Tell Others to Stay Away With Your Own Lab Messaging System

If you work or go to school in an environment where people share a common space, leaving some sort of handwritten message outside of the door may be necessary when you’d like to be left undisturbed. For this purpose, Redditor “emnc91” came up with an Arduino-based messaging system in a laser-cut MDF enclosure.

The wall-mounted device has a toggle switch that enables LEDs to indicate “experiment in progress” or “clear,” while more information is shown on an LCD display below. Custom messages can updated over Bluetooth, and a backlight goes on whenever someone approaches via a sonar sensor.

Finally, there’s a doorbell function that flashes a light and can also beep, allowing one to signal the occupants inside without disturbing an ongoing experiment.

[h/t: Reddit]