Flower

Details

Working and studying from home have some challenges that are still been tackled. How to keep productivity high while still making appropriate healthy breaks?

Some studies show that taking short brakes helps to improve concentration, keep stress levels down and even boost creativity.

While searching for solutions online I found difficult to choose a specific app that could be flexible enough for me to set multiple alarms and notifications, while still having a subtle way of notifying without loud *ding* or *beep*. The majority have annoying ads, and desktop app notifications are easily dismissed.

I think that there is still place for good looking gadgets that have specific functions and generally are better at it than an app could ever be. So I started designing something that can be useful for people like me.

Flower was born with that idea in mind. It resides in top of your notebook, doubling as a webcam privacy cover and time indicator.

By blinking it’s five RGB LEDs an infinity of colorful animations can notify to you of a new focus session, break or any customizable reminder (stretch, drink water, eye strain screen break). You can also click it to restart/pause or dismiss a notification.

After the initial network setup you can access its local IP address and start customizing the colors and alarms.

I'm starting this project this weekend (07/16/21), so if you like the project please like and share. If you really like the project please consider donating to my ko-fi or liberapay. Tindie orders maybe will be available soon, let me know if you'll purchase one :)

Components

1 × Control PCB Custom PCB

1 × ESP-01 Module Main controller

1 × AMS1117-3.3 Voltage regulator

1 × CH340C

1 × Indicator Board Custom PCB

Project Logs

Collapse

Small test
Anderson Antunes • 07/19/2021 at 02:15 • 0 comments

This Saturday I ... of trying to make myself the smallest PCB that I've designed, I'm pretty happy with the result, but i don't think I'll be trying nothing like this any time soon lol
I made the vias using a 0.4mm drill bit and connected both sides with a thin wire a lot of patience
Passing the wires trough all the small holes
And soldering using solder paste and a heat gun
I think one led its good enough for this test, I learned that it is feasible to build such small PCBs, maybe next time I'll use a thinner material.

Here the first blink test using a nodemcu board and the homemade PCB
I'll order some PCBs from jlcpcb on Monday, I'm so excited! Let me know what you think :D
PCB Design
Anderson Antunes • 07/19/2021 at 01:57 • 0 comments

Flower is based on a ESP01 module programmed via USB, and controlled via Wifi. It have one button for control and five RGB LEDs that can display any number of animated visual signals.
I designed the control system to be housed in a thumb-stick-like enclosure, or optionally using an extension.
For the interactive part I designed a cute PCB with only 11mm in diameter:
In the other side, it have pin connections for a cable and a push button.
The idea is to have it enclosed in a flexible silicon-like material (maybe hot glue for a first prototype)