# Black box to send email upon contact closure? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-box-to-send-email-upon-contact-closure/644677 "2012-12-20T22:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-box-to-send-email-upon-contact-closure/644677/1 "2012-12-20T22:44:39Z")
Is there an electronic gadget that will send an email when its contacts are connected together? Like, perhaps, to tell me my home alarm system has been activated? Is there a special name for such a thing? ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-box-to-send-email-upon-contact-closure/644677/2 "2012-12-20T23:05:53Z")
My Insteon lighting control setup can do that. I can program it so any event, say turning on a light or pressing a button on a console keypad can send me an email or a text message. It’s not cheap though, the master controller is about $300 and individual modules are mostly $45-$100. There’s also a low voltage sensor so anything that can pass electricity can trigger a message. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-box-to-send-email-upon-contact-closure/644677/3 "2012-12-20T23:19:38Z")
You might look into Belkin products. They are moving into home automation, etc. To start your search look for Belkin WeMo. Now if you are a do it yourselfer, you should look into [Arduino notifications](http://hackaday.com/2009/09/05/arduino-email-alert/). I think to building this from scratch would cost you about $50 tops and the code to write it and assemble the pieces is easily googleable. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-box-to-send-email-upon-contact-closure/644677/4 "2012-12-21T14:19:36Z")
The company I work for (American Fibertek) makes devices that do exactly this, although they aren’t cheap. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-box-to-send-email-upon-contact-closure/644677/5 "2012-12-21T16:56:24Z")
Neither of these may help but… I have this setup at home using X10 home automation. I got the module to detect circuit closure for $10 off ebay. It sends a signal to a $75 transceiver, but then you need a computer to send the email. I’m using a $50 Pogoplug that I installed Linux on instead of a full desktop computer. A really roundabout way to cobble it together cheaply would be to use the X10 module (I’ll check it’s name later) to detect contact closure and send an off signal to a $10 X10 lamp module. Plugged into the lamp module is an old android phone running an app like Tasker that can email you when power is lost. ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-box-to-send-email-upon-contact-closure/644677/6 "2012-12-21T17:05:14Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > but then you need a computer to send the email. I’m using a $50 Pogoplug that I installed Linux on instead of a full desktop computer. Sounds like a job for [Raspberry Pi](http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs) ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-box-to-send-email-upon-contact-closure/644677/7 "2012-12-21T17:43:21Z")
The cheap-and-dirty UPS trigger alert I saw about 15 years ago was simple. The connection was hooked to a serial port. the program regularly sent out a signal - 1 byte I think. When the connection was closed, connecting wires on pins 2 and 3, it created a loop-back; the computer received the byte it sent. When it detected an incoming byte, the program performed the necessarya ctions - email an alert, begin system shutdown, etc. There are plenty of miniature single-board PC’s around, I’m sure some even have a serial port. It depends how fancy you want to get and what your electronics and programming skills are. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-box-to-send-email-upon-contact-closure/644677/8 "2012-12-21T19:12:46Z")
If you wanted to DIY it, one option would be a Rabbit Semiconductor RCM6700 or similar module. These have a built-in Ethernet port and all the hardware and software needed to send email messages, and I/O pins that you can connect to your external inputs. You will need to build (or buy) a carrier board and write the software to do the job, but that’s fairly easy to do.