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Show HN: Silly Morse code chat app using WebSockets

78 points by noamikotamir 1y ago

My dad just bought a new printer. I joked and asked if it also had fax and a scanner. He said yes, not realizing I was making fun of him, so I asked if it also supported Morse code. That made it clear :) Anyway, I decided to take the joke too far and build a silly Morse code chat app for fun.

rotemtam 1y ago
Genius !!
tannerjames711 1y ago
That’s awesome that you can see everyone’s at once. Cool design.
Xorger23 1y ago
Pretty neat. It would be cool if it had an automatic decoder
itake 1y ago
source: https://github.com/noamtamir/morwse/ https://github.com/noamtamir/morwse/
merelysounds 1y ago
Somewhat related, my iOS app[1] has a morse code reference and lets you train, it could be useful here. Its backstory is also a bit silly, it started as the simplest app idea I could think of; I posted more about it recently[2]. [1]: https://apps.apple.com/app/simple-morse-tool/id873021583 https://apps.apple.com/app/simple-morse-tool/id873021583 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45569321 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45569321
sandwell 1y ago
Very cool. It does get a bit chaotic when there are a number of people keying. If there was the ability to add a narrow filter then it could be usable for a QSO (radio contact)! There are some other apps designed for having QSOs - VBand[1] and Vail Repeater[2]. Finally if you want to learn to use morse code on the air check out Long Island CW Club[3] [1]: https://hamradio.solutions/vband/ https://hamradio.solutions/vband/ [2]: https://vailmorse.com/ https://vailmorse.com/ [3]: https://longislandcwclub.org/ https://longislandcwclub.org/
- CamperBob2 1y ago
  Yeah, it'd be nice if you could click on user names to toggle the ability to receiver or ignore transmissions from those user(s).
mapasj 1y ago
Really nice graphic design. If you build it out more, maybe you can teach users Morse code. Maybe a toggle button for decoding the dots and dashes.
- spcebar 1y ago
  If you're interested in learning morse, there's a great app for Android, "Morse Mania: Learn Morse Code" from which I learned. It's surprisingly easy to pick up the basics but requires a good bit of practice to be able to parse it in real time.
nickcw 1y ago
That is quite fun! Not a lot of people know morse code so there is a lot of QRM (man made interference). It is amazing how good the human brain is picking out signal from the noise. I did spot one other Ham a fellow Brit (G4) but didn't complete a QSO (a contact). 73 (kind regards) de M5NCW
- sandwell 1y ago
  That might have been me! There were one or two M stations there. I heard a couple of stations calling CQ. Very difficult to pick out signals without any filtering. 73 de G4IYT :)
  - keepamovin 1y ago
    Damn I wish i knew morse code. I have no idea what this mean hahaha
- rickydroll 1y ago
  I have forgotten so much Morse code. I definitely need a decoder.
halb 1y ago
Very cool! I built something similar a long time ago: https://morse.halb.it https://morse.halb.it and it blows my mind that it's actually being used by people
keepamovin 1y ago
That is super cool and fun. Well done. :)
call_me_bunny 1y ago
This is good fun - any way of getting the alphabet on the screen for quick reference?
- idiotsecant 1y ago
  Yes, Google images :)
wartywhoa23 1y ago
Not so much a communication tool but more like a realtime music collab one :) Feels like a meeting on a remote island shore where nobody understands each other's language, but it's still hella fun :)
hshdhdhehd 1y ago
Thats layer 0 let's build a TCP stack on it.
ngc6677 1y ago
Fun! Would be nice to have an automatic translator built in, or already the alphabet. Btw, for emacs users, there is a `morse-region` and `unmorse-region` https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MorseCode https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MorseCode to play with
NSUserDefaults 1y ago
Better add a profanity filter quick. /s
- nickcw 1y ago
  Ha ha! I did notice one use of the F-word. Then again if you understand Morse code you are probably happy to hear anything you understand in the chaos!
filt 1y ago
It seems like it refreshes from blank every time anyone joins or leaves the room. Which happens about once every half second. It leaves me too less time to write anything meaningful.
yuvadam 1y ago
This is neat despite having the annoying reset bug, would be cool to practice my CW skills on this.
austin-cheney 1y ago
I am really surprised people aren't using WebSockets for absolutely everything at this point. The only strength to HTTP is that its session-less, which is convenient for one off data requests that prefer anonymity without authentication.
p0w3n3d 1y ago
I think it's not accurate. It missed a beat
royskee 1y ago
I called CQ for a bit but nobody on at the time seemed to know Morse. Neat idea though, and with the different tones for different users it would be possible to overcome the background noise of people playing around.
epiccoleman 1y ago
I had a blast with this. I got Claude to write a function for encoding a string to Morse and sending it, and then a patch that displays a 10-character rolling display next to the name of other users. From what I can tell with zero Morse code experience, most users are just sending random characters by accident. I was pretty pleased to see it work when I ran two windows side-by-side, called `sendMorse('never gonna give you up')` in one window, and then watched it roll through the display on the other window. Code here, if you'd like to try the same thing: https://gist.github.com/epiccoleman/58560a6469a163050f7aa888e8ad4399 https://gist.github.com/epiccoleman/58560a6469a163050f7aa888...
RandomDailyUrls 1y ago
This is nice. Another fun one is this one: https://www.telegraphsimulator.com https://www.telegraphsimulator.com
CamperBob2 1y ago
One suggestion might be to highlight the last letter received in the chart. If the user clicks on one of the other user names, then only transmissions from that user should be decoded.
noamikotamir 1y ago
Thanks for all the feedback! I added a few of your feature requests :) will try to fix bugs and add some more over the weekend
drpython 1y ago
looks great! i need something like this for my retro video game project

78 points by noamikotamir 1y ago

rotemtam 1y ago

Genius !!

tannerjames711 1y ago

That’s awesome that you can see everyone’s at once. Cool design.

