[HN Gopher] Show HN: Midnight Reminders via Morse Code
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Show HN: Midnight Reminders via Morse Code
Author : dmd
Score : 79 points
Date : 2024-11-02 01:11 UTC (21 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| swalberg wrote:
| How are the ergonomics of that key? Between the switch with the
| spring and having to hold that in your hand to use, I'm wondering
| how accurate the keying is? One suggestion might be a flat pad
| with a capacitive switch so you could just tap things out without
| even moving, but maybe the key works for you.
|
| Either way, a fun idea!
|
| 73 de Sean N3RTW
| uxx wrote:
| Their is no way this thing has any real use cases apart from
| emailing gibberish to yourself.
| simplecto wrote:
| pipe that through an LLM and you will have a page full of
| word salad :-)
|
| but seriously, this is a neat idea. and kudos to OP for
| building a full prototype -- this is the level of geekery I
| show up for.
|
| I remember the days of T9 on the old Nokia phones. I was so
| good that I didn't have to look down at the screen.
|
| My favorites were fixed in my phone. I knew how many down
| clicks on the button would land on the right friend/family
| member. I could literally send messages from my pocket.
|
| And yes, I admit -- I did engage in texting while driving.
| And this is the part where I justify it -- "but I had eyes on
| the road the whole time!"
|
| Oh! and there was old skits on late nite where people woudl
| compete with the old morse code guys.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRuRE-Bwk1U
| dmd wrote:
| It's been working reliably for me for a few weeks now, 1 or 2
| messages a night.
|
| To be clear - I am not sending myself long emails! I am
| sending one or two words, like "TEMP PROB" or "MULCH" to jog
| my memory in the morning. And for that, it has worked
| flawlessly.
| beala wrote:
| Platforms like the Pico have significantly reduced the cost
| of one-off niche electronics, and that's great actually.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| That sounds like a very real use-case to me.
| dmd wrote:
| Absolutely awful! I'm very glad I didn't wire it straight into
| the pi but put a connector in the middle so I can replace it.
| It _works_ and is silent to actuate but as you say the
| ergonomics are bad. I have to reach for it and it rattles
| around on the bedside table a bit (I 've thought of maybe
| wrapping it in a piece of felt).
|
| Your idea sounds great - can you give me a suggestion (e.g. a
| M-C/Mouser/Digikey part#)?
|
| - N2SXX
| swalberg wrote:
| I don't know any part numbers but have a look at what the
| Morserino does (https://www.morserino.info/) or this reddit
| post: https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/ag7xpi/p
| rojec...
| jodrellblank wrote:
| It's not Morse, but the CyKey[1] was a chording keyboard
| using the MicroWriter chords[2]; advantage that you can feel
| the keys without looking, and don't have to move your hands.
| The CyKey had no feedback, no click, silent operation rubbery
| buttons, IIRC. The CyKey use Infra Red so it would be
| difficult to use at night, but a similar device - five or six
| keys wired into an rPi could be very good for this sort of
| use case.
|
| [1] The smaller one of these three https://alchetron.com/cdn/
| cykey-1e503a20-c830-4bb5-9dcf-7b44... all with the same chord
| keys for faster typing on a small device.
|
| [2] https://siwriter.co.uk/the-chord-codes this app looks to
| use the same chords and links to an old intro video:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBM_FwkMMKE
| _Microft wrote:
| You do not even need anything special to build a capacitive
| pad with a Raspberry Pi Pico. Basically only an insulated pad
| and maybe a resistor (even though I think it is even possible
| to do without).
|
| Here is an example of someone building a touch midi
| controller [0] with nothing more than a custom PCB and some
| resistors or a touch input device with varied inputs like
| sliders and buttons [1].
|
| [0] https://github.com/todbot/picotouch
|
| [1] https://github.com/todbot/picoslidertoy
| cushychicken wrote:
| I thought Python didn't support cgi scripts any longer.
| notpushkin wrote:
| Why wouldn't it? CGI is just an interface over stdio, and even
| though dropping `cgi` module from stdlib should be possible, I
| imagine it isn't too hard to just continue supporting.
| dmd wrote:
| Huh? I don't even know what "didn't support" would even _mean_.
|
| A CGI script isn't anything special. It's just "a thing that
| gets called with some environment variables, and prints out
| some text (on stdout) for the web server to send to the
| client".
| tqwhite wrote:
| I am so sad I don't know Morse code. This is the best idea ever.
| lutusp wrote:
| Never too late ... https://arachnoid.com/morse_code
| whamlastxmas wrote:
| Back when I didn't work remotely a million years ago and had a
| do-nothing job, learning Morse code was one of the things I did
| to pass the time. It was fun
| dmd wrote:
| https://lcwo.net/ is the way to learn
| lutusp wrote:
| I also suffer from this geriatric malady -- once a technology
| goes dormant, becomes a throwback museum piece, my interest
| increases.
|
| When I was 12 (1957) and really needed to practice code, talk to
| friends on my primitive homebrew ham radio, I instead dreamt of
| having single sideband. They say youth is wasted on the young,
| certainly true for me. :)
|
| Since we're talking about something entirely out of touch with
| modern life, I suggest an app that converts _spoken_ code to
| plain text. Before having proper radio equipment, my friends and
| I would speak Morse code to each other, and somehow make
| ourselves understood. Among our classmates we already had a
| reputation for being out of touch with reality. This practice
| cemented the assumption, more by design than accident.
|
| 73 de Paul KE7ZZ
| fn-mote wrote:
| My reaction: now we live in a world where a web service is
| necessary to send yourself email from a full-featured device
| connected to a local network. Yeesh. Longing for the old days of
| sendmail and self hosting.
| didgeoridoo wrote:
| Not sure it's "necessary" -- you could probably get this
| working with sendmail (assuming it's available on RPi Pico, I
| have no idea) but I think the assumption is that, at this
| point, we're all a lot more familiar with POSTing to URLs.
| TechDebtDevin wrote:
| But email spam has gotten so much better /s
| dmd wrote:
| Not sure what you mean by 'full featured' - this is a
| microcontroller, with no OS.
|
| That said, yes, I could have had it talk SMTP directly - there
| is a SMTP library that works in MicroPython - but I figured I'd
| rather be able to do some stuff "in the middle", and not have
| to update the device itself. For instance, I might decide I
| want to have it consolidate all the messages into a single
| email. I can do that easily by updating my endpoint, without
| having to ever touch the device.
|
| And the endpoint _is_ self-hosted, by the way.
| bambax wrote:
| These kinds of projects are so cool and fun. Now all it needs is
| a 1/10 000 replica of the Titanic around it.
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(page generated 2024-11-02 23:00 UTC)