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| author | schneefux <schneefux+commit@schneefux.xyz> | 2016-05-21 21:41:35 +0200 |
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| committer | schneefux <schneefux+commit@schneefux.xyz> | 2016-05-21 21:41:35 +0200 |
| commit | 555e95319513c7c8289ffe9d188ca1899e5cf70d (patch) | |
| tree | 261d25f66986f42ae7f8ac6455011191cd14c423 /content/post/internet-is-magic.md | |
| download | blog-555e95319513c7c8289ffe9d188ca1899e5cf70d.tar.gz blog-555e95319513c7c8289ffe9d188ca1899e5cf70d.zip | |
migrate to hugo
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| -rw-r--r-- | content/post/internet-is-magic.md | 43 |
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diff --git a/content/post/internet-is-magic.md b/content/post/internet-is-magic.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e33c4a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/post/internet-is-magic.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +categories: +- embedded +date: 2015-10-29 +title: Internet is magic - Glowing ponies show your friends' online status +aliases: +- /2015/10/29/internet-is-magic.html +--- + +Friendship is magic! I like the My Little Pony series, and two of my best friends, knowing that, surprised me with self-made versions of Twilight and Fluttershy at my birthday. + + + +_Aren't they adorable?_ + +As you can see in the picture, I grabbed some diffused LEDs and illuminated my ponies. + +That was kind of unexciting after a while. Luckily, I had an [ESP8266](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266) to spare. These modules are small Arduino compatible WiFi modules, so with some programming knowledge you can control GPIOs via WiFi. + +Awesome! Let's connect the ponies to the world wide web. + + + +_Not much to see here_ + +I wrote a quick-and-dirty Arduino sketch, [uploaded it]({% post_url 2015-10-14-esp8266%}) and was able to control the LEDs via netcat. You can find the sketch [here](https://git.schneefux.xyz/?p=internet-is-magic;a=blob;f=luminate.ino;hb=HEAD). + + + +_The cables in the background supply power._ + +And now comes the fun part. Both of my friends chat with me via [Telegram](https://telegram.org). Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram has an open API that allows me to easily receive their online status. + +I installed the [telegram-cli](https://github.com/vysheng/tg) client on my [Raspberry Pi](https://raspberrypi.org), a cheap and small computer, and set up an autostart script. telegram-cli runs in bot mode, a python script updates the LEDs every minute. I uploaded the script [here](https://git.schneefux.xyz/?p=internet-is-magic;a=blob;f=client.py;hb=HEAD). + +So whenever my friends are online, their corresponding pony starts to glow. + + + + +_When they light up at night, you can feel the magic._ + +If you want to build something similar to this, be sure to ask your friends whether it's okay for them that you monitor their presence all day long. |