Soon, isvhsopen.com will not only tell you when it’s open, it will also tell you when it’s closing!
A while back, @bruce (and probably others) was working on a replacement to the isVHSopen lightswitch called SpaceTime. The project includes a custom AVR board, two large 7-segment LED clock displays, a Raspberry Pi for network connectivity, and a laser cut box to house it all. The AVR code is functional and running on the board, and the Pi is the last major piece of work remaining. @bruce has done some significant work here, and I’m excited to help with the last bit to get this working and up in the space!
I’ve been writing a python script which speaks to the SpaceTime board over serial, periodically checks and synchronizes its clock, and updates the VHS API website whenever someone opens or closes the space. It’s nearing completion, and soon I’ll be testing and debugging it and will put the code up on GitHub within the week.
I currently have no intention to modify the SpaceTime code, because it is working, and I have no immediate interest in configuring the build and upload environment for the AVR. There are some minor issues (mostly usability) I’ve kept track of in case we do ever need to update it, and I can post those later or something.
Regarding the actual isvhsopen.com website, it is currently displaying the /data/door/fullpage, and I’m wondering if anyone has access to change that. Of course, I could just write to the ‘door’ datapoint something like “open until 18:30”, but I think it’s better to continue using ‘door’ as-is, and have a new variable for the closing time (perhaps ‘open_until’ or ‘isvhsopen_until’).
Questions in short-form:
- Continue using ‘door’ for ‘open’/‘closed’ and add one datapoint for closing time, or put it all into ‘door’?
- Naming of datapoint? ‘open_until’, ‘isvhsopen_until’, ‘door_closing’, etc.
- Should closing time be in format “HH:MM:SS” (this is easiest) or something else?
- Update isvhsopen.com with new, custom html page?
- How to do #4?
- Should the RPi have a static IP?
- On bootup, RPi can update API datapoint ‘isvhsopen_ip’ or ‘spacetime_ip’ with its local IP address.
- What about SSH username/password? Should this just be written somewhere on the box?
- @lukec can datapoints on the VHS API be deleted, or should I just make sure to use the right one first?
- Any other questions/concerns/suggestions?
This can all, of course, be changed once it’s up, but perhaps some of you will have useful feedback!