With the introduction discount code I got from lbe when I signed up to this community, I purchased a Particle Photon. I’ve always been interested in IoT and dabbled a little bit with Adafruit Flora boards. But the ease of accessibility to the internet was what peaked my interest.
The project was a simple gate opening alert. The reason is my pomeranian keeps escaping when the gate doesn’t close properly. And the stupid council fines any “dangerous dog” it finds on the street. Sigh. So I need to have some alert to know that the gate has been left open so I can get it closed again.
Obviously there are many ways to achieve this outcome but the Photon was promising very easy connectivity so I stumped up the cash and went for it.
I’m still in testing phase but I have been very impressed by the Particle Photon. When combined with IFTTT, it delivers on its promise of internet and sms notifications with a few lines of code. The examples and documentation mean there is a little bit of joining the dots but there are plenty of examples from which you can build. Using the web ide and flashing the Photon over the air is pretty nice. Will be great to be able to do upgrades once it is installed in its final spot without having to open a cover.
The programming is now done. Just the hardware installation. Once done, I will post some photos in this thread.
So if you are a beginner, I would recommend a Photon as an easy introduction to IoT.