Mike Schaus
Published © GPL3+

Old-School Two-Way Pager with Arduino

Send and receive real SMS text messages with your Arduino! A self-contained texting device with its own SIM card and phone number.

IntermediateFull instructions provided3 hours97,360
Old-School Two-Way Pager with Arduino

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Hologram Global IoT SIM Card
Hologram Global IoT SIM Card
×1
Arduino UNO
Arduino UNO
×1
Arduino GSM shield V2
Arduino GSM shield V2
×1
Adafruit LCD Shield Kit w/ 16x2 Character Display - Only 2 pins used! - BLUE AND WHITE
×1
Hammond Project Box 4.7 x 2.6 x 1.4 Translucent Blue
×1

Software apps and online services

Hologram Data Router
Hologram Data Router

Story

Read more

Schematics

Schematic—very simple with shields!

Assembly is actually much simpler than the schematic would imply—most connections are made simply by stacking the two shields on top of the Arduino! Anything beyond that is optional for battery power.

Code

System code for Arduino

Arduino
/**
 * Two-way pager system with Arduino and Hologram cellular service
 * Mike Schaus
 * Dec 28, 2016
 * Made as part of the Hologram Hacker-In-Residence program
 * 
 * This project sends and receives text (SMS) messages via 
 * an arduino with cellular modem built into a small enclosure 
 * with an LCD display and simple control buttons.
 * 
 * Note that code is included to function via the LCD shield OR
 * the serial monitor, so you can use this code even without
 * an LCD shield.
 */

#include <GSM.h>

#define PINNUMBER ""

// include the LCD library code:
#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_RGBLCDShield.h>
#include <utility/Adafruit_MCP23017.h>

// The shield uses the I2C SCL and SDA pins. On classic Arduinos
// this is Analog 4 and 5 so you can't use those for analogRead() anymore
// However, you can connect other I2C sensors to the I2C bus and share
// the I2C bus.
Adafruit_RGBLCDShield lcd = Adafruit_RGBLCDShield();

// These #defines make it easy to set the backlight color
#define OFF 0x0
#define ON 0x1

// make the arrow special character on the LCD
const byte arrow[8] =
{
 B00000, B00000, B01000, B01100, B01110, B01100, B01000, B00000
};

// initialize the GSM library instance
GSM gsmAccess(false); // include a 'true' parameter for debug enabled
GSM_SMS sms;

// char array of the telephone number to send SMS
// change the number 12125551212 to a number
// you have access to
char remoteNumber[20]= "12125551212";

// Array to hold the number a SMS is retreived from
char senderNumber[20];

// char array of the possible outgoing messages to choose from the menu
char* responses[]={"Mike=Awesome!", "Yes", "No", "Howdy!"};
//#define NUMRESPONSES 4 // if someone knows how to calculate this instead, I'm all ears
#define NUMRESPONSES (sizeof(responses)/sizeof(char *)) // thanks to Steve Kemp's comment!

int position=-1; // this way the first button press will always show first option of the menu

int inByte = 0; // incoming serial byte for keyboard interface

boolean backlight = true; // track backlight status for toggling

unsigned long previousMillis = 0; // will store last time messages were checked
#define CHECKINTERVAL 1500 // how often to check for text messages

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:

  // initialize serial communications
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println(F("SMS Message Sender -- starting up..."));

  // set up the LCD's number of columns and rows: 
  lcd.begin(16, 2);

  // Print a message to the LCD
  lcd.print(F("Hello, Hologram!"));
  lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
  lcd.print(F("Starting up..."));
  lcd.setBacklight(ON);

  // set up the arrow character for display
  lcd.createChar(0, arrow);

  // connection state
  boolean notConnected = true;

  // Start GSM shield
  // If your SIM has PIN, pass it as a parameter of begin() in quotes
  while(notConnected)
  {
    if(gsmAccess.begin(PINNUMBER)==GSM_READY) {
      notConnected = false;
      Serial.println(F("GSM is connected because you are so awesome"));
      Serial.println(F("Waiting for messages, or send with \"s\""));
      Serial.println();

      lcd.clear();
      lcd.setCursor(0,0);
      homeScreen();

    }
    else
    {
      Serial.println(F("Not connected"));
      lcd.clear();
      lcd.setCursor(0,0);
      lcd.print(F("Not connected"));
      delay(1000);
    }
  }
}

// this is the menu system function
void showResponses() {
//  Serial.println(position); // only for debugging menu system

  lcd.clear();
  lcd.setCursor(0,0);
  
  // make sure cursor position is legal
  if (position<0) position=0;
  if (position>NUMRESPONSES-1) position = NUMRESPONSES-1;

  // write current selection and next option if there is another option
  lcd.write(0); //arrow character
  lcd.print(position+1);
  lcd.print("-");
  lcd.print(responses[position]);
  if (position < NUMRESPONSES-1) {
    lcd.setCursor(0,1);
    lcd.print(" ");
    lcd.print(position+2);
    lcd.print("-");
    lcd.print(responses[position+1]);
  }
}


void homeScreen() {
  lcd.clear();
  lcd.setCursor(0,0);
  lcd.print("SMS Messenger!");
  lcd.setCursor(0,1);
  lcd.print("Ready; up/dn snd");

  position=-1; //reset response selection
}


void receiveSMS(){
  
  char c;

