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Show HN: Raspberry Pi website hit tracking neon sign
- jnadeau 14y agoall these fun pi projects and mine is just sitting on my shelf... fun project though, anyone making it go crazy yet?
- berendhh 14y agoMake a product of it. Half of management would such a thing
- FuzzyDunlop 14y agoWire it up to your bedroom light and you've got an instant DDOS alert system. Or a disco before it gets to that point.
- jdiez17 14y agoThis looks pretty neat! I like it very much. It integrates a bit of electronics with some good old infrastructure design. Gotta say, I love it! Great work, man.
- DanielBMarkham 14y agoWhere did you get your light? I love the idea of a light made into a word. If you had a light with the name of the website on it, you could have multiple websites with lights flickering to show when people were visiting each one. That'd be cool.
- sasvari 14y agoYou could use EL wires [0] for a light made into a word. [0] https://www.sparkfun.com/search/results?term=el+wire&what=products https://www.sparkfun.com/search/results?term=el+wire&wha...
- b3b0p 14y agoI came to ask the exact same question. Edit: I have a couple Android Mini PC devices. I wonder if I could do the same or similar with those somehow.
- babl 14y agohttp://www.googlestore.com/Accessories/Google+Neon+Light.axd http://www.googlestore.com/Accessories/Google+Neon+Light.axd
- DanielBMarkham 14y agoUPDATE: If anybody is interested, it turns out you can special order these things with custom words on them. Looks like a great idea for promotional items. http://www.lightgod.com/product/999-neoncrown/Custom-Mini-Neon-Sign-Crown-Sign-USB.aspx http://www.lightgod.com/product/999-neoncrown/Custom-Mini-Ne...
- dsl 14y agoThat neon light flashes pretty fast. If you don't have a super high traffic website you should try to leave it on for at least a second so you don't damage the cathode or blow out the transformer. According to the Google Store that light is around $28 bucks, meaning you're probably not dealing with the highest quality components (read: fire hazard).
- synx508 14y agoThe schematic may be incorrect, as it seems unlikely that the relay would energise in an emitter follower configuration, where it'd have approximately 2.6 volts across its coil in the "on" state. Perhaps the relay should be between 5v and the collector of the transistor. Some relays are sensitive enough, though, so I'm not sure.
- jgrahamc 14y agoI agree. If you look at the close up photograph of the final board (http://blog.davidsingleton.org/static/proto.png http://blog.davidsingleton.org/static/proto.png) it looks like he's got the following: Relay connected to 5v with the diode across the coil. The base of the transistor goes to pin 18 via a resistor. The transistor is on the other side of the relay between it and ground. That makes more sense to me because the diode is now actually protecting the Raspberry Pi 5V line.
- pravda 14y agoThe schematic is wrong, the relay and diode should be moved to be 'on top' of the transistor. But the circuit on the perfboard looks correct. The diode goes across the relay coil because when the relay coil is turned off, there will be an inductive spike generated. The diode protects the transistor.
- dps 14y agoThanks for pointing this out, folks - I made a mistake in the original circuit diagram. It's now fixed.
- mittermayr 14y agoCheck this out: http://indiegogo.com/aircubus http://indiegogo.com/aircubus Exactly made for that very same reason. To visualize traffic and other notifications.
- StavrosK 14y agoI got this 8-relay board, and it's working beautifully with the Pi: http://dx.com/p/8-channel-5v-relay-module-extension-board-for-arduino-avr-arm-51-140703 http://dx.com/p/8-channel-5v-relay-module-extension-board-fo... Extremely cheap, too.
- chirondoc 14y agoTried this out with a few LEDs on a cobbler. Works fine for a couple of hours and then ceases to flash. No crashing, error reporting. Has this worked for more than a day for you?