Project Discription
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I build control panels for various props for a local haunted house, Milburn's Haunted Manor. Because of issues with either misbehaving guests or some other problem I was asked to develop a system, with multiple inputs, which would alert the staff if there is a problem (in a specific room) in the haunted house. The inital thought was a bunch of on/off switches, that would light up a led on a status panel. The bundle of wires that would require seemed a bit troublesome.
After some thought I remembered how Particle.io's Wi-Fi based controllers could be set up to send out a predetermined text message at the press of a button, (or some other event). It had been about three years since I have played with it, but I dusted off a Particle Argon and loaded up some code I had previously written to see if it still worked. For a short answer, it did not.
For the text messaging side I use Twillio, an awesome company that I recommend, also, it plays well with Particle.io products.. There is small charge for their texting service. To give you an example, while testing these five control boxes I sent 204 text messages, it cost a little over a dollar, so not breaking the bank. However, To get back to the reason it did not work, apparently, since I used the service last, the supplied phone numbers must be registered to an approved Campaign under your Brand. This happened in 2023. Numbers not tregistered, will be blocked from texting. To registered is easy, it does take a couple of days for all the forms to be reviewed and your ability to send out text messages turned on. Please plan ahead.