That sounds like an excellent project! Just hard enough and enough things involved to help you push to somewhere, and it has a lot of intermediate deliveries (small things that can work without everything else working).
If you want a reference for how the isvhsopen, here’s the code repository. I think it publishes a REST API.
I still have the gauge but it’s just gathering dust…
We could set it up in the window at the Space if you think it’s worth it or even a good idea to advertise the fact to people walking past…