steal. Most RF systems I looked at had very limited range. I finally found this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y3WLWKF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This allows a remote switch to be attached to the transmitter which is necessary since my mailbox is metal and would block any RF signal if the transmitter was inside the box. I bought these reed switches: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/RI-02GP1520/1835-1006-ND/7497024?utm_medium=email&utm_source=oce&utm_campaign=3480_OCE20RT&utm_content=productdetail_US&utm_cid=412483&so=67157981&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVRWbE5EVTVZVGcxT1dSaSIsInQiOiJHeWc1XC9JMHN1c0JTRzllZW01QWN2d1EzTzZpSnducm0xQUI0ckpDdGhsZDVzREJuWVJnelgwOEoxTlp6YlZVMUltUUZldmVyanFiU1wvZG9MQmNYS0FRRE5lQlpVK1RPR1JpZTE2YnhDZXd0NTVpN0FTQkJXXC9cL3dtRUFrVTJnYnoifQ%3D%3D I designed a housing for it so that I could mount it safely. One must bend one of the leads of the reed switch. (careful, reed switches are fragile. Hold the lead close to the glass with needle nosed pliers, and bend the lead while not touching the glass or the other lead to prevent transferring force to the glass). solder wires to the leads, try to adjust the lengths of the leads so that the exposed solder joint is adjacent to the insulated wire of the other lead whose solder joint is next to the glass. I filled the hole in the mount with bathroom silicone sealant, and shoved the reed switch into the hole. I used super glue to mount the reed switch, and to tack the wires to the side of the mail box. This was a bad choice. A better choice would have been hot melt glue, but I was working at my mailbox, and did not have a power outlet nearby. If I had had any sense, I would have taken my mailbox off, and done this work in my house. I used a magnet that I had stuck to my refrigerator, and moved it around on the mailbox door until, testing with an Ohm meter, the switch opened and closed at the point where someone could start shoving something into the mailbox. I designed a mount for the transmitter that used brass threaded inserts, wired the reed switch to the transmitter and mounted the transmitter to the bottom of the mailbox. This did not work. My mount put the antenna too close to the bottom of the mailbox, and the receiver got nothing. I designed a second mount that held the transmitter 40 degrees to the bottom of the mailbox, putting the antenna of the transmitter about 1.5" away from the bottom of the mailbox. I spent far too much time removing the support material (don't do normal supports like I did, use tree supports so the supports only connect where they need to). This design worked. I then mounted the receiver outside the closet I use as a wiring cabinet. I plan in the future to rig something that will show that the mailbox has been opened so that I will know, in case I missed the sound from the receiver. But that is a future project.