Family Car Notification & Logging With AI

Turn any camera into a smart license plate notifier with logging. The project recognizes your family's cars from a simple text file, sends a Telegram message with a snapshot whenever a vehicle pulls up, and keeps a clean visit log you can filter and export later — all without writing a single line of code. Supported plates include Latin-script regions (North America, Europe, Latin America, and more) as well as Korea. Works on Raspberry Pi, Windows PC, Mac, or any Grablo-supported device, and if you have a laptop with a built-in webcam, you can start testing right away.

Hardware:

1. Windows PC, Mac, Raspberry Pi 4+, or any other Grablo-supported device
2. USB / CSI / ONVIF / RTSP camera (not required for laptops with built-in webcam)

Software:

1. Grablo — No-Code IoT Platform (grablo.co)
2. A Telegram account and a bot token from BotFather

Want to skip the build and try it right away? Copy the project from the Grablo Gallery:

1. Download and install Grablo on your device from grablo.co/download
2. Get this project from the Grablo Gallery
3. Open the copied project and go to Settings — configure your camera (for ONVIF/RTSP cameras, update the address and credentials) and add your Telegram bot token under Telegram Bot
4. In the AI Analyzer settings, pick the region that matches your plates (Latin for most countries, Korea for Korean plates)
5. In the Telegram Message action, enter your Chat ID
6. Create a text file with your own family plate numbers (one per line or comma-separated), and in the Read/Write File action upload it to replace the included file
7. Connect to your device and hit RUN

If you'd like to build it from scratch, follow the steps below.

Create a new project at app.grablo.co, name it "Family Car Plate Notification & Logging," and select your device. Then create a dashboard and add a Camera widget for the live video feed, a Label widget to display the recognized plate, and a Historical Table widget to show the logged plates. Set the table to refresh every 1 second.

This project uses two logics. The first kicks off the AI when the project launches — a Once condition triggers an AI Analysis action that creates a new License Plate Recognition analyzer on your camera. Choose Fast mode for smaller boards or Accurate mode for mini PCs and desktops, and pick the region model that matches your plates. A second AI Analysis action with the Start Analysis command begins the actual recognition. A Read/Write File action then loads a family plate text file into a variable so the rest of the project can look up plates without touching the disk again.

The second logic does the notification and logging. An On Change condition watches the recognized Plate variable with the Invert option enabled, and the control's Hold Time is set to 3 seconds — together this means "the plate has stayed the same for 3 seconds." A Compare condition then makes sure the plate is not empty, and another Compare ensures the plate is different from a Last Plate variable so we don't re-notify for the same vehicle. A Custom Action uses a Find In Text block to check whether the plate appears in the family list, and sets an Owner variable to "Family" or "Unknown." After that, a Data Logging action records the plate, a Camera Capture action saves a snapshot to disk, and a Telegram Message action sends the snapshot with an optional caption. The final action updates Last Plate to the current Plate so the next vehicle triggers exactly one new alert.

Launch Your Project

1. Open the Grablo app and select your project
2. Connect to your device
3. Hit RUN
4. When a car arrives, watch the Label update and the log table grow

Expected Results:

1. The camera feed displays in real time
2. After 3 stable seconds, the recognized plate is tagged Family or Unknown
3. A Telegram message arrives on your phone with the captured snapshot
4. The log table records each visit with a timestamp — filter by date range or export to CSV from the top-right buttons

Ideas to take it further:

1. Trigger an automatic garage door opener when a Family plate is detected
2. Add a TTS welcome message that calls out the driver's name
3. Alert when an Unknown vehicle lingers for more than N minutes
4. Connect multiple cameras (driveway, gate, parking lot) into one log table
5. Push the snapshot to a wall display whenever someone arrives

Troubleshooting:

1. Plate not detected: ensure the plate is well-lit and roughly perpendicular to the camera, and confirm you chose the correct region model.
2. Same plate logged twice: make sure the Last Plate Set Variable action is placed at the very end of the notification control's actions.
3. Telegram message not arriving: verify the bot token, start a chat with the bot from your phone, and double-check the Chat ID.
4. False family matches: Find In Text matches substrings — pad your plate entries with separators or use full plates only to avoid partial matches.