Pimp out your techie's office

I woke up this morning, looked out the window, the sun hit my face and put me in a bit of a sharing kind of mood! I suppose a little bit of self promotion mood as well :o sorry

So here goes.

Over the past few weeks I have setup and installed an LCD Display on our Techies office door after having it changed to some sort of sound proofed lead lined door :) that the pupils could not here us shouting come in at all! I also had another reason as you will read (more of an excuse to play really)

I have wrote up a quick overview if you are interested with some pictures here kism3t1: My Work and all code is available at the bottom of the page for anyone wanting a look. It might be a nice addition to your office?

It is controllable over the network with a simple python server/client app (The IP and ports are hardcoded im afraid) I had to keep it simple for the pupils, plus im a bit simple :twitch:

We really do use this everyday and thought it might be nice to share with everyone, so hope you like it.

If you haven't already, have a look at PicAxe. They are not quite as powerful as Arduino or RPi, but they can be programmed in basic and can be much much cheaper than either Arduino or RPi for simple embedded applications.

I'm thinking of getting a touch screen panel and setting up a terminal for submitting helpdesk tickets outside my office (which I move into in the summer!)

Also considering getting another one to go next to the monster AIO printer/copier, so people can access files while standing next to the printer and hitting print.

That's pretty cool! Personally, I've gone with the low-budget version of this; a laminated piece of card, one side says "Please knock and then enter" with a large smiley face, the other side with a stop sign that says I am not in.

Just blue-tacked it to my office door and I flip it over when I am in/out respectively.

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Originally Posted by Pete10141748

Just blue-tacked it to my office door and I flip it over when I am in/out respectively.

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It's not been "borrowed" and stuck to another door etc yet? Ours barely lasted a week.

It's very cool, how about a controller with a push button keypad with those commands printed on them so that you don't have to have a pc/laptop available to run that side of things.

Ben

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pete10141748

That's pretty cool! Personally, I've gone with the low-budget version of this; a laminated piece of card, one side says "Please knock and then enter" with a large smiley face, the other side with a stop sign that says I am not in.

Just blue-tacked it to my office door and I flip it over when I am in/out respectively.

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:) that was V0.01 for me too! I did however have a few bugs with the paper to blu-tack interface and over time the structural integrity of the sign did get compromised, I do wish I had thought of upgrading to laminate! ;)

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Originally Posted by plexer

It's very cool, how about a controller with a push button keypad with those commands printed on them so that you don't have to have a pc/laptop available to run that side of things.

Ben

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Thanks Ben

Funny you should say that, it was originaly going to have some buttons on the wall with 'come in' 'go away' etc on them but when I came to put the LCD together with the Arduino I would of had to run long cables to where we sit.

And more importantly it would of had to be on the wall out the way which would mean if we wanted to press the button we would have to... get up out of our nice comfy seat to reach the buttons :( perish the thought

It also opened it up so we could have it running on each techies own work area making everyone feel special, I do agree though it would be nice to have some physical buttons, maybe when I have a spare few hours :)

Possibly add a system like in the post office... "Technician Number 2 please"

I don't even have an office...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kism3t

Thanks Ben

Funny you should say that, it was originaly going to have some buttons on the wall with 'come in' 'go away' etc on them but when I came to put the LCD together with the Arduino I would of had to run long cables to where we sit.

And more importantly it would of had to be on the wall out the way which would mean if we wanted to press the button we would have to... get up out of our nice comfy seat to reach the buttons :( perish the thought

It also opened it up so we could have it running on each techies own work area making everyone feel special, I do agree though it would be nice to have some physical buttons, maybe when I have a spare few hours :)

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Zigbee?

Ben

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pete10141748

That's pretty cool! Personally, I've gone with the low-budget version of this; a laminated piece of card, one side says "Please knock and then enter" with a large smiley face, the other side with a stop sign that says I am not in.

Just blue-tacked it to my office door and I flip it over when I am in/out respectively.

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I'd like something similar, except with :censored: off! I'm having a bad day on both sides.

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Originally Posted by K.C.Leblanc

I'd like something similar, except with :censored: off! I'm having a bad day on both sides.

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You have that on one side. The other is simply the scream from an enraged Panther.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by plexer

Zigbee?

Ben

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That would be nice I wish I had the pocket for a couple :)

I have a white board and a pen on a string on my door!