IocTober Day 7 - Bathroom occupancy display If you’ve worked in a small office with single restrooms, you know the frustration of going to the bathroom only to find it occupied. If you’ve attended a party in someone else’s home you’ve stood outside the bathroom door wondering “Is it occupied? Should I knock?!”. Cyclists looking for an unoccupied shower before work are also often frustrated. My own office has two levels, and the bathroom is right at the back of the lower level, so it is impossible to tell if it is occupied until you have walked some distance.

IocTober Day 6 - Air quality monitoring Today’s IocTober project is about indoor air quality monitoring. This has been a long-term interest of mine, since my wife has debilitating allergies. I was also inspired to think more deeply about the effect of our houses on our health by the work of Brenda, Amber and the team at New Zealand’s Whare Haoura, an organisation that I first encountered in 2017, and which highlights how poorly insulated and ventilated public housing can have a crippling effect on residents, particularly children.

IocTober Day 5 - Marsuipial nesting box occupancy sensors The 5th day of IocTober brings a project that arose from one of the IoTBNE Sunday (mad) Science workshops hosted by Accelerando. SmS attendee “Rob”* (*actually his real name) creates nesting boxes for Wambengers, a native weasel-like marsupial related to Quolls and Dunnarts (Non-Australians, I swear I am not making these names up!). He wanted a way to know if the boxes were occupied, and how frequently the tenants were moving about.

IocTober Day 4 - Solar water heater temperature monitoring We have a solar hot water heater with a gas backup. I always wondered how much effort the solar part contributed in winter. Well, the answer turned out to be “none” because the circulation pump had failed (again), by virtue of fitting a temperature probe under the insulation of the pipework. If you have refrigerators, wine cellars, water heaters or anything where you need to monitor temperature, it’s so easy it’s almost criminal.

IocTober Day 3 - Cat and Possum Behaviour Management We have a new greenhouse, and Senior Kid (18) has quite a penchant for growing herbs and vegetables (none of those flowery things). Unfortunately, junior cat Grace Hopper (2) has decided that the seedling tray is THE BEST CAT TOILET. We needed a way to discourage Gracie from pooping in the greenhouse, and more critically “covering up” by wreaking havoc among the seedlings.

IocTober Day 2 - Airline-style safety lighting for home or workplace Even numbered day. Time for the first serious project of IocTober. Do you get up in the night and inevitably trip over something, or multilate yourself in an encounter with on the most dangerous OHS hazard known to humanity? (tl;dr: Nocturnal Lego) Do you have small children or other incorrigibles who never turn lights out? Here’s a project that I created on the weekend for my book (Yes, I’ll soon be able to say “I Wrote The Book On IoT”).

IocTober Day 1 - The Internet Kettle My family and I are Not Morning People. The very first thing that happens after arising is coffee (or Tea, if you are Mx 18). What can we do to reduce the time and zombie-shuffling involved in waiting for the kettle to boil? Thingify it, of course! Our kettle has a convenient toggle to turn it on, so all we need is an IoT actuator, and… a finger.