NS Speaker
06-11-2022
Dear traveler, the train to work is not running.
At my house there is a so-called NS lamp, a lamp that lights up red when there is something wrong with the train I need to get to work.
After using this lamp for a year, two disadvantages emerged:
* Lamp burns silently without sound green or red, and is not really noticeable. You didn't pay much attention to it anymore, you forgot to look at it when you left the house in a hurry.
* Lamp only gives yes/no info. Why aren't the trains running? Or is there only one train that is not running? Or is there only a few minutes delay?
Solution: the NS speaker
The NS speaker is an announcer disguised as a retro intercom that actively announces at exactly the right time if there is something wrong with the trains departing from my station. He reports if there is a delay and also if there are no trains running at all.
Functional and beautiful
The speaker is housed in a beautiful vintage intercom housing. I sawed the original print of that intercom in half to make room for new electronics consisting of a D1 Mini, MP3 module, relay and power amplifier.
Operation
A D1 Mini calls over WiFi a PHP script that runs on this site. The script connects to the NS API and looks at the situation at the Horst-Sevenum station. If something is wrong, the D1 Mini is instructed to play an MP3 (eg 'delay').
After the first tests, it turned out that the speaker made a slight noise when there was no sound. That's why I added a relay module that only turns on the power amplifier module when there is something to shout.
Download
Arduino sketch
MP3 files for the MP3 player's SD card
PHP script on the server
At my house there is a so-called NS lamp, a lamp that lights up red when there is something wrong with the train I need to get to work.
After using this lamp for a year, two disadvantages emerged:
* Lamp burns silently without sound green or red, and is not really noticeable. You didn't pay much attention to it anymore, you forgot to look at it when you left the house in a hurry.
* Lamp only gives yes/no info. Why aren't the trains running? Or is there only one train that is not running? Or is there only a few minutes delay?
Solution: the NS speaker
The NS speaker is an announcer disguised as a retro intercom that actively announces at exactly the right time if there is something wrong with the trains departing from my station. He reports if there is a delay and also if there are no trains running at all.
Functional and beautiful
The speaker is housed in a beautiful vintage intercom housing. I sawed the original print of that intercom in half to make room for new electronics consisting of a D1 Mini, MP3 module, relay and power amplifier.
Operation
A D1 Mini calls over WiFi a PHP script that runs on this site. The script connects to the NS API and looks at the situation at the Horst-Sevenum station. If something is wrong, the D1 Mini is instructed to play an MP3 (eg 'delay').
After the first tests, it turned out that the speaker made a slight noise when there was no sound. That's why I added a relay module that only turns on the power amplifier module when there is something to shout.
Download
Arduino sketch
MP3 files for the MP3 player's SD card
PHP script on the server
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