Problem:
Previously we had whiteboards that had laminated indicators velcroed on.
These were placed on the sides of the partitions between the desks, all faced the walkway so you had to kneel down to write on them. Plus, many were obscured from view down the office by cabinets along the side of the walkway.

Solution:
These boxes are light-up indicators that can be seen the length of the R+D office, push-buttons change the lights, and details can be written on the laminate overlay with a fine dry-wipe pen.
The buttons are software debounced, and toggle between green and red for short presses. If held, they will change blue, then yellow, then black (off). when short pressed from any state except green, it will turn green.

The status is also saved to EEPROM and restored upon bootup so the status persists through power cycles.

These have had 433MHZ transmitters fitted (with sticky tape in some situations) and a reading is taken from pin A1 to determine role (address). This can be picked up by the repeaters fitted outside the office.

Of course, this wouldnt be complete without an easter egg, for the pods, after the 50th buttonpress it waits 5 seconds (for the person to walk away) and initiates one of 5 sequences.

For the repeaters, a particular packet can be set to initiate the patterns, I've made a EASTER_EGG_TX on breadboard that does this every 10 mins or on demand via CLI

Ideas Discounted:

 - RFID triggering - cant change if left ID pass at home and cant change someone to 'Sick' status without thier card

 - Fingerprint scanner - similar issue, cant change someone elses status

 - screen for status - too much of a pain, dry-wipe pen is simple (no keyboard needed etc)

• Code can be found here:

  https://github.com/hopo28/in-out-board