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submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by metacolon to c/foss@beehaw.org

Inspired by this Mastodon account, I programmed an ESP8266 microcontroller to act as a traffic light, indicating the current electricity mix. Check it out on Codeberg! It uses an API from the Fraunhofer Institute and the parts cost around 5โ‚ฌ. In my shared flat we use it as an indicator on when to run demanding devices, like the washing machine.

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[-] 0x4E4F@infosec.pub 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

We don't need that around here, 10PM to 7AM electricity is half price. Sunday all day as well. That's about all I need to know.

Good project though ๐Ÿ‘. See if you can make it completely free of charge (without paying those 5 euros).

[-] metacolon 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

By saying that it cost around 5โ‚ฌ I meant that the material to build this cost me around 5โ‚ฌ. I would happily set them up for free if one gave me the material for free, but the microcontroller and so on do cost some money.

The API and (of course) the source code are free (as in freedom, being AGPL licensed). And since I did my best to document it well and provide easy to follow instructions in the README, I do think I managed to make it free as in freedom.

[-] 0x4E4F@infosec.pub 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Oh, sorry, didn't understand it like that ๐Ÿ˜... thought that was the price of the license for the library ๐Ÿ˜.

Of course, the parts come at a price, no surprise there ๐Ÿ˜‚.

[-] Lemongrab@lemmy.one 4 points 11 months ago

Free as in freedom, not free beer. Its understandable why a dev might do that.

[-] 0x4E4F@infosec.pub 1 points 11 months ago

That is what I was implying as well. If it's open source, it doesn't mean it's free (as in freedom). Make it free (as in freedom), which would imply that it doesn't have to cost anything, if you have the knowhow.

this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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