Insanely Bright Phone In Use Light!

I imagine a lot of you out there in instructables land work in an office, or at the very least you know the pain of being on the phone when someone tries to talk to you.  I sit behind a partition, so people often just start talking in my direction, unaware that I'm already on the phone . . . or at least, they used to.

We all have those Plantronics headset/phone lifter combinations half the known world uses these days, so it can be difficult to tell whether or not I'm on the phone at times, even when I am visible.  I asked for an online/in use/indicator light, and what they came up with was a paltry little affair, red lights in a purple case that only has about 100 degrees of visibility and wasn't bright enough to catch your attention half the time.

I wasn't going to stand for it!  If that was the best Plantronics could do, I'd darn well show them one better!

In my shop, I came up with a variety of alternatives and hacks (including this one) to the basic indicator light.  Here I will share with you my final design, as well as some of the abortive attempts and mistakes I made along the way.  Hopefully you will build your own version and share it with us.  In fact, if you do, post some pictures and I'll send you a digital patch, as well as a 3 month pro membership!

Unlike my Plantronics hack, these indicator lights will work for you whether you have a headset or not, as long as the receiver  comes off the cradle when you answer it.



Here's a quick video about it, full instructions are in the following steps:

Step 1 Be Prepared to Make Mistakes!

As a someone who's big into DIY, I am well aware that things may go wrong when I'm making a project.  I have had to scrap entire projects and go back to the very beginning, or fundamentally change the final product when the images in my brain collide with reality.  I have never had so many setbacks with a project as I did with this one.

The very first problem I had was power.  I thought I'd just be able to power the thing off of the same plug the old light fit.  I measured the various voltages, dummied up a prototype and plugged it in--and suddenly the lifter wouldn't lift.  I'm still not sure what I was doing wrong, I guess I was probably just drawing too much power from the system or something.  In the end, I had no choice but to go with a separate power supply.

My original idea for this project was to take the basic concept of the bike lights I built for my daughter way back in my very first instructable and apply it to the in use light for my phone.  In fact, I did just that for a coworker before I built my own, I made three strings of blue LEDs and wired them up to a driver board I'd harvested from a toy.  I put the whole shebang in a clear plastic tube about four feet long and he taped it to the edge of his desk. 

During this process I hit my next snag.  There are a lot of little toys out there that blink and flash for a short time when you bump, bounce, or squeeze them, and the electronics are all very similar.  In order for one of these to work for this project, it has to have three things going for it:  at least 3 spots for LEDs, the ability to drive multiple LEDs in parallel from each spot, and it has to keep flashing when the switch is held down.  I had a shockingly difficult time finding one!  I tried everything in my junk boxes and bought probably four different toys and at least one bike light before I found something in the dollar aisle at Wal-Mart that actually worked.

After I built the light for my coworker, I started on my own.  At first it was going to be a larger version of his, and with more colors.  I built it just like that, in a larger tube, probably ten feet long!  It was kinda cheesy looking though, it just didn't look so great once installed, though it seemed to work alright.  I was testing it at night though, and the next day I realized that I was trying to drive too many LEDs with the little circuit board I had, and they were too dim, people didn't even  notice when they were on!  After a few days of this, and realizing I was really missing my old lights which I could change to suit my mood, I ended up back in the shop redesigning the whole thing.

Even though I had a ton of problems with this, I stuck to it.  I think the final result is awesome and totally worth all the trouble.  Still, there were times I just wanted to throw the whole thing out and just forget about it!

Comments

[mikeasaurus]

And this went over better than the last hack with your boss?

[depotdevoid]

Again, all I got was the raised eyebrow . . . he hasn't canned me yet, at least!

[pokiespout]

That is obnoxious as hell, I love it!

[depotdevoid]

That is precisely the desired response. Thanks Matt, and vote for me!