this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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Perfect for if you want to stick it to the man by spending most of your unnecessarily long workday manipulating the entrance to your office!
I bet if you put some automation behind it with a raspberry pi or something this would be pretty cool. Program some different doorways etc..
Thing is, it's really not private enough to make a difference aside of looking and being cool to show to someone.
That sounds either expensive, or very unreliable. If you're unlucky, both.
Why are you describing everything I've cobbled together at home. I feel attacked
Ooh, that's actually a pretty good idea. But it would require each "tape" to have its own motor, right?
There are ways to drive multiple things with a one or two motors but I'd question if it'd be worth the trouble.
A stepper motor with a controller attached to a roller which goes the whole length of the tapes but only just not making contact. Then per-tape you'd need a piano hammer like object attached to a lever on the front side, with something ferrous attached to the other end. Finally a little electromagnet near the ferrous end hooked up to a set of multiplexers that are then hooked up to your Pi.
Then you'd basically have the Pi run the roller and enable the magnets on any of the tapes that you'd want to move. That way you could in theory run between 1 and all of them in any given direction at the same time
Bonus points if you attach different note bells or something on the levers so they each make a different sound when they actuate.
You might need something like a ball bearing on the tip of the hammers, but maybe just a smooth enough surface would do it.
(This is entirely not practical, but I still kinda want to build it)
Lol, pretty much what I suggested :D
Only difference is that I'd use an ESP, way too simple an application for a Pi. Also ESPHome makes it super simple to integrate with Home Assistant and only requires a fairly simple yaml file. Also ESPs are like $10 max
https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/2674743
Oh lmao, I don't think I saw your post before I started writing mine! Clearly the best solution then!
ESP is a good call yeah, I think I just think Pi by default because I've got so many of the things lying around
Great minds think alike :P
You're very lucky then, they're super difficult to source nowadays and are so expensive.
Oh tell me about it, I've got a pi zero 2 on backorder from about a year and a half ago still.
I feel like there could be a market niche for it. Replace the tapes with something... more aesthetically pleasing, maybe hook it up to a remote so you change it between a few preset shapes easily, maybe a pair of motion sensors as an option so that it "opens" on its own, and I think there is some appeal to this as some sort of room divider or something.
Rich people will spend money on stupid things they'll never use just to flaunt their wealth, so put a big enough price tag on it and I'm sure there would be some kind of market for it.
Having just made some DIY automated roller blinds for my place, I know that it'll both be a pain in the ass to do, but also probably won't be too hard. What makes the most sense for me is a strong stepper motor on the side with a long shafts, the shafts needs slots in it and each blind piece that needs to be rotated needs to have a small DIY solenoid to engage with the shaft. You'd only be able to go one direction at a time but it'll beat running a whole lot 9f stepper drivers and motors.
Until a coworker hits the retract button, scaring the shit out of you as it rapidly retracts back into itself while making a racket.
That's true for everything in life, though.