Connected Displays

NextBus Transit Clock

Posted on May 3, 2016

Phillip Burgess wrote a tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System about making a personalized NextBus Transit Clock. This project is very similar to the TrainLight project I wrote about recently, but is implemented in a very different way. Phillip’s tutorial uses 7-segment displays and clear labels for the bus route vs the abstract lights in TrainLight, and doesn’t require a proxy server or the Particle Cloud. The choice to use clear digits for the wait time makes sense when you look at the project photo above.

Wake-Up Light Tutorial (Part 1)

Posted on April 19, 2016

I made a simple device to help me get out of bed when I wake naturally in the morning. At a glance, the device tells me when I’m within 90 minutes - approximately one sleep cycle - of my alarm going off. If I wake up before my alarm and see the light, I know I’m better off getting up instead of waiting for my alarm to go off in mid-sleep cycle and waking up groggy.

TrainLight Project

Posted on March 22, 2016

TrainLight is a display by Sean Savage that communicates public transport information at a glance. The design assumes that the user already knows where they are going, and the public transport options to get there, and communicates just what they need to know (which bus is coming sooner) at a glance. I really like this project because of it’s simplicity and attractive way it displays the information. Not only is TrainLight a cool project, Sean wrote up a great tutorial on how to build your own.

New Tutorial: Umbrella Reminder with Particle Photon Webhooks

Posted on March 4, 2016

I live in NYC and the weather can change suddenly. It may look nice outside my window when I’m getting ready to leave, but a storm could be inbound. I’d like to have something that tells me to “bring your umbrella” right next to the door. This is my first project done with the Particle Photon, and because I couldn’t find a comprehensive tutorial on this type of project, I wrote it up in tutorial form.