Gmail Notifier

DISCLAIMER: I cannot made responsible for any damage caused to your Arduino, yourself or any other of your possessions. I have tested this program myself, however, I cannot guarantee that it will work with you and I also cannot guarantee that it will not break. Use at your own risk!

What is this?

Gmail Notifier is a simple little program that you can use with your Arduino, an LCD and an active buzzer that will notify you of a new email and will display the email's subject on the LCD connected to the Arduino.

Prerequisites and Installation

Software

NOTE: The only supported operating systems are those based on Linux and trying to run it on a different operating system will almost definitely not work.

Ruby

Firstly, you need to install Ruby. Ruby is an easy to use programming language that might already be installed on your computer. To check whether it is installed, type ruby -v into your Terminal upon which you should get information about the version of your current Ruby installation.
If, however, you get an error, please install Ruby — preferably the version that I am using myself, 2.5.1. For further information on how to install Ruby on your operating system, please refer to the official website: https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/installation/

Ruby gems

Secondly, running this program requires you to install a few so-called gems. These are basically the extensions of Ruby and add a lot of functionality. In this case, the gems that you need to install are the following:

• serialport (for sending data to the serial port in order for the Arduino to read it)
• gmail (for receiving email from your Gmail account)
• colorize (for displaying coloured text in the terminal — used only for error messages)
• socket (for testing your internet connection)

Installing gems is fairly easy and straightforward. Simply type (sudo) gem install gem_name_here into your terminal and the gem should start installing. Please note that some Ruby installations require you to be root to install gems. If that is the case, please add the sudo before the command.

Uploading and IDE

Thirdly, you need an IDE that is capable of uploading code to your Arduino. The most commonly used one being the official Arduino IDE that can be downloaded from their website

Arduino Library

Fourthly and lastly, you also need to download the LiquidCrystal library from here. The main purpose of this library is to be able to easily control LCDs. For further information on how to install libraries for your Arduino, please visit refer to the official guide.

Hardware

As mentioned previously, you also require some hardware to be able to run this program properly.

Arduino

The most important hardware component you will be needing is obviously an Arduino. I am using an Elegoo Uno, however, most other Arduinos should work fine as well

LCD

Another important component is obviously the LCD. In order for this program to function properly, please use an LCD with 16 columns and 2 rows. These generally have 14 or 16 pins — The latter is back-lit, the former is not. I am using the LCD 1602 Module. Please connect the pins as follows:

LCD	Arduino
VSS	GND
VDD	5V
V0	Potentiometer
RS	Pin 7
RW	GND
E	Pin 8
D4 - D7	Pin 9 - 12

If you have a back-lit screen, you might also have to connect two more pins to GND and 5V. Your LCDs pins might be named differently. In that case, please refer to your LCDs data sheet.

Active buzzer

Another component is the active buzzer. It will make a sound whenever you receive an emails to notify you. The one I am using is the TMB12A05. Connected the negative side of the buzzer to GND and the postive side (which is usually marked by having a longer lead) to your Arduino's Pin 2.