Electronic "Working Remotely" Sign reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mshorey81 · 2023-11-14 21:47 This may be the completely wrong place to be asking. But, has anyone ever seen any sort of DIY LED sign, remotely configurable sort of project? I'm thinking a sign that can sit on my desk at the office that if I end up working remotely that day I can update it to reflect that to my coworkers (I get a lot of visitors per day from different departments asking questions) so they know they can still contact me via Teams? Apologies if this isn't the right place for this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-14 21:51 Sounds like a thing to do with a /r/raspberry_pi and and a simple tft/lcd display attached. There also pixelclock displays standalone that support custom firmware and can be controlled over wifi to display whatever text. But yeah, has nothing at all to do with selfhosting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NikStalwart · 2023-11-14 23:30 Depending on your existing monitoring stack, some options might be: * [Grafana Loki](https://grafana.com/oss/loki/) * [Sentry](https://github.com/getsentry/) can be self-hosted for application logging * [Logstash](https://github.com/elastic/logstash) is self- explanatory, use with other parts of Elastic's software like Kibana for visualization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- harborfright · 2023-11-15 01:17 Well, you could use a couple of ESP8266s, and self host a MQTT server to allow them to communicate over the Internet! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- __aurvandel__ · 2023-11-15 02:25 I use home assistant with a smart bulb. I had it setup to scrape my Teams availability but cyber security didn't like that so currently I just toggle a switch on my phone in home assistant that changes the color of a light in the hall. Still want to automate it somehow but it works ok. I may try to her home assistant to detect when my headphones are on and use that to trigger the light or just replicate my work calendar and then use it as a trigger. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zfa · 2023-11-15 02:36 I'd go for an ESP8266/ESP32 with a telegram bot and LED (based sign) hanging off it. Just send a msg on telegram to turn it on/off. That having been said loads of ways to trigger the sign status - it could poll a website to see what status it should display and you have a mechanism of updating that status yadda yadda yadda. Note that those little chips needs wifi so you'd need to be able to connect it to wifi and have it get public internet access (or whatever you decide to control it). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mshorey81 · 2023-11-15 02:43 Now that's a good idea. And would fit in with the selfhosted theme! Thanks for the suggestion! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mshorey81 · 2023-11-15 02:44 That could be a good option. I know next to nothing about MQTT so it might be a good opportunity to learn something new! Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mshorey81 · 2023-11-15 02:45 That's fair. Thanks for the suggestion though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- harborfright · 2023-11-15 02:45 ESPHome is your friend, if you decide to head down this path. It doesn’t have to be integrated with Home Assistant. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mshorey81 · 2023-11-15 02:46 Thank you! I might have a new rabbit hole to go down. Appreciate the suggestions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ethereal_g · 2023-11-15 02:48 I’m curious what you could share about scraping Teams availability? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zfa · 2023-11-15 02:50 No worries, hit me up if you decide to go this route and need any sources for anything. those little ESP (Arduino clones really) are great fun. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- falcorns_balls · 2023-11-15 04:48 through HACS you can set up the HASS agent for your pc. Work probably won't want it on their computuer, but if you run teams/slack on your home pc, you can configure sensors for all kinds of stuff. including a powershell script result. or an active process. You can configure it to when teams/slack is running on your PC during work hours, Your remote working light turns on. or something like that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- __aurvandel__ · 2023-11-15 06:00 I tried the hass agent but again it's a work PC so it never really worked. I ended up using a modified version of this to scrape the status. I probably could have kept using it if I had changed how often it sends data. Instead of a near constant stream of data I should have altered it even more so it only sent data to my server when it actually changes. https://github.com/EBOOZ/TeamsStatus ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CountZilch · 2023-11-15 08:06 I did exactly this for a Hackathon project at my previous work. Called 'Deskey'. We used e-ink displays in each desk powered by an ESP32, to display various things such as remote working, in the office, hot-desk booking system, Teams status, a QR code you can scan to start a chat with a user working remotely etc. 3D printed cases and desk mounts initially. Rolled out to many office floors since I left. Let me know if you want any more details. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zfa · 2023-11-15 09:03 Sounds cool. No need to reinvent the wheel giving details here but if you posted that online anywhere I'd love to look at your implementation if you have a link. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CountZilch · 2023-11-15 09:14 The managers seemed pretty keen on it. I know there has been some development since I left but some posts on LinkedIn. If I was smart enough I'd add an image of an early prototype. PM me if you want ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2023-11-15 09:15 [removed] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2023-11-15 09:17 [removed] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2023-11-15 12:49 [removed] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tech2but1 · 2023-11-15 17:58 Seen loads. Tried Googling it? Multiple ways to do this, some sort of hobby/DIY platform (Arduino, ESP, PiZero etc) and a connected display. Just have a browse round SparkFun? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- h07d0q · 2023-11-15 21:55 I was looking fo a solution at home and at work. I came across [teams2tasmota](https://github.com/Claus-E/teams2tasmota) which scrapes the Teams log for the status and displays a configurable colour. The communication is via HTTP in the same network per configurable IP address or via direct usb connection using serial communication. Since I can't just connect a ESP via WiFi at work (even if it would be accessible from my work PC network) I like the option to connect via USB. So now you could raise an issue to detect the set working place in teams which would fulfill your need. But you need a way to connect via network to the ESP in the network at work... Or it is possible to set the ESP via telegram what I read in an other comment.