The Arduino makes a great platform for alert systems because it doesn’t need additional parts, other than an LED or motor. [Torchris] made email notifier, and used an Ethernet shield to make it standalone. The Arduino polls your POP server seeing if there are unread emails. POP is an incredibly simple protocol, even simpler than HTTP; this made it easy to communicate with, even with little processing power. He hopes to add a servo or serial display to present the data better, but his current system seems to work well. Video of it in action after the break.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1nG-naOe2s%5D
[via @littlebirdceo]
Maybe It could tell another arduino to wake you up or it could read your email for you and then make some sort of decision as to whether it is worth your while. Jk of course. It is pretty interesting however I don’t really feel the need to know THE SECOND that I get a new email. I’d rather just browse my email at my leisure.
My son sent this to me. I was more interested in receiving an e-mail alert if the house temperature dropped below a preset level. I have birds and reptiles and they are very sensitive to temperature drops, especially in the winter. If this could be set up to a temperature sensor, it could help me protect the animals in my home.
i’d like to see an arduino running as a ms-exchange client so it could push emails. Then maybe control it with true push.
Wew, cool! Hope i can make it :))
Does this guy not own a cell phone? Pretty sure all cell phone’s now a day’s already have this functionality and they have the added benefit of being wireless. Whoa. Talk about reinventing the wheel, seems more like an intro to basic micro controllers than a hack or even worthwhile project besides the learning experience it would provide.
Good job! I like your project, and it is about the learning experience. A simple project like this and the skills learned can lead to other more ambitious ones. I’m a geologist and am using my new Arduino to learn about circuits and programming – so success for me is getting an LED to blink! Hack a Day; keep up the good work and keep a mix of projects. I like to see the stuff I could never build but I also like the simpler stuff I can build.
Nooooooo! Arduino! I hate you! You’ve killed hackaday :(
He should make a binary display to count how many emails he has.
That would be much, much cooler
agree with the above. After reading alot recently about the Arduino this seems like a trival task.
If it got a beer out of the fridge, opened it, and delievered it to his living room on a little serving robot evertime he got an email I’d be impresed.
Well that does it, I’m getting the Arduino kit on sparkfun. So long ARM.
Include POE so you only have one plug-in.
Humbly suggest Hackaday readers seek revenge on the evil Arduino by devising buffer overrun exploits on all ethernet-connected microcontrollers.
“POP is a simple protocol…” … leading to simple implementations which can be more readily fooled.
Quick, before they grow enough cpu to run Snort!
Why in the hell did he make a POP3 email alert if he has a bloody iPhone?
@obnauticus – Did you watch the video?
He said it was a “nice little Ethernet connectivity experiment with an Arduino and Ethernet Shield”.
This is the simplest way to test, and is a great starting point for larger projects.
May I thank you for adding that startling info. I have learned a lot from it. Running a home office is very challenging. Since I use Chandler “Running-To-Do-Lists” in my business too, I have the advantage to be more organized in fulfilling my daily errands and thus my day does not feel so stressful and packed. In order to stay organized with my emails too, I use Email Sorter Wizard, a MS Outlook add-in. Using Email Sorter Wizard is like having a personal email assistant that takes care of a cluttered inbox and gets everything organized. I am so glad that I read this interesting post and I really enjoyed it.
Hey this looks so cool. What is the code you type in so that this will work?
The article and supporting materials have been moved to here: http://opensource-torchris.blogspot.com/2009/09/arduino-pop3-email-checker.html
Took me some digging but apparently my Google-Fu is strong today.
Tumbleweed
wow thanks for digging that up. I had just found this post and despaired at the broken link. Nice find!