re: Looking for a better sensor that I can use on my mailbox....

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it’s called “Informed Delivery”

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Does it rely on the carrier to take some action at every box? If so that is highly unreliable.

Also, the point of a lot of sensors is to automate things, or to be smarter about notifications than just popping yet another icon in your top bar. So the USPS sends you a text/email/whatever when you have mail. I'd probably read it as soon as I get it, then promptly forget about it because I'm doing something else. I still have to remember to get the mail later.

With my own sensor, I can automate any process I can think of. Maybe when there's mail in the box it'll put "get the mail" on my evening to-do list. Maybe I have a camera out front that uses computer vision to detect the mail truck, so if it passes my house but there's no mail detected I'll know that I have no mail today (as opposed to maybe I'll get mail later). Maybe my sensor doesn't just have a switch on the door, maybe it can tell mail-in or mail-out so I'll know if someone else grabbed the mail, so my system can take "get the mail" off my to-do list. Maybe I can integrate it with my package tracking/notifying system, and my to-do list will be smarter about it by making me wait until both the mail and my packages have arrived. A basic notification sounds nice, but it's far from the best we can do.

And I know a mailbox sensor sounds like a frivolous or trivial use of technology, but that's because checking the mail is a trivial task. And that's exactly the sort of things we should be automating. I spend 1 minute per day walking to and from the mailbox (5+ hours per year!), and at least once a week it's a pointless trip. A mailbox sensor would save me about an hour of life per year.