I built an intercom for my 6 yo to keep us connected during quarantine
Infrastructure
home intercom
SHOW HN2021
I built an intercom for my 6 yo to keep us connected during quarantine
An intercom for my 6 yo to keep us connected during quarantine
chordata.cc#intercom#kids#telegram voice messages#home intercom#quarantine
How HN took it
10 positive, 22 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 6 critical, out of 38 comments about the project. Thread score +0.05.
Idea: 4 for, 3 againstPerformance: 1 for, 1 againstDesign: 2 for, 0 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 againstPricing: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Wholesome and fun project
From 3 comments
Wonderful project. Thanks for the write up! I like that you were able to assemble it together.
ronyeh on HNI love this. I'm curious what the buttons do though. What's the purpose of the play queue? Are you able to see when a new message comes in?
spicybright on HNThis is adorable - I love the name.
visviva on HN
Objections
Telegram is unencrypted and third-party for messages meant for children
From 1 comment
Interesting choice to use Telegram voice messages for the intercom. I don't think I would've personally trusted Telegram's unencrypted, third-party system to store messages…
jeroenhd on HN
Site went down under traffic
From 2 comments
The site seems to be down? Something like WP Super Cache would help a lot during traffic spikes: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/
celsoazevedo on HNSite is down sadly
gruellan on HN
Requests
Use simpler or more self-contained hardware and software
From 1 comment
An intercom/telepresence for kid is a nice idea, and sounds fun to build. Especially when building things with impressionable kids, I'd like to encourage people to try to figure…
neilv on HN
Questions
What do the buttons do and is there a play queue
From 2 comments
I love this. I'm curious what the buttons do though. What's the purpose of the play queue? Are you able to see when a new message comes in?
spicybright on HNThe white buttons are a play queue of the last 4 messages I sent. When a new message arrives the corresponding button blinks.
daylankifky on HN
Alternatives named
Smart speakers like Google Home and Alexa announce
From 2 comments
I know they're unpopular on HN, but smart speakers are an easy off-the-shelf solution for this, saying "Hey Google, broadcast 'dinner in ten'" will cause all the…
blacksmith_tb on HNIf you have multiple Echo devices you can do “alexa announce _____”
drivers99 on HN
Walkie-talkie or Apple Watch walkie talkie mode
From 2 comments
The website appears to be down. Having said that... I may not be remembering this correctly, but didn't most mobile phones also have a walkie-talkie feature built-in in the 90's…
gsmo on HNThe Apple Watch has a walkie talkie mode which works for person to person communication.
PurpleFoxy on HN
Squawk
From 1 comment
For anyone interested in push-to-talk/intercoms we built a free tool at the beginning of quarantine last year called Squawk - https://www.squawk.to
zumachase on HN