blink(1) mk2 by ThingM
Last week I finally received my two new shiny blink(1) mk2 USB RGB “things”; these were rewards for helping fund the KickStarter project from ThingM. The mk2 is the second generation and even cooler version of thier RGB blink(1) devices. They are hackable USB powered indicators and I had a project in mind for one my mine which I jumped on right away. I wanted a way to indicate to cube mates when I was on the phone and shouldn’t be disturbed (folks are always interrupting as they can’t tell I’m on the phone before they barge in asking questions, awkward for all involved really). These blink(1) devices are the perfect fit for such a problem. I taped one up on my monitor, fired up Visual Studio and build myself a quick system tray applcation that will allow me to change the indicator color with a single click. The application also automatically switches the indicator when it detects I’m idle for 5 minutes. As soon as I interact with my computer again, the indicator automatically switches the indicator back. Super quick project and couldn’t have been possible without the .Net library for the blink(1) by Jean-Francois Talbot and the great hardware from ThingM. As always source code is below and I’ve even recorded a quick video of the system working. Now to find a project for the other blink(1)…..
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Title: blink(1)SysBarCTRL (1724 clicks)
Caption:
Filename: blink1sysbarctrl.zip
Size: 682 KB
July 9, 2014 at 6:17 pm
Thanks a lot for this great APP!!!
Im using a raw .bat files to turn Blink(1) mk1 to green or red for the same reason of you.
I downloaded your code to try using blink1mk1 instead of blink1mk2
Again, good job and thanks!! 🙂
July 9, 2014 at 6:25 pm
I forget to tell you…… Im going to change the TaskBar Icon to show what is the LED state 😛 (my blink1mk1 is in the front door of my desk, so I cant see it)
🙂
July 9, 2014 at 9:52 pm
I added to your software the following with three more icons (for people who do not have the Blink1 near them as me).
This line will use a icon named “rojo.ico” (red) from the main directory
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
notifyIcon1.Icon = new System.Drawing.Icon(“rojo.ico”);
Also, when you have two blink1 Connected (mk1 and mk2), the “.open” function only works with MK2 so I used instead this to get the mk1 serial:
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
List devicePaths = Blink1Info.GetDevicePath();
blink1 = new Blink1();
Console.WriteLine(“Pass 2: Opening the last Blink(1) found via its HID path.”);
blink1.Open(devicePaths.Last());
Hope this help you to update your software if you want 🙂
Here you have a fan 😛
July 10, 2014 at 2:21 pm
Hey, awesome work! I was thinking it would be nice to have the icon update as well. I’m going to add this to the code for sure. Thanks for the great feedback!