Want to create alarm system via bolt

what additional hardware and software i will have to use if i want TEXT message on phone OR mail when any output voltage ( means event) generated on GPIO pin. can some one can tell ?? therefore i want alarm . for example when LED -ON/OFF , i want text message.

You can use Twilio (https://www.twilio.com) for SMS and Mailgun (http://www.mailgun.com) for E-Mail along with the Bolt APIs. We will have a tutorial on the same added in the Bolt IoT workshop on 18th of this Month.

to learn about Bolt APIs check out http://www.instructables.com/id/Getting-Started-With-Python-and-API-With-Bolt-Iot-/

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I have created account on Twilio. I belong to India and India number is not available in Twilio. If I select USA number or any other, then it costs me. Please suggest now to proceed with Twilio for SMS.
Thanks!

Hi @er.simarpreetsingh

I think Twilio started charging for all of their services. I will confirm and let you know.

Hi @er.simarpreetsingh

You will not be charged for the Twilio Phone number. They will only display it to give you an idea of your usage so that you know how much you will be charged if you ever upgrade from the Trial account to paid account.

Here is the Twilio documentation for your reference

You will not be charged for any numbers ‘purchased’ during your free trial: the billing cycle for phone numbers and usage only begins once you upgrade. You may see charges on your Project Usage page: this is just to give you a feel for our pricing and your usage. You will not owe this money once you upgrade.

You can also check it in their documentation here.

Let me know if this was helpful.

Yes. Twilio has started charging for its numbers. Issuing US number will cost $1.00 and for sending SMS to INDIA, it costs $0.01 per SMS. If we use Twilio, then for each alert, it will cost $0.01 and hence we have to pay the amount after $15.5 i.e. credits of free account.

So my need is not to go for Twilio now as its paid now. Please suggest some other FREE SMS sending-featured service to INDIA similar to Twilio in earlier times.

Hi @pranav.kundaikar.inv

I agree to the documentation and it also says the same thing. As shared, Twilio charges $1 for new number and $0.01 for sending each SMS to INDIA. We do not have to charge till $15.5 i.e. free credits but once this limit is crossed, then we have to pay the charges for its usage.
Document that you provided also conveys the same thing.

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@er.simarpreetsingh Its good to know that your issue has been solved. :slight_smile:

Hi @pranav.kundaikar.inv,

My issue is not resolved as Twilio started charging money now.
Please let me know any other SMS service that works with Bolt IoT device and is free.

@er.simarpreetsingh

My apologies for missing out on replying. I checked the Twilio documentation and you are right. Twilio provides you with 15$ credit as a part of the trial account. Once you have used up the credits, you are required to upgrade your account to use their service. Hence in case you want to continue with Twilio, you will have to upgrade to their paid service.

I was also checking for alternatives to Twilio that provide free SMS. However the other servies are similar to Twilio as they provide some credits as a part of the trail account and then you have to upgrade in order to continue using the service. I have listed some of them below for your reference:

  1. Plivo https://www.plivo.com/
  2. Nexmo https://www.nexmo.com/products/sms

These services provide APIs in various programming languages and you can use them with the Bolt Cloud APIs to complete your project.

If you are looking at sending the alerts to only a known set of devices, e.g. your mobile and your family members mobile, then you could use the Android integration provided by Integromat. Its very easy and quick to set this up. https://www.integromat.com/en/integrations/android/apn. You can use this along with the Bolt integration provided by Integromat https://www.integromat.com/en/integrations/bolt-iot

Integromat provides 1000 operations per month as a part of their free plan. https://www.integromat.com/en/pricing

I hope these suggestions are useful. Let me know if I can help out with anything else.

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