I built a "Do not disturb" Device for my home office
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HN · launched Jan 3, 2026 · 99 upvotes (top 10%) · 1 view
Niche: smart home and iot devices · 59 launches, 2 in the last 7 days ▼ -60% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Hardware & robotics
- B2C
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 59 launches in smart home and iot devices →
Could you build this?
Partial The status website and desktop agent script are simple, but it depends on physical ESP32 hardware, display wiring, micro-controller firmware, and reverse-engineering OS-level camera status events.
What it would actually take: The solution requires an ESP32 microcontroller running C++/Arduino firmware that drives an e-ink or OLED display, paired with a native macOS daemon monitoring private CoreMedia/AVFoundation log events via `log stream`. The tricky part is reliably detecting OS-level camera and mic usage without public APIs across macOS versions and maintaining power-efficient, resilient Wi-Fi communication between the host and microcontroller.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: ESP32 for remote functionality, FTDI chip or USB to GPIO, Home Assistant with Apple Calendar or Google Calendar automation, OpenWRT router firmware
Concerns raised: Overcomplicated solution to what is actually a communication/boundaries issue, More transistors cannot solve underlying family enmeshment problems, Raspberry Pi may be overkill compared to simpler alternatives
Feature requests: Discord call status integration for automatic DND sign activation, Support for multiple calendar integrations without requiring scripts
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 358 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #27 of 359 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 64 days after the earliest competitor.
- The bedtime · hn · 2026-01-05 · 13 upvotes · similarity 0.54
- I built a task manager in the MacBook notch for my ADHD brain · hn · 2026-02-03 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.49
- I Built a MTA Subway Display So I'd Stop Checking My Phone · hn · 2026-03-20 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- I made a little voice note recorder · hn · 2026-03-03 · 12 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- jumbo-timer · github · 2026-11-10 · 102 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- HASSConnect · github · 2026-09-17 · 11 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- Umless, open-source on-device dictation that writes what you meant · hn · 2026-11-10 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- rekindle · github · 2026-10-22 · 15 upvotes · similarity 0.45
The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.