  // If there are any SMSs available()
  if (sms.available()) {
    Serial.println("Message received from:");

    // Get remote number
    sms.remoteNumber(senderNumber, 20);
    Serial.println(senderNumber);

    lcd.clear();
    lcd.setCursor(0,0);
    backlight = true;
    lcd.setBacklight(ON);

    // An example of message disposal
    // Any messages starting with # should be discarded
    if (sms.peek() == '#') {
      Serial.println("Discarded SMS");
      sms.flush();
    }

    // Read message bytes and print them
    // because sms.read only returns one character at a time
    int i=0;
    while (c = sms.read()) {
      i++;
      Serial.print(c);
      if (i==17) lcd.setCursor(0, 1); // move to next line if needed
      if (i<33) lcd.print(c); // don't try to print more than 32 chars just in case
    }

    Serial.println("\nEND OF MESSAGE");

    // Delete message from modem memory
    sms.flush();
    Serial.println("MESSAGE DELETED");
    Serial.println();

    // wait for right button to acknowlege before letting program continue
    boolean acknowledged = false;
    while(!acknowledged) {
      uint8_t buttons = lcd.readButtons();
      if (buttons & BUTTON_RIGHT) acknowledged = true;
      delay(50); //short delay for troubleshooting -- without this it behaves strangely
    }
    homeScreen();
    delay(400); // prevent multiple presses in a row
  }
}

// function to show message options in the serial monitor
void printResponseOptions(){
  for(int i=0; i<NUMRESPONSES; i++){
    Serial.print(i);
    Serial.print("-");
    Serial.println(responses[i]);
  }
  Serial.println();
}


void sendSMS(const char* txtMsg){

  Serial.print("Message to mobile number: ");
  Serial.println(remoteNumber);

  // print sms text info
  Serial.println("SENDING");
  Serial.println("Message:");
  Serial.println(txtMsg);

  // send the message
  sms.beginSMS(remoteNumber);
  sms.print(txtMsg);
  // next, add a signature to the chosen message
  sms.print(" --Be sure to connect with me on my blog http://mschausprojects.blogspot.com");
  // call endSMS function to finish sending; it will return 1 if successful
  if (sms.endSMS()==1) {
    Serial.println("\nCOMPLETE!\n");
    homeScreen();
  }
  else {
    Serial.println("\nERROR\n");
    lcd.clear();
    lcd.setCursor(0,0);
    lcd.print("error");
  }
  Serial.println();
}



void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

  uint8_t buttons = lcd.readButtons();

  if (buttons) {
    if (buttons & BUTTON_UP) {
      position--;
      showResponses();
      backlight = true;
      lcd.setBacklight(ON);
    }
    if (buttons & BUTTON_DOWN) {
      position++;
      showResponses();
      backlight = true;
      lcd.setBacklight(ON);
    }
    if (buttons & BUTTON_LEFT) {
      homeScreen();
      backlight = true;
      lcd.setBacklight(ON);
    }
    if (buttons & BUTTON_RIGHT) {
      backlight = !backlight; // toggle the backlight state
      if (backlight) lcd.setBacklight(ON);
      else lcd.setBacklight(OFF);
      homeScreen(); // have to write to screen after turning light off, otherwise it goes blank
    }
    if (buttons & BUTTON_SELECT) {
      // make sure cursor selected position is legal
      if (position<0) position=0;
      
      lcd.clear();
      lcd.setCursor(0,0);
      lcd.print("Sending...");
      lcd.setCursor(0,1);
      lcd.print(responses[position]);
      backlight = true;
      lcd.setBacklight(ON);
      sendSMS(responses[position]);
    }
    delay(200); // prevent multiple presses in a row
  }


  // this is for serial interface only, not related to LCD and buttons
  // send a message when I type "s" in serial monitor
  // then wait for my selection of the response number
  if (Serial.available() > 0) {
    inByte = Serial.read(); // get incoming byte
    if (inByte == 's') {
      printResponseOptions();

      while (Serial.available() > 0) {  // clear the keyboard buffer just in case
        char junk = Serial.read();
      }
  
      while (Serial.available() == 0) ;  // Wait here until input buffer has a character
      inByte = Serial.parseInt();
      // would want to check for valid choice here to be more robust
      sendSMS(responses[inByte]);
    }
  }

  // check for new messages only once every few seconds to keep interface more responsive
  unsigned long currentMillis = millis();
  if (currentMillis - previousMillis >= CHECKINTERVAL) {
    previousMillis = currentMillis;
    receiveSMS(); // takes about 26ms when there are no messages
  }
}

Credits

Mike Schaus

Mike Schaus

2 projects • 62 followers
In addition to being a maker, I am a professional product development engineer, problem solver, and project leader.

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