BlinkM as neat last-minute parade wearable

Adrian on Twitter writes "Hoped to have some kind of wearable thing for , but I wasn't sure I'd have time to make something. Then I remembered I have a BlinkM." And then later: "It's a BlinkM using strips of grocery bags under 1/3 of a ping-pong ball, sandwiched between sanded plexiglass using 1/8th bolts." Here's his wearable heart that beats the flag colors.  So neat!

blinkm-PrideWinnipeg

Microsoft Outlook mail checker for blink(1)

sajingeo-outlook-blink1Here's a great way to hook up blink(1) up to Microsoft Outlook.  Github user @sajingeo created a nicely-written Python script "outlook.py" that polls queries Outlook and then calls "blink1-tool".  You don't need to be running Blink1Control to get this to work. (if you are, just use the "blink1control-tool" cmdline program instead of "blink1-tool").  He also includes a handy batch file to start it all off.  Thanks sajingeo!

ThingM at MakerFaire 2015 Bay Area, come join us!

ThingM will once again be at Maker Faire Bay Area.  It's the 10-year anniversary and we've been going since the very beginning (and have had a booth there for 8 years). This year it's on May 16 & 17 2015.  Come join us!  We'll be showing off projects made with our blink(1) USB RGB LED and our BlinkM Smart LED family of products.  If you've done something neat with ThingM products, come tell us about it.  See you there! tm_makerfaire_2015_blog500px

Fun RoboStache using BlinkMs at SXSW2015

robostache_full Anthony made a hilarious glowing "robostache" for SXSW2015 using four BlinkMs, an Arduino, and 3d printed enclosure.  As the RoboStache.com page describes:

#RoboStache is a 3D Printed faux mustache optimized for maximum visibility, interactivity and fun. The Arduino controlled, sensor fed, high bright programmable LED lit device facilitates common shared experiences amongst strangers, experiences that build trust and foster an environment for sharing ideas.

More pics on his Google+ page and the RoboStache.com homepage.  Video below.

Using blink(1) with nagios/nagstamon, and teatime!

nagios-blink1-jacobJacob is a user of nagios, the popular server monitoring tool, and nagstamon, a nagios status monitor tray icon for the desktop. But, as he notes:

Problem is the tray icon is not that present and sometimes I don’t see the notification in time. The blink(1) is the perfect addon for this, I now can see if something is wrong even if my screen is off.

He wrote a quick wrapper script to connect blink(1) to nagios and nagstamon and now he gets visual notifications without peering at a tiny tray icon.

See video of it in action on his blog post.

He also made a great set of command-line aliases for other daily blink(1) uses: nagios-blink1-jacob-teatime

Thanks Jacob, these are great!

 

Using BlinkM with LabVIEW

labview-blinkm-500 Recently we discovered some interesting uses of BlinkM, our I2C-controllable Smart LED,  with LabVIEW.  LabVIEW is a data acquisition system used by many school, labs, and research institutions. If you took upper-level science and engineering courses in college, you probably ran into it. If you're already using an I2C-capable microcontroller to take data, BlinkMs are a pretty natural addition to your test setup, as they work great to indicate test states.

Some of the ways we found BlinkMs being used with LabVIEW: