Thanks for the input all. 

My particular application is entirely in the house, possibly via the WIFI LAN.  
Each person who is participating in the TARPN system has a Raspberry PI, either 
a 1 B, 2 B, 3 or 3+.   The trigger which is inspected, to determine the 
required behavior, is in the Raspberry PI filesystem, in /usr/local/etc.  Our 
project is actually to build a text messaging network which does NOT use the 
Internet, linking our Raspberry PIs together to do anything we can come up 
with.  

I will create a background service on Raspbian which can inspect the file and 
then drive a GPIO, or to do some TCP/IP communications to the appliance.  

I was thinking of making a 20khz beeper, at the Raspberry PI itself, to alert 
the dog that I have mail.  So my visitors are over and the dog goes off barking 
up a storm.  I announce calmly, oh, I have mail.  And as soon as I pull it down 
using my tablet the dog gets quiet and goes and curls up on the couch.  This 
would have a nice bizzaro-behavior kind of feel to it that appeals to me.  
Maybe not.  Besides, I have cats, not a dog.  Next….  

I’ve been considering using a single-chip radio and sending a carrier if the 
alert behavior is selected.  Then I’d just need a single chip radio to detect 
the continuous (> 0.4seconds) of a carrier, and signal with the LED or piezo or 
relay.  I could build the living-room alert device with an Arduino and hat.  
The Raspberry PI could easily handle programming one of the single-chip radios 
to send a carrier.  910-ish megahertz would be just fine.   There are a ton of 
those radio-hat/shield/feathers out there, but that would require more assembly 
than I was looking for, plus there would be a power supply for the living room 
portion which just looks like more wires.  Maybe the challenge would be to make 
it run for months or years on a battery.  Hmm…. But then I’d need to come up 
with a plan to mass produce them.  Well… get enough people together, take 
orders, kit the thing out, and have a soldering/plugging/programming session.  
That could happen.  

The WIFI controlled lightbulb seemed ideal because the hardware would all be 
off the shelf and there isn’t even any unique or fragile connections to deal 
with.  I like the idea of having a blue light on next to the TV when there is 
mail waiting.  That will do and not drive the wife nuts.  I’m not dying for 
another project.  I’d rather this done short and sweet.  What I want, however, 
is for each and every member of the network to have this service, even if I 
have to buy all of it.  

I am liking the $5 AC switch item.  This would be able to light or start 
anything that runs on voltage, but it is really cheap and obvious.   What every 
other member of our little off-the-grid text messaging network does with it is 
up to them.  I just want to make it really easy.   I ordered one of the Sonoff 
WIFI switches on eBay, not noticing until later that the expected delivery date 
is as late as Jan 3 2019.   ha.  WE’ll see what Monday brings.  Maybe an 
evening meeting.    I’m really busy on Tuesday though as I’m doing a deal with 
the Raleigh Amateur Radio society at their meeting and I do need to make sure I 
prepare for that.  

You can see the project I’m working on here:  http://tarpn.net   Network map 
with the Network link and Builder instructions with lots and lots of details 
under Builder link.  

   Tadd

Tadd / KA2DEW
[email protected]
Raleigh NC  FM05pv

“Packet networking over ham radio": 
http://tarpn.net/t/packet_radio_networking.html 
<http://tarpn.net/t/packet_radio_networking.html>
Local Raleigh ham radio info: http://torborg.com/a <http://torborg.com/a>



