Hallway Monitor

Last updated
Apr 3, 2024 12:01 AM
summary
communication
date
Apr 2, 2024
type
Post
tags
open source
tech
status
Published
slug
raspberry pi fastapi
As someone who works from home and takes a lot of Zoom calls, I’ve been interested in how I can better communicate with the rest of the family. As part of my recent efforts in monitoring my home network I leaned into my raspberry pi interest and below is what I came up with. I will link the resources that influenced or were used as part of the build as I appreciate it greatly. A link to the source code is available at the end.
 
Requirements:
  1. easy to read
  1. physical solution
  1. fun to build
 

Solution

A raspberry pi connected to a 7” display in kiosk mode that hosts an Ansible deployed local Fast API server with a single green or red page running on docker. See the repo for details.
 
I leveraged this repo from PiMyLifeUp.com for the kiosk part of the build as all of the other options failed to work and I like the service model better than the other options out there.
 
Here is the final product:
notion image
 
Here’s the source code. Disclaimer: changes expected
 

How does it update?

The FastAPI API has a not so standard build as I am currently using an Elgato Stream Deck to make the call and it only supports GET operations. This means, that the single GET call also takes in a new_color parameter that changes the background of the html code.
 
I use the iOS Stream Deck app, and have one button to change it to green and for it to read Not on Call, and then red and to read On call , so the family can walk by the office door and know how quiet they need to be when entering.
 

Next steps?

I may clean up the code a bit more as it’s not 100% there yet, and make ultra portable with an updated readme and what not.
 
I can also foresee additions to the frontend like, concentration mode and looking into ways to automate the trigger via zoom call initiation. If you have any ideas, let me know in the comments.