Inspired by this Mastodon account, I programmed an ESP8266 microcontroller to act as a traffic light, indicating the current electricity mix. Check it out on Codeberg! It uses an API from the Fraunhofer Institute and the parts cost around 5€. In my shared flat we use it as an indicator on when to run demanding devices, like the washing machine.

  • @0x4E4F
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    7 months ago

    We don’t need that around here, 10PM to 7AM electricity is half price. Sunday all day as well. That’s about all I need to know.

    Good project though 👍. See if you can make it completely free of charge (without paying those 5 euros).

    • TimberOP
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      7 months ago

      By saying that it cost around 5€ I meant that the material to build this cost me around 5€. I would happily set them up for free if one gave me the material for free, but the microcontroller and so on do cost some money.

      The API and (of course) the source code are free (as in freedom, being AGPL licensed). And since I did my best to document it well and provide easy to follow instructions in the README, I do think I managed to make it free as in freedom.

      • @0x4E4F
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        7 months ago

        Oh, sorry, didn’t understand it like that 😁… thought that was the price of the license for the library 😁.

        Of course, the parts come at a price, no surprise there 😂.

    • Lemongrab
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      47 months ago

      Free as in freedom, not free beer. Its understandable why a dev might do that.

      • @0x4E4F
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        17 months ago

        That is what I was implying as well. If it’s open source, it doesn’t mean it’s free (as in freedom). Make it free (as in freedom), which would imply that it doesn’t have to cost anything, if you have the knowhow.