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I’m thrilled to report that I have a new hobby for my middle age years and it’s not knitting, ceramics, indoor rock climbing, or running marathons. No shade to those hobbies, it’s just that ever since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to be on the computer a lot.
What am I looking at? Is a question I got when I posted my invention on my Instagram Story this weekend. You are looking at my invention. It is a bedside device to softly play random audio from a Gilmore Girls episode for 30 minutes and then gently fade to silence, hidden inside a fake book.
For those who don’t know me, my day job is leading Front End Engineering at Glossier. I’m not trying to flex by saying it would have been “too easy” to build an iPhone app that did exactly this - but I wanted to challenge myself to try a hardware project and it coincided with my sister’s birthday, so I selfishly decided to pursue a new hobby to make her the perfect gift.
The criteria
Needed to work without a phone.
I wanted to use a wired speaker so that my sis would never have to deal with Bluetooth connectivity issues.
Needed to look cute and not take up too much space.
Needed to use plug and play parts - no soldering (YET !)
Needed to be able to build it in 2 weeks while also very busy with other life stuff.
Needed to own the Gilmore Girls complete series box set on DVD in order to legally rip the audio for personal use. Of course my sister owns this box set too. We both consider it to be vital physical media to possess in case the grid goes down.
Before I dive into process here’s a demo of the finished result. After you switch it on, a random episode plays for 30 minutes, fades out for 1 minute, and then shuts down the Raspberry Pi. The script is written in Python.
Although the Gilmore Girls White Noise Machine works without touching your phone, for testing and demo purposes I exposed some web endpoints to stop, restart, and safely shut it down if you need to stop it in the middle of playing.
I coded in the Windows XP shutdown noise even though this invention is running on Linux because that amused me. This noise only plays if you manually shut it down - not if it’s running normally and you are drifting off to sleep (!)
For aesthetic reasons, I had my heart set on using a clear plastic case but it didn’t quite fit and I short circuited the micro SD card trying to force it closed. This is something I didn’t know was possible until I powered it on, smug at how much progress I’d made the previous evening, and thought “why isn’t the light coming on?” and then smelled acrid burning plastic.
I should have read its Amazon reviews more thoroughly…
Luckily I only fried one SD card and burnt my thumb… just a little.
I went with the Raspberry Pi official case. 3 times the price, but much better quality and easy to open and close.
I housed the guts of my invention in a fake book, and I was excited to rush order a small saw so that I could cut out the perfect notch for the power cable. The cut out piece of wood doubles as a prop to keep the book open while audio is playing.
I used velcro dots to affix the speaker and Raspberry Pi so that I can reconfigure the enclosure for Phase 2… more on that later!
Anyway, high on tinkering (and not the fumes of a burning SD card) I started a second project.
I have 3 Sonos speakers. Even though they have voice control, I insist on naming my playlists annoying things like “sunbathing on the roof at 10am” which is cumbersome to say out loud. Plus I always forget if it’s “Radio 6”, “BBC 6 Music”, or “6 Music”.
I just want to listen to music without touching my phone!
I bought this TogKey macropad which makes the most satisfying clicks and set it up to control my Sonos System.
The macropad has 4 layers. You press the knob to switch between layers and the active layer is indicated on its mini OLED screen. Each layer controls one of my speakers and the 4th layer has some commands to group and ungroup my speakers.
My favourite thing about this project is that I set it up so that turning the knob either direction flicks back and forth between my favourite radio stations (BBC 6, NTS1, NTS2, Apple Classical, and my own Apple Music station).
The keys are programmed to 6 specific playlists for different vibes. I need to make little stickers for each key so that it’s easier to remember.
You can program single tap, double tap, and hold for each key, as well as combinations of multiple keys - so the possibilities are endless. The challenging part is coming up with an intuitive system so that it’s obvious which button does what - I’m still working on that!
The current iteration is running node-sonos-http-api on my Mac Mini and the script for what each key combo does is a Lua script in Hammerspoon. Next phase is to have this run off another Raspberry Pi so I can move it to a different room of my apartment or have a separate controller in each room.
This opened the floodgates of inspo and made me realise that I probably want to just build my own custom keyboard for this so that I can have the buttons and knobs laid out exactly as I want them with neat little labels.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree - here’s a synth that my dad built in 1978. An object of fascination for me throughout my childhood and if anyone attended parties at my flat in the 2000s they’ll probably remember that the top part of this was on my desk as decor. This was pre smartphone era when people at the afters would ask me if they could go into my bedroom and check their MySpace real quick - hence why I know there’s a lot of people who are familiar with what my desk looked like in 2006.
What else do I wanna build besides perfecting the Sonos Controller?
Phase Two of the Gilmore Girls White Noise Machine: Louder speakers with volume control. Physical buttons to stop, restart, and shut it down. Small LED light indicator to make it more obvious that it’s on when the Raspberry Pi protective case lid is covering the board.
Phase Three of the Gilmore Girls White Noise Machine: 3D printing a custom enclosure for it. I’ve been looking for an excuse to get into 3D printing forevaaaa so I’m happy about this. Finally something to print that isn’t just miniature crocs for my Monchhichi doll!
Locally hosted Alexa Chung Ring Camera Fit Check device for people who don’t want to be quite as surveilled by Amazon.
Custom touch screen closet catalog a la Cher from Clueless. This is a project whose main blocker is not technical complexity but the effort of photographing every single piece of clothing that I own.
Oh wow I love all of these lil projects but especially that locally hosted ring camera. Lemme know if I can commission one from you 👀