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Show HN: Hacker News LCD Badge

134 points by jareklupinski 4y ago

jareklupinski 4y ago
The comments section of HN is it's most valuable feature to me, and I wanted a way to jump into discussions when I noticed something I could contribute to. I move between desktops and mobile, and wanted something completely standalone that I could use to easily navigate whatever I am using to the article, then I can hit back and read the comments, or start tapping away my own. I noticed a lot of comments here wishing for a way to get started with electronics; while completing this project won't teach you about Ohm's law or circuitry, this is a very low-cost way to use software skills to jump straight into microcontroller programming. Give the guide a read and try it out!
- domh 4y ago
  This is really cool! Thanks for sharing. I've read a bit about these types of chips before, but ive never seen the one with the screen. Tempted to give this a try as a first foray into it.
  - stavros 4y ago
    I made a similar thing with an ESP32, but with an e-ink screen the other day, if you want something that runs on battery: https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/
nigamanth 4y ago
The gadget looks cool. Just wondering though, can you turn off the notification for karma changes? Imagine if someone's post gets to the #1 spot, then their karma would be changing rapidly. Can it notify you when you reach a new milestone in karma? (1000 karma, 500 karma)
- metadat 4y ago
  Yes, please this. Over time I've come to sort of despise the karma system. Some low karma accounts are amazing, some high karma accounts are tools (imho), and I wish there was a way to remain logged in yet ignore karma, except for maybe one update per day max. It is often an unhelpful distraction to me, personally.
  - pabs3 4y ago
    You can use the uBlock Origin "Block element" feature to hide the karma and post scores.
    - metadat 4y ago
      Makes sense. However, on mobile this is a trickier challenge. Brave on mobile is tough to beat. "It just works."
  - swyx 4y ago
    relatedly i wonder if there's existing tooling for getting notifications/daily recaps of comments made by high karma accounts (or accounts you choose to follow) - always felt like this was a missing feature in HN
    - nigamanth 4y ago
      For real, I wish I could follow people and then their new posts would come up on my feed.
    - kagevf 4y ago
      You can follow any user on HN with rss. https://hnrss.github.io/ https://hnrss.github.io/
    - lawxls 4y ago
      Although not exactly that, here's a telegram bot I made with a bunch of features related to notifications from HN: https://github.com/lawxls/HackerNews-Alerts-Bot https://github.com/lawxls/HackerNews-Alerts-Bot Maybe I'll add such notifications in the future
pfoof 4y ago
Despite you can tether WiFi from a phone, it drains a lot of battery: what about phone<->badge Bluetooth pairing to switch for example to another WiFi? That would be very cool to walk around on a neck during a conference
- jareklupinski 4y ago
  Yup, this is a bit of a battery hog... another person posted a similar project using epaper, this should be able to get you days of battery life https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/
dt3ft 4y ago
Neat, thanks for the write-up! Have a buzz/notification ;)
catsarebetter 4y ago
I had no clue you could embed video into a GitHub readme, that's really cool
voytec 4y ago
I like this user's approach: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=LinuxBender https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=LinuxBender >> I intentionally filter my karma. It is not visible to me.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  I ignore karma, points, etc on all forums and websites; it's a needless dick shaking exercise. I'd rather people know me for my comments than what position I'm at on a ranking board. I run a forum (like message board style) after an older one kicked it, one of the things I did was turn off displaying post count, because that ended up being a thing that people used to gamify the experience and measure each other up.
- KMnO4 4y ago
  I wish this feature existed on HN. Most of my browsing is done on mobile and I can’t seem to find a way to get rid of that number.
  - jaredhallen 4y ago
    I use the harmonic app on android, and I don't think the karma is visible unless you pull up your profile.
- soheil 4y ago
  This as a life philosophy would work great too.
RedShift1 4y ago
Thank you for the detailed instructions. Much appreciated.

134 points by jareklupinski 4y ago

The comments section of HN is it's most valuable feature to me, and I wanted a way to jump into discussions when I noticed something I could contribute to. I move between desktops and mobile, and wanted something completely standalone that I could use to easily navigate whatever I am using to the article, then I can hit back and read the comments, or start tapping away my own. I noticed a lot of comments here wishing for a way to get started with electronics; while completing this project won't teach you about Ohm's law or circuitry, this is a very low-cost way to use software skills to jump straight into microcontroller programming. Give the guide a read and try it out!

domh 4y ago
This is really cool! Thanks for sharing. I've read a bit about these types of chips before, but ive never seen the one with the screen. Tempted to give this a try as a first foray into it.
- stavros 4y ago
  I made a similar thing with an ESP32, but with an e-ink screen the other day, if you want something that runs on battery: https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/

nigamanth 4y ago

The gadget looks cool. Just wondering though, can you turn off the notification for karma changes? Imagine if someone's post gets to the #1 spot, then their karma would be changing rapidly. Can it notify you when you reach a new milestone in karma? (1000 karma, 500 karma)

metadat 4y ago
Yes, please this. Over time I've come to sort of despise the karma system. Some low karma accounts are amazing, some high karma accounts are tools (imho), and I wish there was a way to remain logged in yet ignore karma, except for maybe one update per day max. It is often an unhelpful distraction to me, personally.
- pabs3 4y ago
  You can use the uBlock Origin "Block element" feature to hide the karma and post scores.
  - metadat 4y ago
    Makes sense. However, on mobile this is a trickier challenge. Brave on mobile is tough to beat. "It just works."
- swyx 4y ago
  relatedly i wonder if there's existing tooling for getting notifications/daily recaps of comments made by high karma accounts (or accounts you choose to follow) - always felt like this was a missing feature in HN
  - nigamanth 4y ago
    For real, I wish I could follow people and then their new posts would come up on my feed.
  - kagevf 4y ago
    You can follow any user on HN with rss. https://hnrss.github.io/ https://hnrss.github.io/
  - lawxls 4y ago
    Although not exactly that, here's a telegram bot I made with a bunch of features related to notifications from HN: https://github.com/lawxls/HackerNews-Alerts-Bot https://github.com/lawxls/HackerNews-Alerts-Bot Maybe I'll add such notifications in the future

pfoof 4y ago

Despite you can tether WiFi from a phone, it drains a lot of battery: what about phone<->badge Bluetooth pairing to switch for example to another WiFi? That would be very cool to walk around on a neck during a conference

jareklupinski 4y ago
Yup, this is a bit of a battery hog... another person posted a similar project using epaper, this should be able to get you days of battery life https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/

dt3ft 4y ago

Neat, thanks for the write-up! Have a buzz/notification ;)

catsarebetter 4y ago

I had no clue you could embed video into a GitHub readme, that's really cool

voytec 4y ago

I like this user's approach: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=LinuxBender https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=LinuxBender >> I intentionally filter my karma. It is not visible to me.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago
I ignore karma, points, etc on all forums and websites; it's a needless dick shaking exercise. I'd rather people know me for my comments than what position I'm at on a ranking board. I run a forum (like message board style) after an older one kicked it, one of the things I did was turn off displaying post count, because that ended up being a thing that people used to gamify the experience and measure each other up.
KMnO4 4y ago
I wish this feature existed on HN. Most of my browsing is done on mobile and I can’t seem to find a way to get rid of that number.
- jaredhallen 4y ago
  I use the harmonic app on android, and I don't think the karma is visible unless you pull up your profile.
soheil 4y ago
This as a life philosophy would work great too.

RedShift1 4y ago

Thank you for the detailed instructions. Much appreciated.