diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'content/post/internet-is-magic.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | content/post/internet-is-magic.md | 43 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 43 deletions
diff --git a/content/post/internet-is-magic.md b/content/post/internet-is-magic.md deleted file mode 100644 index 1d21027..0000000 --- a/content/post/internet-is-magic.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,43 +0,0 @@ ---- -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. |