Initial install Jan 6
Door Status Boxes
Facility Status
Shows the status of the Facility (Leesburg or Purcellville) as Open or Closed on the Slack channels
leesburgspacestatus and purcellvillespacestatus.
Reading Instructions
The last entry in the channel will indicate the current Status of the Facility.You will need to note the time of the posting and
the estimated duration to determine how much longerthe facility will be open.
Eg: The last entry in the channel says the facility was opened at 10am for 1 hour. It's 10:30 now.Estimated remaining time
the facility will be open is 30 minutes.(Bear in mind that it is always possible for someone to leave and lock up without
touching the Close button, or open the facility without touching one of the Open buttons.)
Operating Instructions
When you open the facility, touch one of the Open screen buttons to show the space:
Open for 1 hour
Open for 2 hours
Open for 3 hours
Open for 4 plus hours
The screen background color will turn to green (the open color). A message will be posted to the leesburgspacestatus or
purcellvillespacestatus channel in Slack (depending on the facility you open). The message will indicate that the space is
open at the current time and will indicate the estimated open time.
When you are ready to leave the space and close up, touch the Close screen button. Message will be posted to the
pertinent channel indicating the current time and that the space isclosed. Screen background will turn red.
The space will NOT automatically close after the estimated open time.
The space will only close when someone touches the screen Close button regardless of the amount oftime that has passed
since opening.If you open the space for 1 hour, touching the open for 1 hour button again will have no effect.
If you open the space for 1 hour, and at any time during or after that hour, touch the 2, 3, or 4+ hour button, a new message
will be posted indicating the space open for the additional estimated hours at the current time.
Lets say you open the space at 12 noon and touch open for 1 hour. A message will be posted:
"Facility Opened on 26-Dec at 12:00 PM for 1 hour."
At 1 pm, you are ready to go. You touch the Close button. A message is posted:
"Facility Closed on 26-Dec at 1:00 PM"
If, at 1pm you decide you need more time, you have two options. You can touch the Open for 2 hours ,Open for 3 hours, or
Open for 4+ hours and a message will be posted to the channel.
What if you only need only 1 more hour? Touch the Close button and then touch the Open for 1 hour button. A Close
message immediately followed by an Open message will be posted.(Software prevents the same button from being touched
twice in a row to prevent multiple open messages from being posted.)
In Leesburg, the device controls the Stoplight (red or green). There is no Stoplight in Purcellville.
You can always manually post a cell phone number or other information to the channel. Like there is a class in the
greenroom or there is a middle school group touring.
Update.
Purcellville and Leesburg door status boxes have been updated with new software. Besides posting to Slack, data is also posted to Google Drive. This is in preparation for web and Android widgets to show the current status of each facility. The only change you may notice is that the background color takes a little longer to change as there is a lot more communicating to Google Drive. Don't worry, just press the screen button and be patient. Thanks !
Update.
Additional updates to the Door Status Boxes.
You can use a web browser to query the current status of the sites.
Use:
for Leesburg, and
for Purcellville.
This will show you the current status and the Assumed Open Until time (estimated from the 'Open for 1, 2, 3, or 4+ hours buttons on the Door Status Box. No guarantees on the time, but will show you the current situation and estimates. (Also, please be aware that google can take up to 5 minutes to update the website (their decision, not mine) so the data may not be perfectly up to date.) You can bookmark these addresses to make them easier to access. You can also likely add them to your smart phone screen by navigating to the page and then selecting 'Add to Home screen' from the browser menu. (Works with Chrome, not 100% sure about others.)
There is also an Alexa skill that will tell you the status of the facilities. Using whatever device you use to manage your Alexa device, go to skills and search for Makersmiths Status. Enable it.
To activate the skill say, "Alexa, what is the space status" and you will hear information on both of our sites. (enunciate clearly, what-is-the-space-status, or you are liable to get a random bit of outer space stuff). (Also, you ordinarily would be able to add this skill to Alexa by saying, "Alexa, add Makersmiths Status skill", but I have had trouble making this work. I think it is because Alexa is having trouble understanding the single word 'Makersmiths'.) Like the google webpage above, the speed of update from the data to Alexa had been a bit slow. I have a request in to Amazon about this and ways to speed it up.
FWIW, the Slack update is almost instant.