
“Easy” Desk Alert Button (ESP8266 and Staples Easy Button) - nsypteras
https://www.nicksypteras.com/projects/easy-button-desk-alert-hack
======
ljf
Reminds of a story my father tells - he's a stage designer and one day one of
the older actors was complaining that he couldn't see from his position back
stage to know when to come on set. The stage manager set up an early cctv
system for him (this was 1980something) to help him see.

The actor then complained that he had a hard time seeing the black and white
screen so while the stage manager went to see how he could improve his set up
the actor asked my father for a penknife, cut a small hole in the set that he
could put his eye against, and said "that'll do".

~~~
linker3000
I worked for a PC computer systems supplier in the late 80s and early 1990s.
One of our customers designed industrial filters - everything from dialysis
stuff to chemical purification meshes for the pharma industry.

They had a range of special 'rare earth metal' mesh filters that would
periodically come back for cleaning and refurbishment and as part of the final
test, solvents of very specific purity would be used to see how the filters
were performing. The rate of filters coming back for refurb was low (a few a
month) and there was a small testing room set aside for the purpose.

The problem we were asked to tackle was that because some of the solvents were
extremely volatile, corrosive and flammable, no exposed live electrics or
'generic plastics' of any kind were allowed in the room (even though the
testing was done in a fume cupboard) - and a PC + CRT was out of the question,
so was any form of handheld device. So how to record the test results, which
comprised a serial number and a few small fractional numbers?

When we were brought in, we were asked to consider the feasibility of several
proposals - from some kind of 'encapsulated' PC and keyboard, to cutting a
hole in the wall and having either a working touch screen or 'safe' light pen
(in a 'condom'!?) through a glass panel..or 'any other ideas??'

Having carefully considered the volume of work and the small amount of data,
we suggested using a pre-printed pad for the results, a pencil, and putting
the computer outside the room.

------
notatoad
It's a cool project for sure, but i'm not sure how i feel about training
people that it's okay to interrupt you while you have your headphones on.
That's the only way i get peace in my office.

~~~
Splendor
Well having to pay attention to every Slack notification invites its own sort
of distraction.

~~~
notatoad
do people not keep slack on mute while they're working?

~~~
reitanqild
I forget to so I just ignore it ;-)

When I focus I focus really hard. It's almost like tunnel vision.

------
WaxProlix
I had no idea `screen` could do that, and I've been using it for years.
Assumed you'd have to use some sort of telnet to communicate with the board.
Very cool stuff.

~~~
Graziano_M
It's the only remaining argument for `screen` over `tmux`. I personally use
`cu`: `cu -l /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 115200`. (within tmux)

~~~
RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u
One nuisance with cu when used in conjunction with ssh: they both use the same
escape character, so I've accidentally terminated my ssh session when I'd
meant to disconnect from the serial port many times. But that's what tmux's
for. :-)

~~~
Graziano_M
Yeah, I sometimes have nested tmux and cu in ssh. Remembering how many times
to hit `~` or Ctrl-A to get the right 'depth' is an art :)

------
s73ver
Tie it into your company's project planning software. Instead of doing this,
what it does is anytime someone tries to add something, saying "This should be
easy, right?", it adds a month and a half to the gantt chart.

------
tyingq
Are the Amazon Dash buttons still hackable? If so, they are cheap...$5, and
shouldn't require as much physical alteration.

~~~
oomkiller
You can buy the IoT Button and get one tailor-made for custom usage. $20 is
pretty pricey though.
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KW6YCIM](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KW6YCIM)

~~~
dawnerd
And unless it's changed, the battery was soldered directly on so it's
basically not replaceable unless you really know what you're doing.

~~~
tyingq
The new ones have a clip on the battery. But the case is still closed with
ultrasonic plastic welds.

------
stevekemp
Cute project. I started getting into working with Arduinos and then ESP8266
devices late last year.

I built a simple "button-thing", but to make it more flexible it just posts a
message to an MQ-queue. That way anything on my system can listen for the
events, and react.

At the moment it is used to play "alarm.mp3" on my desktop-PC, but in the past
it was configured to turn out all the lights in my flat.

[https://steve.fi/Hardware/d1-alarm-
button/](https://steve.fi/Hardware/d1-alarm-button/)

------
m-p-3
I'm planning to do something similar, but mostly to alert me that someone is
looking for me at my desk at work. The ESP8266 would connect to our Guest WiFi
and sent a request to IFTTT, which would in turn either send me a notification
on my phone, or change my blink(1) light to a different color.

------
Animats
What does the device use WiFi for? It's a hard-wired USB peripheral. Why is it
bringing up WiFi?

Bringing up WiFi on a device with no security and a keyboard-type connection
to a more important machine is a recipe for being taken over.

~~~
revelation
It doesn't look like there is a battery in there (and there was no talk of
deep sleep..) but at the same time this is not a true USB peripheral, there is
a FTDI or similar chip that's talking USB but the ESP is only talking serial
with that chip. So there isn't any scope for the ESP taking over its host by
pretending to be a keyboard or similar.

But at the same time we are talking about using a 66 MHz processor and WLAN
chip to connect all around the world to some Slack data center that then does
a bunch of internal handling that is then at some point through another few
world roundtrips received at his desk computer, a whopping metre away from the
ESP and connected through a serial line. And no shit, all that nonsense is
making the simple button press take seconds and for no good reason at all. To
relay a hint from people standing a few feet away.

In other words, this fits right in with the IoT crowd!

------
gitpusher
Ha! Neat idea. Nicely done

------
MrRadar
Thanks for requiring Javascript to view your static blog page. /s

~~~
harrisonjackson
Looks like it is running a fairly basic react app :shrug: - I'd guess the blog
is a side project and doubles as a way to learn new tech. Supporting noscript
users is probably prioritized right next to localization and accessibility.
Not to say they aren't important, just that implementing that might be a
future learning project... as the author's interests / professional growth
dictates.

------
ams6110
Cute, but seems like overkill. Why not a $1.00 pushbutton and a flashlight
bulb?

~~~
egwynn
The board in question can be found between $2 and $3. Once you’re at the point
of wanting to build "an electronic thing to notify you of something", the
actually cost difference in the BOM between the simple approach and the “IoT”
approach is basically zero.

EDIT: Sorry, not the _exact_ board, but something that’s basically the same.
The usual “value adds” you find on top of the basic wifi board are 1. on-board
usb/ttl chip and 2. 5v-3.3v regulator. Still, you can find something with both
of those for under $4.

------
lostgame
>> 'easy'

>> Requires a soldering iron

Pick one. :P No, this is a cute project, though.

~~~
vortico
Soldering takes 10 minutes to learn and about a $15 investment in a soldering
iron.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
Fire hot. Fire scary. Fire magic too much me learn.

~~~
teddyh
“ _I am make science! I am put fire in cave!_ ”

[http://dresdencodak.com/2009/09/22/caveman-science-
fiction/](http://dresdencodak.com/2009/09/22/caveman-science-fiction/)

