I decided that for our son’s kindergarten Valentine’s day box I would implement a sensor and some programmable LEDs and an 8×8 LED Matrix with an Arduino Microcontroller to make his mailbox the most festive ever.
We used the following components:
1 – 1 Meter Strip of Self Adhesive Neopixels
(https://www.adafruit.com/products/1461)
1 – Arduino Uno
(https://www.adafruit.com/products/50)
1 – IR Line Following Module
(https://www.amazon.com)
1 – 8×8 LED Matrix with a Maxim Driver IC
(https://www.amazon.com)
1 – Piezo Buzzer
(https://www.adafruit.com/products/160)
Below is the initial sketch / block diagram of the system:
I also made a quick video and posted it to YouTube to review the project and how it works:
All of the code that I used to implement this is hosted on GitHub here:
Adam Brososky 