This project is a great little proof of concept. However, if the electronics still seem a little inaccessible or you don't want the hassle; the NodeMCU[1] dev board compresses all those components (ESP8266, USB, buttons & GPIO) onto a easy to use board for ~$12 USD. I'd highly recommend it.<p>However, you'll need a breadboard and a button to complete the project.<p>[1]: <a href="http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html" rel="nofollow">http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html</a>
You can get into IoT using a cheap tablet off of eBay: <a href="http://ilikekillnerds.com/2015/10/cheap-ebay-android-tablets-and-the-internet-of-things-iot/" rel="nofollow">http://ilikekillnerds.com/2015/10/cheap-ebay-android-tablets...</a><p>All you need is a device with wifi, preferably running Android as it is more customisable and easier to hack into. For around $50 you can get a decent tablet (no-name brand) with everything you'll ever need (including GPS and sim support).<p>I created a parking inspector sensor at my old workplace because it was all street parking, but only for the residents and nowhere to really park. So we would all park on the street and occasionally the parking inspector would pay a visit.<p>What they would do is chalk your tires and then they would come back a little later and see if you had moved or not. What I did was use a cheap IoT connected device with a sim card, it would send a cheap SMS to my real phone when it detected movement (from being chalked). Occasionally it would trigger false positives, but it worked. I was popular at the office, because they knew if I got chalked, they did as well.<p>Then you would go move your car or wipe off the chalk off of the tyre.
I know many here are pretty into electronics - could you recommend any new interesting boards, chips and devices to check out?<p>I'm in Shenzhen right now, I've visited the electronics markets and was totally overwhelmed. I would love to check out what weird cool things they're pumping out now besides various iterations of ESP8266.
I laid out the schematic to see how the wiring works: <a href="https://upverter.com/mwismer/4427f6f29aa4300d/ESP-Garage-Door-Sensor/" rel="nofollow">https://upverter.com/mwismer/4427f6f29aa4300d/ESP-Garage-Doo...</a><p>Then I realized that there were already links to similar schematics in the article: <a href="http://www.esp8266.com/wiki/doku.php?id=getting-started-with-the-esp8266#basic_wiring" rel="nofollow">http://www.esp8266.com/wiki/doku.php?id=getting-started-with...</a> <a href="https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/blob/esp8266/hardware/esp8266com/esp8266/doc/boards.md#minimal-hardware-setup-for-bootloading-and-usage" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/blob/esp8266/hardware/esp...</a>
Thanks for this, every time I try to get a project started with hardware I'm usually looking at $80, which is a big reason why I just stick to software. Since alot of things you can imagine in software can be built cheaply, initially.
By the way, over the weekend I started prototyping and implementing a proof of concept library for secure communication between IoT devices:<p><a href="http://stringphone.readthedocs.org/" rel="nofollow">http://stringphone.readthedocs.org/</a><p>It allows devices to securely encrypt the messages they send to each other, and also to verify that the device sending the messages is who it says it is. That way, your garage door knows unambiguously that it was your phone that told it to open.<p>If someone would like to contribute some feedback, I would be grateful.
A slightly more expensive (~$50) version I made that can also open and close the door:<p><a href="http://rcoh.svbtle.com/how-i-automated-my-garage-door" rel="nofollow">http://rcoh.svbtle.com/how-i-automated-my-garage-door</a><p>Since it uses an electric imp, the electronics are significantly simpler (just a transistor / resistor to trigger the switch), since the imp has integrated wifi, GPIO, power.
Thats pretty cool, I've been thinking about making something like that myself. Just haven't decided if it was worth building it or if I should be lazy and buy a Chamberlain's MyQ.<p><a href="http://www.chamberlain.com/smartphone-control-products/smartphone-connectivity" rel="nofollow">http://www.chamberlain.com/smartphone-control-products/smart...</a>
Why do you need Twilio? Most carriers will happily accept email; for example, $NUMBER@vtext.com will happily deliver the email to a Verizon number as SMS.
> "SMS me when I leave my garage door open"<p>Bad example? How about automatically closing the garage door after I left the garage with the car (e.g. Bluetooth of smartphone). We get too many alerts these days. SMS alert make sense (IMHO) for fire/burglary alarms.<p>I appreciate such projects and built IoT systems for my needs too.