GlyphFeb 21

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

Show threadalpha
@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.
Feb 21 at 11:02pmWeb
Show threadGlyphFeb 21
@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
Show threadalphaFeb 21
@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.
Show threadmirthFeb 21
@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.
Show threadalphaFeb 22
@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).