Neat project from Rocktakon on Instructables.
What does a smart snow globe do?
It tells you if tomorrow’s going to be a snow day!
Is it snowing tonight? Will you have the day off from school or work tomorrow? Put this snow globe next to your bed when you go to sleep to find out. Then when you wake up in the morning (or middle of the night) you can give the snow globe a shake and it will light up in a specific color to tell you whether you can stay home from work or not. If it’s a snow day you can roll over and go right back to sleep without having to check your radio/phone/etc.
The snow globe checks the internet for a specific status message and changes color based on tomorrow’s status. But you don’t want a bright list flashing next to your bed all night, so the snow globe only lights up when you shake it (that’s what snow globes are for)!
Where I live in Washington, DC, the federal government has a website advising employees when federal offices are closed due to weather. Many local schools and businesses follow this status as well. The snow globe checks this website to determine tomorrow’s status.
The snow globe will light up using the same status colors as the federal government website:
Green = open for business
Yellow = delayed start (you get two extra hours to sleep in)
Red = closed (stay in bed as long as you want!)
Blue = snow globe is working but has received no status information from the internet
Read on to see how to make one.
Featured Adafruit Products!
FLORA Accelerometer/Compass Sensor – LSM303 – v1.0: Add motion and direction sensing to your wearable FLORA project with this high precision 3-axis Accelerometer+Compass sensor. Inside are two sensors, one is a classic 3-axis accelerometer, which can tell you which direction is down towards the Earth (by measuring gravity) or how fast the board is accelerating in 3D space. The other is a magnetometer that can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally used to detect magnetic north. By combining this data you can then orient yourself. Read more.
Flora RGB Smart NeoPixel version 2 – Pack of 4: What’s a wearable project without LEDs? Our favorite part of the Flora platform is these tiny smart pixels. Designed specifically for wearables, these updated Flora NeoPixels have ultra-cool technology: these ultra-bright LEDs have a constant-current driver cooked right into the LED package! The pixels are chainable – so you only need 1 pin/wire to control as many LEDs as you like. They’re easy to sew, and the chainable design means no crossed threads. Read more.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