> On Nov 11, 2018, at 9:19 PM, Mike Lisanke via TriEmbed 
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Actually, there are many IOT devices that include Internet (wired or 
> wireless) and a RGB LED or many ... and many of them are less than $30.
> 
> To make you app, all you need is an Internet App which pulls or gets push 
> data and changes it's color. Cool Packages cost money But some of the 
> Adafruit Playground have LED and Sensors and Internet and programming for 
> non-programmers etc. 
> 
> There are also RGB LED WiFi lightbulb but you'll likely have to add an 
> external Internet compute to drive it... I think something like IFTTT can 
> drive it but you'll be putting your Intranet at risk dropping a light bulb on 
> the Internet :-p
> 
> On Sun, Nov 11, 2018 at 7:48 PM Pete Soper via TriEmbed 
> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> Right. You can buy a smaller number for even less. The instructable below 
> shows how to control it with a Raspberry Pi.
> 
>   https://www.instructables.com/id/Control-Sonoff-From-Raspberry-Pi/ 
> <https://www.instructables.com/id/Control-Sonoff-From-Raspberry-Pi/>
> 
> But you're still going to need invention, and that's the magic that bridges 
> between what your packet program is doing on the Raspberry Pi and the actions 
> necessary to invoke the program to turn on the Sonoff. You won't find that at 
> Amazon Prime, but if you come to the meeting tomorrow somebody might be able 
> to find out more about how the packet radio code works and suggest an 
> approach. 
> 
> -Pete
> 
> On 11/11/18 7:40 PM, Tadd Torborg via TriEmbed wrote:
>> Hmm.. Very pretty.   Perhaps wishful thinking, but I was looking for 
>> something closer to $50 that didn’t require new invention.  
>> I like what you came up with.  Nice shopping list too. 
>> 
>> Have you ever seen a Sonoff WiFi Switch ?   Amazon has 6 of these for $65.  
>>   
>> 
>> Tadd / KA2DEW
>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>> Raleigh NC  FM05pv
>> 
>> “Packet networking over ham radio": 
>> http://tarpn.net/t/packet_radio_networking.html 
>> <http://tarpn.net/t/packet_radio_networking.html>
>> Local Raleigh ham radio info: http://torborg.com/a <http://torborg.com/a>
>> 
>> "When you don't know what you're doing, you might as well do it quickly"   - 
>> Jase Robertson
>> 
>>> On Nov 11, 2018, at 2:52 PM, Brian Chamberlain <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hey Tadd,
>>> If you’re talking 10 years ago time frame I’m guessing you’re referring to 
>>> the AmbientOrb. It was a device from an MIT group/project that signaled the 
>>> state of the weather, stock markets, etc... Here’s an article about that 
>>> device.
>>> 
>>> http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4758931/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/new-technology-relies-human-visual-system/
>>>  
>>> <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4758931/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/new-technology-relies-human-visual-system/>
>>> 
>>> There have been many of these types of devices launched as 
>>> products/kickstarters/DIY projects since then, in various incarnations. I’m 
>>> sure you can find examples on Hackster.io <http://hackster.io/>. Here’s one 
>>> I built: 
>>> https://www.hackster.io/breakpointer/ambient-web-connected-color-orb-91b9fd 
>>> <https://www.hackster.io/breakpointer/ambient-web-connected-color-orb-91b9fd>
>>> 
>>> Also, here’s a more complete Rpi based tutorial: 
>>> https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/cheerlights-orb-a-node-red-tutorial/ 
>>> <https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/cheerlights-orb-a-node-red-tutorial/>
>>> 
>>> The neopixel from Adafruit is great for this type of thing. 
>>> https://learn.adafruit.com/neopixels-on-raspberry-pi/overview 
>>> <https://learn.adafruit.com/neopixels-on-raspberry-pi/overview>
>>> 
>>> Hope this helps.
>>> Cheers!
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Nov 11, 2018 at 9:32 AM Tadd Torborg via TriEmbed 
>>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>> Once upon a time, possibly 10 years ago, I remember a device which looked 
>>> like a light fixture that sat on a desk.  It lit up in color, after it 
>>> found some token or cue on the Internet.  You could use it to show a 
>>> weather alert, or i a certain web page did or did not responded to pings. 
>>> I never bought one.  Now I need it for a ham radio project. 
>>> 
>>> What I want to do is have a Raspberry PI that is doing ham radio stuff 
>>> (TARPN network communications, in this case) and have a light, possibly a 
>>> blinking LED, in the living room of my house, that would indicate a message 
>>> has been received via the ham radio TARPN network.  The Raspberry PI can 
>>> have a file that is present or missing, or filled with some value or 
>>> another, and the blinking light needs to use FTP or Telnet via WiFi to the 
>>> Raspberry PI and query the file.  Alternatively I could have the Raspberry 
>>> PI issue a telnet message to turn the light on or off.  
>>> 
>>> Something like this already exists.  Does anybody know where to get one?  
>>> 
>>> Thanks!
>>>    Tadd
>>> 
>>> Tadd / KA2DEW
>>> http://tarpn.net <http://tarpn.net/>
>>> Raleigh NC
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Triangle, NC Embedded Computing mailing list
>>> 
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>>> -- 
>>> -Brian
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> -- 
> Best regards,  Mike
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