Projects/OpenBot

The transient MDF form of OpenBot

OpenBot is a device that will tweet how long the space is expected to be open for. It is temporarily housed within small MDF box with a large aluminium knob, an LED, a button and a power cable attached.

It is inspired by MakeHackVoid's Space Probe and can be found on Twitter as @LHSOpenBot.

Instructions for use

• Turn the knob to indicate the number of hours you think you will be in the space.
• Press the button to tweet this on @LHSOpenBot.

This doesn't replace the "Open to Members" and "Empty" notes on the website but rather complements it. If you are making a special journey and you don't have keyholder access make sure someone will be around when you arrive: use IRC, the mailing list or the Hackphone.

About the device

It's under development at the moment - please keep that in mind. A new enclosure is being designed as we speak. For the mean time though use it, see what works, what doesn't and let Aidan know your thoughts.

Everything runs on an ESP8266 pushing data over the wifi to [ThingSpeak], which tweets for us. The number selected on the knob and the estimated time of closing is stored on (web people, ask Aidan for an API key if you want it.)

Eventually the knob (which is a motorised potentiometer) will slowly tick down as the time goes by, but I'll get to that later right after I've made the source code less embarrassing and more robust.