Xorger23 1y ago

Pretty neat. It would be cool if it had an automatic decoder

itake 1y ago

source: https://github.com/noamtamir/morwse/ https://github.com/noamtamir/morwse/

merelysounds 1y ago

Somewhat related, my iOS app[1] has a morse code reference and lets you train, it could be useful here. Its backstory is also a bit silly, it started as the simplest app idea I could think of; I posted more about it recently[2]. [1]: https://apps.apple.com/app/simple-morse-tool/id873021583 https://apps.apple.com/app/simple-morse-tool/id873021583 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45569321 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45569321

sandwell 1y ago

Very cool. It does get a bit chaotic when there are a number of people keying. If there was the ability to add a narrow filter then it could be usable for a QSO (radio contact)! There are some other apps designed for having QSOs - VBand[1] and Vail Repeater[2]. Finally if you want to learn to use morse code on the air check out Long Island CW Club[3] [1]: https://hamradio.solutions/vband/ https://hamradio.solutions/vband/ [2]: https://vailmorse.com/ https://vailmorse.com/ [3]: https://longislandcwclub.org/ https://longislandcwclub.org/

CamperBob2 1y ago
Yeah, it'd be nice if you could click on user names to toggle the ability to receiver or ignore transmissions from those user(s).

mapasj 1y ago

Really nice graphic design. If you build it out more, maybe you can teach users Morse code. Maybe a toggle button for decoding the dots and dashes.

spcebar 1y ago
If you're interested in learning morse, there's a great app for Android, "Morse Mania: Learn Morse Code" from which I learned. It's surprisingly easy to pick up the basics but requires a good bit of practice to be able to parse it in real time.

nickcw 1y ago

That is quite fun! Not a lot of people know morse code so there is a lot of QRM (man made interference). It is amazing how good the human brain is picking out signal from the noise. I did spot one other Ham a fellow Brit (G4) but didn't complete a QSO (a contact). 73 (kind regards) de M5NCW

sandwell 1y ago
That might have been me! There were one or two M stations there. I heard a couple of stations calling CQ. Very difficult to pick out signals without any filtering. 73 de G4IYT :)
- keepamovin 1y ago
  Damn I wish i knew morse code. I have no idea what this mean hahaha
rickydroll 1y ago
I have forgotten so much Morse code. I definitely need a decoder.

halb 1y ago

Very cool! I built something similar a long time ago: https://morse.halb.it https://morse.halb.it and it blows my mind that it's actually being used by people

keepamovin 1y ago

That is super cool and fun. Well done. :)

call_me_bunny 1y ago

This is good fun - any way of getting the alphabet on the screen for quick reference?

idiotsecant 1y ago
Yes, Google images :)

wartywhoa23 1y ago

Not so much a communication tool but more like a realtime music collab one :) Feels like a meeting on a remote island shore where nobody understands each other's language, but it's still hella fun :)

hshdhdhehd 1y ago

Thats layer 0 let's build a TCP stack on it.

ngc6677 1y ago

Fun! Would be nice to have an automatic translator built in, or already the alphabet. Btw, for emacs users, there is a `morse-region` and `unmorse-region` https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MorseCode https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MorseCode to play with

NSUserDefaults 1y ago

Better add a profanity filter quick. /s

nickcw 1y ago
Ha ha! I did notice one use of the F-word. Then again if you understand Morse code you are probably happy to hear anything you understand in the chaos!

filt 1y ago

It seems like it refreshes from blank every time anyone joins or leaves the room. Which happens about once every half second. It leaves me too less time to write anything meaningful.

yuvadam 1y ago

This is neat despite having the annoying reset bug, would be cool to practice my CW skills on this.

austin-cheney 1y ago

I am really surprised people aren't using WebSockets for absolutely everything at this point. The only strength to HTTP is that its session-less, which is convenient for one off data requests that prefer anonymity without authentication.

p0w3n3d 1y ago

I think it's not accurate. It missed a beat

royskee 1y ago

I called CQ for a bit but nobody on at the time seemed to know Morse. Neat idea though, and with the different tones for different users it would be possible to overcome the background noise of people playing around.

epiccoleman 1y ago

I had a blast with this. I got Claude to write a function for encoding a string to Morse and sending it, and then a patch that displays a 10-character rolling display next to the name of other users. From what I can tell with zero Morse code experience, most users are just sending random characters by accident. I was pretty pleased to see it work when I ran two windows side-by-side, called `sendMorse('never gonna give you up')` in one window, and then watched it roll through the display on the other window. Code here, if you'd like to try the same thing: https://gist.github.com/epiccoleman/58560a6469a163050f7aa888e8ad4399 https://gist.github.com/epiccoleman/58560a6469a163050f7aa888...

RandomDailyUrls 1y ago

This is nice. Another fun one is this one: https://www.telegraphsimulator.com https://www.telegraphsimulator.com

CamperBob2 1y ago

One suggestion might be to highlight the last letter received in the chart. If the user clicks on one of the other user names, then only transmissions from that user should be decoded.

noamikotamir 1y ago

Thanks for all the feedback! I added a few of your feature requests :) will try to fix bugs and add some more over the weekend

drpython 1y ago

looks great! i need something like this for my retro video game project