Busy r' Not

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  Alternative that was considered when ESP32 encountered problems

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  Mounted electronics positioned on the inside of the room

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  Seated position view of electronics

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  Prototype breadboard

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  View from outside of the room

Inspiration

I was in an important zoom meeting with my camera and mic on, but someone walked into my room! I was embarrassed as my professional disposition disappeared, and I was stumbling through the rest of the interview. So I thought of a solution where it would notify those on the outside when I would be busy in a meeting.

What it does

The sign rotates to the busy position when your google calendar has an event and rotates back when you are free

How we built it

Using Selenium, I was able to select links from an ESP32 web client page. From there, the ESP32 used Serial protocol to communicate with the arduino, which was able to manipulate the motor. I also used the google-calendar api

Challenges we ran into

I did not know how to implement a motor that would be able to turn exactly 180 degrees, so currently the sign just spins. In the future, I hope to implement a servo motor that was not included in the parts list.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I connected to the google calendar api and used selenium for the first time. I was also able to get an ESP32 to work rather well with my application.

What we learned

I learned the basics of Selenium, and I hope to expand my knowledge in selenium with future projects.

What's next for Busy r' Not

I hope to implement the servo mentioned above and to eliminate the arduino in order to simplfy the electronics. I also want to make a front facing webpage and eliminate the need for selenium entirely by using some backend magic that I have not learned about yet. I hope with these solutions, the process of changing the sign will be much faster and simpler to add to in the furture.

Built With

• arduino
• esp32
• google-calendar
• python
• selenium
• serial