Mastodawn

I need a few—probably 3—of an "office busy light" product like this https://amzn.to/4b1vvUZ for a home office setup. But:

1. They all cost like $50 which seems like *way* too much for an LED on a stick
2. That cost seems to mostly pay for software that directly integrates with Microsoft Teams. I have no need for integration with Microsoft Teams and in fact kind of anti-want that.
3. I want to write my own automations and it's not clear if they have an API

Is there a cheap/DIY version of this?

Amazon.com

@glyph Phillips hue bulbs are zigbee which is super open... But you need a socket

@jay feels like by the time I get a zigbee hub and 3 light fixtures and 3 hue bulbs I'm going to be out more than $50 per

@glyph I found one that's a direct lamp, but you're right that is not super cheap. The stuff is quality though.

@glyph https://a.co/d/04W8vso6 but you'd need something intermediate to talk zigbee. I have home assistant, but I suspect if you just want to API drive you can probably get away with something nuch much simpler.

Amazon.com

@glyph wait, that's Bluetooth I'm not 100% sure it's zigbee

@glyph CLI for Philips Hue lights that implements Bluetooth Low Energy : https://github.com/Snoupix/rustbee ... It might even work better for you if it's ble !

GitHub - Snoupix/rustbee: A CLI and a GUI that uses BLE to control Philips Hue lights

A CLI and a GUI that uses BLE to control Philips Hue lights - Snoupix/rustbee

GitHub

Daniel Leigh Feb 21

@glyph You can get a ESP32 dev board and an addressable LED strip for about $25, but that still leaves building a good housing. You can go a bit cheaper with non-addressable LED strips, but they aren't a ton cheaper, and then you need to worry about diodes to switch the power. WLED is easy to set up on the dev board for controlling the lights.

hackedhead Feb 21

@glyph raspberry pi or some other microcontroller and a strip/ring/stick/grid of neopixels?

@hackedhead I could get a Pico which requires a lot of manual microcontroller hacking or I could get a 5 and pay nearly $50 from jump. neither feels like a great option

hackedhead Feb 21

@glyph i'm running a weather forecast display on a pimoroni eink display and it ...did not require much hacking. just imagemagick and a python library for the screen; edit: on an rpi zero

Alex Wilson Feb 22

@hackedhead @glyph This is what my wife and I did in our shared office with a divider. We each control half the strip with colors for available, in a meeting, or headphones on.

Peter Kraus Feb 21

@glyph if you already have the light and just want to control the switching, shelly mini works really well.

cthos 🐱Feb 21

@glyph lifx bulb in an old lamp? The bulbs run $25ish and expose an API

@glyph Depends on how much faff you're willing to put up with to not pay as much. Probably worth taking a look at the WLED and ESPHome projects for the software side, but I don't know if there are any solutions that don't require some amount of DIY electronics/enclosure work.

@alpha I mean I want good, cheap, and fast, but there's a fairly low ceiling on faff that I'm willing to put up with in this case. "don't bother at all" remains a workable BATNA

@glyph My guess is that the simplest solution would be to buy a non-smart one and wire up an esp board inside of it (unless there's a kit that I just don't know about - entirely probable), and while I imagine it wouldn't be the most complicated project to take on, does still have a minimum level of faff involved.

@glyph @alpha I don't have direct experience but the "Govee" brand of network attached lights is inexpensive and very popular. There seem to be some existing functional Python libraries to talk to them over Bluetooth and UDP.

@mirth @glyph Oooh, thanks for the tip - I've been similarly wanting smart lights but not wanting to DIY it, so this looks pretty ideal for my use case (since I run Home Assistant, where there's already an existing integration).

Laíns ⚡🌈🇵🇸Feb 21

@glyph you can DIY, but 5 bucks from aliexpress... https://a.aliexpress.com/_EHN2nXS

GGbingo Touch Nachtlicht Wiederaufladbare Fernbedienung Nachtlicht RGB Dimmbare Tischlampe Umgebungslicht für Schlafzimmer Wohnzimmer - AliExpress 39

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

aliexpress.

@glyph
1. Do they need to be multi-colour vs just on/off?
2. Do all 3 do the same thing at the same time, vs independent?

vampirdaddy Feb 21

Classic analogue technology:

Headphones on the head = don't disturb

Headphones off = I'm available

🤓

Nik Kantar Feb 22

@glyph I’m kinda working on one based on Adafrut Circuit Playground Bluetooth that would certainly be cheaper, but I haven’t devoted much effort to it just yet. (And I’m not 100% sure it’ll actually work as I intend it to, since I haven’t tried making two of them talk to each other…)

@glyph I haven't executed on it but I always wanted to find a second hand "On Air" sign from a radio booth to hang above my office door and activate via a simple relay. In my head canon I would automate this attached to my calendar whenever I have a call / meeting scheduled, or anytime Zoom is active, etc.
But if you need 3 I might be misinterpreting your goal.

@jrrickerson There are 3 people who share the home office. I think of it as a "busy" light rather than an "on air" light, because my family members are very good at respecting call / meeting times already, what I am looking for is to establish some mutual respect for "I'm just trying to get some work done" times. Mutual because I am also sometimes the interrupter rather than the interruptee, and sometimes it's just kinda hard to know if someone is doing some research or goofing off.

@glyph Makes sense. How about a USB relay like this one (there's even sample Python code). https://a.co/d/0a0b5EPz
Plug it in, write whatever automation you want, and plug literally any light or whatever you want into the output. LED strip lights are pretty cheap these days...

Amazon.com

@jrrickerson I really do want the multi-color thing for a few different states, but this is a good suggestion, thanks

@glyph So, not trying to beat dead horses, but if you're ok with the DIY aspect, I saw several multi-channel USB relays available. Multi-channel Relay + several single color LEDS encased in some housing perhaps? A bit clunky but you could definitely get away with < $50, maybe even for all three of them together.

@jrrickerson @glyph Like this?

Variations on the theme...

@newbery @jrrickerson hah. yes, more or less

Grant Goodale Feb 22

@glyph a classic Lite Brite is $15 and can say anything you like with a bit of manual work, not as automated but retro chic?

https://a.co/d/0a3Bcmqt

@glyph the blink(1) is the first that comes to mind: https://blink1.thingm.com/

blink(1) – the USB RGB LED notification light

Petr Viktorin Feb 22

@glyph ESP32 or ESP8266 development board (has USB & wifi), WS2812 addressable LED strip (micropython firmware includes the driver), half a ping pong ball as light diffuser (it's a pain to cut them but they look great).

David Blanchet Feb 22

@encukou @glyph did that a few month ago (small Halloween setup) and can confirm it works well, if you are ok with a bit electronic wiring.

Petr Viktorin Feb 23

@dblanchet @glyph This is the basic setup, everything else is an upgrade :)

@glyph A friend of mine was working with blink(1) long time ago. It is way smaller. But a cheap arduino (clone) or a ESP32 with some RGB LED stripe inside a pickle jar should do the job.