I built a "Do not disturb" Device for my home office
I created a custom hardware solution to prevent my parents from walking in on my meetings. Because a locked door is just a suggestion.
I built a "Do not disturb" Device for my home office launched on January 3, 2026 with 99 votes, #349 of 14,584 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches.
In plain words
This is a physical device designed for home office environments that signals when the user should not be interrupted. It helps manage distractions and communicate availability to household members or colleagues. The device offers a simple, tangible way to establish boundaries during focused work sessions without relying on digital notifications or software solutions.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
I created a custom hardware solution to prevent my parents from walking in on my meetings. Because a locked door is just a suggestion. I live with my parents and work from home. I have a nice (makeshift) office room but a lot of times my mother asks me if she can come in the room for reasons I won't get into. This is a story of how I made a custom device to let anyone know if I'm busy with a meeting or not, when it ends and a lot more. This ends with me designing a custom binary protocol that has only one user in the world. I had an ESP32 lying around from a previous project which I didn't complete (I call it "iterative abandonment," others call it "laziness"). I was also incredibly bored.…from apoorv.page
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