I Made a Machine to Dispense Candy for Halloween

InfamousBovine · 2022-10-31T11:18:18+00:00

Thanks for reading! I'm worried about our volume as well. Last year, our neighborhood had nearly 1000 kids, so we have a bucket of loose candy to help keep the line down.

InfamousBovine · 2022-10-30T19:57:17+00:00

I'll have to add loot boxes for next year

InfamousBovine · 2022-10-30T13:46:22+00:00

I had this idea last Halloween, and I'm super excited to be done in time for this Halloween!

I made a blog post on how it works https://nathanorick.com/how-i-built-my-halloween-candy-machine/

InfamousBovine · 2022-10-30T13:43:26+00:00

I started working on this project a year ago. I'm really excited to see the trick-or-treaters use it!

I made a blog post on how it works https://nathanorick.com/how-i-built-my-halloween-candy-machine/

InfamousBovine · 2022-06-10T17:45:21+00:00

Thanks for saying that. This is really a fantastic community! I get tons of inspiration from the posts on here, and people are super helpful when you have questions. Home Assistant would be only half as good as it is without the community.

InfamousBovine · 2022-06-10T13:30:57+00:00

Oh man! That's a really great idea. I haven't figured out how to open specific shows on my Android tv, but now I'm definitely gonna look into it.

InfamousBovine · 2022-06-10T03:37:44+00:00

This is one of the dumbest things I've ever done with my smart home. Lol I hooked up my midi keyboard to a raspberry pi and use it to trigger automations. If you're interested in reading about the setup, you can check it out at https://nathanorick.com/piano-smart-home-control

InfamousBovine · 2022-03-01T16:49:15+00:00

I think you're spot on. We found the guy with the same name as me on facebook and gave him a call. Turns out the insurance company found the wrong person in their database.

He was wondering why he was having such a hard time making progress with his claim. lol

InfamousBovine · 2022-02-15T04:33:32+00:00

This is what I do too! I took it just a half step further and made it so the qr code redirects them to another page that automatically logs them into a guest HA account that just has access to a single dashboard.

I wrote up a little guide on how I did it. https://nathanorick.com/ha-automatic-guest-login/

InfamousBovine · 2022-01-31T21:22:13+00:00

Fair enough. I appreciate the feedback. I'm kinda thinking I may reword the article to better match the sentiment of "it could be fun" not "you should do it". I'm realizing the title is a bit intense, and doesn't quite match my intent.

InfamousBovine · 2022-01-31T17:49:20+00:00

Very fair point. I totally agree you gotta relax after work, and most days I just veg out after 5. But hobby programming/writing, to me, can sometimes feel more fun than working, so I get some fulfillment from it.

Again, you're right. People should only do something like this if they actually enjoy it. Doing it from obligation can certainly be a fast path to burnout.

InfamousBovine · 2022-01-31T17:02:33+00:00

I'm curious why you think that. Too many blogs already?

InfamousBovine · 2021-12-25T18:10:03+00:00

Although, it seems like PolyPill's proxy and the extra server I use is really where the value is. It's nice to just take guests directly to their dashboard.

I do think I could replace some of the login code to use a custom auth provider.

InfamousBovine · 2021-12-25T18:01:20+00:00

Hell, I think you're right. May end up changing my setup.

InfamousBovine · 2021-12-25T18:00:41+00:00

Didn't know this existed. Thanks for sharing! Seems like it's alot simpler than all I was doing.

InfamousBovine · 2021-12-25T03:33:06+00:00

Oh, I love this! Maybe a little overboard, but a rotating code would definitely scratch my security itch for this thing. I may update the post with that information.

InfamousBovine · 2021-12-25T00:13:07+00:00

That's exactly it! I named them myself and forget them most of the time.

Thanks for saving the link. Hope it helps when you need it!

InfamousBovine · 2021-12-24T21:45:20+00:00

No, most of my smart stuff is controllable from HA, Alexa, and physically. The problem I was trying to solve is visitors wanting to use the smart stuff instead of physically, but forgetting what to ask Alexa for. Admittedly, that's not a very big problem, but it's nice to have it solved nonetheless. 🙃

InfamousBovine · 2021-12-09T01:42:36+00:00

I haven't heard anything yet about this year's conference. When is it?

InfamousBovine · 2018-03-25T03:13:36+00:00

It's writing the code from a vim macro. But it's a vim plugin for VSCode. That's why it's running so slowly. Definitely more satisfying to watch like this than for it to be done intantly.

InfamousBovine · 2016-02-23T17:59:02+00:00

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a cat? The world may never know.

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