Raspberry Pi Push Notifications Triggered by Motion Detector

This Raspberry Pi project uses a PIR motion sensor, the kind one finds in a burglar alarm, to trigger a mobile push notifications to iOS or Android apps. As you can already see the utility of such a project is plenty. Mike, the maker of this DIY, uses a PIR motion detector and a mobile push service called Pushover. This app is available for free download. Mike found Pushover suitable because of insta-push as it made the testing more reliable. He also appreciated the feature of an email to push interface as it comes handy for integrating network devices which have email sending facility. Another advantage of the Pushover app is that it has a simple to use REST API. The REST API makes it simple for developers to use httplib and urllib Python libraries to interface with it.

Mike used GPIO 19 for the PIR sensor and GPIO 13 for the status LED (see the image above). If one chooses to go for different GPIO ports, he notes that it is imperative to update the pir.py application so as to correspond to the new GPIO ports. Also, the maker must be sure of the numbering of the Raspberry Pi or the breadboard so that it corresponds with GPIO ports that is being used.

Mike powered1 the PIR sensor with a 12V DC power supply and the Raspberry Pi was powered separately using a 5V power supply. They did not have a common power source, as most makers would instinctively assume and go for.