Interest check / help request: "On Air" sign for videoconferencing

I was batting around the idea of building an “on air” sign that we could put up near our office doors with a couple coworkers, and one of them pulled a Wemo out of a drawer and some Applescript out of his butt and made it so.

What’s the minimum viable version of this project? ESP or PartyCat running from a Lipo with USB charger? 3D printed or laser cut enclosure? :slight_smile:

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You want it web enabled with 5v output to RGB LEDs? Party Cat for sure.

I don’t care so much about RGB for this use case but it would be unarguably better to have the “ON AIR” be rainbow coloured

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Totally - I’m inclined to think that rainbow lighting is essential. Could also go analog and use one giant common cathode/anode RGB LED and a few components on a bread board. That’s pretty barbaric though. :stuck_out_tongue:

Do we have any inventory of PartyCats?

Not sure. They’re @lukecyca’s creation so he may have some for sale.

if you can go 3.3v and 500ma; you could solve all your battery issues with a Bikeshed Board.

probably will run 5v leds okay…if not can always use a level shifter.

Just wanted to bikeshed the bikeshed board.

The old version of the partycats could potentially be easier. But if you’re doing a simple one, you could also just model it after “Major Tom”, the node that’s responsible for the Open sign out front. Major Tom is just a simple ESP8266 with an SSR (on 3.3v). With the old partycats, you’d have the advantage of being able to use the mosfet at 5V.

A really simple version could be made with a regular (lower power) LED bulb, an SSR, an ESP, a sheet of (red) acrylic, and a laser cut box with ON AIR cut out. Or you could skip the SSR and the ESP and just plug it in whenever you need it :stuck_out_tongue:

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