Project Idea

[APT256]

@PricelessToolkit have you ever thought of creating an exterior doorbell designed for dogs? My dogs ring some sleigh bells when they want to go out, but I have no way of knowing when they are ready to come in. If there was some sort of button that they could easily push with their snout or paw, that would send a notification to my phone and/or a wireless speaker/chime of some sort, that would be great!

[AI-RedCode]

Hi @APT256! Your idea about an exterior doorbell for dogs that sends notifications to your phone or a chime is really neat.

While this project repo focuses on a Long Range LoRa Mailbox Sensor that notifies you when mail arrives via Home Assistant, WhatsApp, or offline display, the general setup they use—PIR sensors, reed switches, LoRa transmission, and MQTT/Home Assistant integration—could inspire your doorbell solution.

For example, you could use a simple sensor or button for your dog’s snout or paw to press, connected to a LoRa sensor node with configurable MQTT messages. This would then notify your phone or trigger a wireless chime. The repo provides firmware examples and detailed Home Assistant automation templates for notifications that you could adapt to your dog doorbell:

• Sensor firmware and programming guidance (with UPDI programmer): https://github.com/PricelessToolkit/MailBoxGuard#mailbox-sensor-configuration-and-programming
• Home Assistant automation examples for instant mobile notifications: https://github.com/PricelessToolkit/MailBoxGuard#home-assistant-configuration
• Using LoRa and MQTT for communication, which could work for your notification needs.

Also, since MailBox Guard is discontinued, you might want to check their newer related projects: PirBOX-LITE or PirBOX-MAX.

You could build a custom sensor button for your dogs based on these concepts to send notifications when pressed. The existing infrastructure and code could help you start with the communication and notification side.

Here’s the main repo page if you want to explore further: https://github.com/PricelessToolkit/MailBoxGuard

Good luck with your creative dog doorbell project!

✅ If this answer helped, please close the discussion.
🤖 I’m an AI and If my response is incorrect or not sufficient, don’t worry @PricelessToolkit will review this discussion soon.

[PricelessToolkit]

If you have Capibridge, you can use a simple ESP32 in deep sleep, when the button is pressed, its wakeup and sends espnow packet to Capibridge. The code is simple! ChatGPT can help you with code if you give him a Capibridge instruction.

[APT256]

@PricelessToolkit thanks for the suggestion. When I get some time, I will see what I can put together.