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Show HN: How to make your own glowing notification cube

55 points by achariam 11y ago

fweespeech 11y ago
> After creating the first prototype I realized a number of things. While it was cool there wasn’t enough utility to justify creating another one. The only way I could have figured that out is by making and using this prototype for several months. I did something similar with LEDs [not a cube, just a board with lights] to alert on various things before just having the Pi power an old wall mounted LCD I wasn't using anymore + a dashboard. It is one of those ideas that is awesome in theory but its really hard to justify the time/effort beyond "FUN!"
- achariam 11y ago
  Exactly, I agree wholeheartedly. There is a limited amount of granularity you can get with using colors. Incidentally, I'm also messing around with tiny displays now. - https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5993ylrqmjoegn/screentest.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5993ylrqmjoegn/screentest.jpg?dl=...
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    That looks neat. I honestly just used a standard wall mount display. ;)
  - comrh 11y ago
    Very cool. What I've been really searching for is a large e-ink display. I'd love to do a RaspPi powered "cork board".
    - achariam 11y ago
      Oh nice, not sure how large you're thinking but if it's under 6 inches you could probably get one decently cheap from Alibaba(the Chinese Amazon). I think the larger displays (10 inches+) were only manufactured for special use cases like the Kindle DX hence the limited availability. Cool idea though!
- jlees 11y ago
  I did exactly the same using LEDs and an Ikea lamp housing, with a Pi running Python to poll different APIs. It wasn't too difficult to get something simple running, but yes, hard to justify significant time!
Andrewbass 11y ago
"If you’re constantly willing to learn and adapt you can make anything."
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
stumpf 11y ago
This looks like a great first project to get introduced to some basic electronics, thanks for sharing.
itstoolate 11y ago
This is really interesting. Does anyone have some similar links for people just getting into basic electronics/arduino/etc?
tetrapolygon 11y ago
the design of your website is incredible! a little hard to navigate around however, how did you build the cube animation in the top?
- achariam 11y ago
  Thank you! Sorry for the difficulty navigating, what did you have a problem with? The cube animation are six square divs animated with css. Just take a look at the source if you're curious.
  - tetrapolygon 11y ago
    I just wanted to see more similar pages and couldn't find any! (Admittedly I hadn't considered there wouldn't be any!) I also like the thin font. Thank you for the advice about the cube, I will definitely have a look!
    - achariam 11y ago
      Oh gotcha, yea no other pages yet. I did consider the implications of a thin font on readability but it looks great on retina displays. No problem, hope it helps.
- inverba 11y ago
  I think the white text against blue background is a rough choice. On the right monitor and brightness, it's fine; on the wrong one, it's illegible. Text either needs to be thicker or the color schema needs work.
  - abakker 11y ago
    I agree. I like the blueprint theme, but those ultra-thin fonts need to go away. If there is a potential for your font to render with sections being only fractions of pixels thick, you get a very illegible result.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

55 points by achariam 11y ago

> After creating the first prototype I realized a number of things. While it was cool there wasn’t enough utility to justify creating another one. The only way I could have figured that out is by making and using this prototype for several months. I did something similar with LEDs [not a cube, just a board with lights] to alert on various things before just having the Pi power an old wall mounted LCD I wasn't using anymore + a dashboard. It is one of those ideas that is awesome in theory but its really hard to justify the time/effort beyond "FUN!"

achariam 11y ago
Exactly, I agree wholeheartedly. There is a limited amount of granularity you can get with using colors. Incidentally, I'm also messing around with tiny displays now. - https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5993ylrqmjoegn/screentest.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5993ylrqmjoegn/screentest.jpg?dl=...
- fweespeech 11y ago
  That looks neat. I honestly just used a standard wall mount display. ;)
- comrh 11y ago
  Very cool. What I've been really searching for is a large e-ink display. I'd love to do a RaspPi powered "cork board".
  - achariam 11y ago
    Oh nice, not sure how large you're thinking but if it's under 6 inches you could probably get one decently cheap from Alibaba(the Chinese Amazon). I think the larger displays (10 inches+) were only manufactured for special use cases like the Kindle DX hence the limited availability. Cool idea though!
jlees 11y ago
I did exactly the same using LEDs and an Ikea lamp housing, with a Pi running Python to poll different APIs. It wasn't too difficult to get something simple running, but yes, hard to justify significant time!

Andrewbass 11y ago

"If you’re constantly willing to learn and adapt you can make anything."

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

stumpf 11y ago

This looks like a great first project to get introduced to some basic electronics, thanks for sharing.

itstoolate 11y ago

This is really interesting. Does anyone have some similar links for people just getting into basic electronics/arduino/etc?

tetrapolygon 11y ago

the design of your website is incredible! a little hard to navigate around however, how did you build the cube animation in the top?

achariam 11y ago
Thank you! Sorry for the difficulty navigating, what did you have a problem with? The cube animation are six square divs animated with css. Just take a look at the source if you're curious.
- tetrapolygon 11y ago
  I just wanted to see more similar pages and couldn't find any! (Admittedly I hadn't considered there wouldn't be any!) I also like the thin font. Thank you for the advice about the cube, I will definitely have a look!
  - achariam 11y ago
    Oh gotcha, yea no other pages yet. I did consider the implications of a thin font on readability but it looks great on retina displays. No problem, hope it helps.
inverba 11y ago
I think the white text against blue background is a rough choice. On the right monitor and brightness, it's fine; on the wrong one, it's illegible. Text either needs to be thicker or the color schema needs work.
- abakker 11y ago
  I agree. I like the blueprint theme, but those ultra-thin fonts need to go away. If there is a potential for your font to render with sections being only fractions of pixels thick, you get a very illegible result.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]