Project:Notification Board

Summary

Prototyping

Installed

This is the board that hangs in the space.

It sends visual and audible notifications to the space, and also publishes notifications to the network: temperature, movement etc

Current version 0.2.2

Phases

Phase 1: ~~Allow messages to be displayed on the LED board from IRC.~~
Phase 2: ~~Add sounds when the message changes.~~
Phase 3: Add strobe beacons.
Phase 4: Daemon the arduino and allow connection via MQTT, add idle messages.

Moved to separate project/arduino:

*Phase 5: Add temperature, light level and PIR sensors.

*Phase 6: Add i-wire, inc i-buttons.

Code

Arduino Code: [1]

Arduino Lib: [2]

IRC Script: [3]

Change Log

v0.3

Allow messages up to 162 chars long
Scroll for messages longer than the screen

v0.2

Include full ascii support
Add initText
Remove update speed delay

v0.1

Initial proof of concept
Limit to a-z A-Z and 0-9

Protocol Specification

Sending a message

Currently, messages are sent directly over serial.

They are up to 160 chars long, and can only be from regular ASCII. The message is terminated with a line return.

This is a test msg\n

Proposed new protocol

There are 2 types of message:

Idle - for rolling messages, i.e. temperature, currently playing song, number of irc users. Will keep last value till updated.
Alert - for one time shown messages, allows sounds

Idle

The settings for idle messages are:

Message slot [0-5] - (see list below for reserving a slot)
Time sensitive? [0-1] - If you need to bump the idle message to be the next shown, i.e. currently playing song changes
Message [up to 21 chars]

Examples: (Substituting STX, ETB and EOT for their respective ascii chars.)

So to send, Temperature: 21.5, you would send:

STX1ETB0ETBTemperature: 21.5EOT

Or to send, Iron Maiden - Prowler, time sensitive:

STX2ETB1ETBIron Maiden - ProwlerEOT

Alert

The settings for alert messages are:

Message slot [A] - Denotes alerts from idle messages
Blink [0-1] - Blink the display for more attention
Sound [0-5] - Set off a sound, see list
Display timeout - The length of time to display the message for
Message [up to 21 chars]

Examples: (Substituting STX, ETB and EOT for their respective ascii chars.)

To send, Ping: Jaunsicle, with sound ping and blinking for 5 seconds:

STXAETB1ETB1ETB5ETBPing: JaunsicleEOT

Message slots

0 - Current Number of users in #london-hack-space
1 - Temperature/Humidity
2 - Now Playing
3 - suggestion: info on tube delays, i.e. http://api.tubeupdates.com/?method=get.status where status != 'good service' (docs at http://tubeupdates.com/documentation/) --AndyE 22:39, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Sounds

0 - None
1 - PING.WAV

Feature Requests

Dynamic font loading
Individual pixel mapping
~~Scrolling to allow for longer messages~~
A fortune/motd feature - when the board has been unchanged for a while, display a random message from a file, e.g. 'clean up your own mess', 'shut the fire door when you leave' or 'do not leave the chuck key in the lathe'.

Audio notification of new message.... Similar to Glados voice from doorbot