For those times when you’d rather not get sucked down another internet rabbit hole when you really just wanted the weather, an ambient display can be great. [AlexanderK106] built a simple ambient display to know the probability the Northern Lights would visit his town.
Starting with a NodeMCU featuring the ESP8266, [AlexanderK106] walks us through a beginner-friendly tutorial on how to do everything from configure the Arduino IDE, the basics of using a breadboard. finding a data source and parsing it, and finally sticking everything into an enclosure.
The 7-segment display is taped and set into the back of the 1/4″ pine with enough brightness to shine through the additional layer of veneer on top. The display is set to show one digit and then the next before a three second repeat. A second display would probably make this easier to use day-to-day, but we appreciate him keeping it simple for this tutorial.
Looking for more ambient displays? Checkout the Tempescope or this clock that lets you feel the temperature outside!
Surely he could just check to see if smoke is coming out of his kitchen?
“Good Lord, what is happening in there?!”
– The oven exploded
– LavaStage
– Aurora borealis 👈
That isn’t smoke! It’s steam. Steam from the steamed clams we’re having! Mmm, Steamed clams
I would love something like that!
Aurorae are rare enough around here that I don’t bother to check the forecasts, and then I find out that I have missed one.
Looks like a fun project to pay with a whole bunch of different things!
However: “The 7-segment display is taped and glued onto the back of the 1/4″ pine with enough brightness to shine through even with the additional layer of veneer on top.”
Y’all should read more carefully: the front was cut out to mount the display flush with the outside face, then a layer of veneer put over it to act as a diffuser. The display isn’t being driven hard enough to shine through 1/4″ pine.
Yeah. Fixed that in the text.
Thanks for catching that!
Shining through the veneer. Hadn’t seen that before. My new favorite thing.