Perhaps I should clarify, depending on what it runs (software and hardware) it would be trivial for me to add this to my own unit AFTER production. I have a raspberry pi zero (runs about $5) that I set up as a drop camera. It powers up on a schedule, takes a picture, emails the picture, and shuts off to preserve battery. This project was something I did for fun, and it took longer to source the parts/accessories than it did to write the scripts to make this happen. I didn’t have to set up a mail relay, I just send the emails directly from the pi. There are plenty of safe ways to make this work.
Agreed. Most of my suggestions were facetious in the first post on addition features. I think a charger that just works is a wonderful project. The idea of having a notification (audible, visible, or otherwise) seems to resonate with at least a few of us… but it doesn’t need a complicated implementation. A beep would suffice for most.
EDIT (to add)
amishbill & leftdisconnected
I don’t think we need an IOT type of device here, and I agree with much of what you two said. It would be great if the device had some sort of output like a serial (or USB) port that would give live data. This could be hooked up to a computer running something a bit more trustworthy/verifiable like an SBC with Linux.
If it has an LED indicator that lights up when the cells are charged, this could be wired as a signal to another device to do the notifications.
For what it’s worth, I suspect that many readers understood that you had tongue firmly in cheek, but it’s always difficult to convey undertones to everyone, especially those who may not use English as their primary language. Emoticons help, but there are still tons of things lost in translation, even if no translation occurs.
I’m being facetious about half the time and thus am misunderstood nearly half the time .
I had a college chemistry professor that encouraged us to use a when emailing him so he knew we were not upset (even if we were) so he could sleep better.
I try to keep it light as this is my hobby and I do it for fun. I’ve “met” lots of great people here, and am frequently impressed by the helpful and friendly responses I see.
Is the idea of making possible for text/notifications during(in case of any charging troubles)/after charging abandoned?
Could we use a version of Panic button/GSM Alarm System to push one way notifications?
Not sure about other countries, but most carriers in the US have an email to sms/mms bridge. In my experience, sending emails is typically easier than SMS and doesn’t require cell service to make it work (just internet access).
The discussion I started above about this feature brought up some security concerns related to connecting a Chinese sourced “black box” to your home network and giving it internet access, or possibly the danger of the device itself being hacked if allowed to connect to the internet. I’m not sure how we’d be able to overcome these concerns satisfactorily apart from 100% opensource code and mod-ability. I do think it would be a valuable feature if it can be worked out.
I’m starting to lean towards some kind of output that would allow this to be connected to a computer. If you could read things like voltage, current, status, etc over something like a serial port (or USB?), you could connect this to a computer which would be better equipped to do the notifications (and also make fancy graphs). This would remove much of the security burden from the charger itself, and protect the idiots innocent who might blindly trust a potentially compromised device on their network. As far as computers, I’m thinking something as simple as a Raspberry Pi Zero (typically $5ish… this is what runs the show on that “BlaspBerry” you linked to in your post… you can see it in the gif too, just look for the green board when he shows the back) would be sufficient for all of this added functionality if we had a way to talk to the charger.