Advice on my first self-directed project - Door sensor

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi all, I have just completed the 15 projects in the Arduino starter kit recently, and I'm super excited to do something on my own now!

Home automation/IoT is something that I'm interested in, so I will start with a simple, related project - adding a sensor to my bedroom door. What I hope to achieve with the project is:

  • Keep track of the number of times the door is opened and closed daily.
  • Log the date and time of each opening/closing.
  • Display these information on a computer program.
  • Send a notification to my mobile phone when the door is opened or closed.

My background is in mechanical design and CNC machining, so electrical and electronics aren't really my strong suit. I'm hoping that fellow forumers can provide some pointers with the following:

  1. What type of sensor will be suitable?
  2. Which Arduino board should I get for my purpose?
  3. Any other tips/hacks which you think might be useful.

I'll be doing some independent reading after this post to find out more, but am looking forward to anything you would like to share. Thanks!

2

Microswitch or reed switch, not an Arduino at all if you want to be publishing data in real-time because you need a wifi connection (look for an ESP8266 board such as D1 Mini), it would be a simple project with an MQTT pub/sub setup. Device throws the info online, phone can subscribe to that data stream and see those dates/times.

3

Exactly the kind of response I am looking for, thank you very much!

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