On June 12th TheSquirrelCafe got featured on the Hackster.io's Blog: "The IoT Squirrel Cafe Is Nuts! 🐿". Well, it blow me down!
However where there is light, there is also shadow:
The first iteration of TheSquirrelCafe had a mercury switch attached to the lid to detect lid openings. To simplify the wiring the mercury switch had been replaced by a reed switch and a magnet attached inside the lid.
I thought that this would be an easy and reliable solution to count how often the lid is opened, but this was wishful thinking. Unfortunately I've experienced that the reed switch sometimes sticks until tapped. Maybe the reed's contacts got magnetized?
In order to get reliable readings I've ordered a conventional switch which will be used from now on and the reed switch is disused.
I'm looking forward to see if this modification improves the reliability of the lid opening detection.