Hardware accessory
Alert beacon
A desk or hallway mood light that mirrors ThermalTrace freeze and flood moods. Same Bay Buddy mood API as the claim puck — not a temperature probe.
What it is
- Does: Shows live bay mood (cozy, drafty, shiver, panic, offline, hero) on a brighter
NeoPixel stick or ring, driven from
GET /api/bays/<bay>/moodvia Bay Buddy. - Does not: Sense temperature, replace Alerts SMS/email, or claim a bay by itself. Pair with a freeze probe and optionally a claim puck for presence.
Parts
| Part | Why | Buy |
|---|---|---|
| RP2040-Zero (or Pico) | USB companion MCU; same host path as claim puck. | Adafruit RP2040 |
| NeoPixel stick / ring | Brighter hallway-visible mood than the Zero’s tiny LED. | Adafruit stick · Amazon |
| 5V USB power | Desk or wall wart; keep data wire short. | Any quality USB supply. |
Setup
- Flash claim-puck firmware (or the alert-beacon pin map in that repo) and wire NeoPixel data to the documented GPIO.
- Claim the bay once with a claim puck (or CLI), then enable Drive puck mood in Bay Buddy for the beacon serial port.
- Confirm moods change when freeze margin drops or a leak puck goes wet.
Amazon buy links may include an Associates tag. Adafruit and other vendor links are direct (Adafruit does not run an affiliate program). ThermalTrace may earn a commission from qualifying Amazon purchases at no extra cost to you.
Related accessories
- Claim puck — USB presence key: claim a bay with a button press, then show freeze and flood moods on an RP2040-Zero LED.
- Door contact puck — Magnetic reed or button contact that POSTs door open/closed to ingest for drafty-bay moods and custom alerts.
- Leak contact puck — Water-contact pads that POST wet/dry flood sensors. ThermalTrace auto-alerts when wet once alerts are on.
- Power outage nudge — USB-mains or UPS sense contact that POSTs power lost/restored so you know when the bay went dark.
- Kit QR & NFC labels — Printable QR stickers and optional NFC tags encoding your push ingest URL for onboarding without typing keys.
- Probe mount kit — Zip-ties, pipe clips, adhesive pads, 4.7k pull-up, and waterproof DS18B20 mounting notes for a reliable freeze probe.
- Claim puck case — Enclosure, button, and optional LED diffuser for the RP2040-Zero claim puck — productize the bare board build.
Alert beacon FAQ
What it does, what it does not replace, and how it fits ThermalTrace.
What is an alert beacon?
A brighter NeoPixel mood light driven by the same Bay Buddy bay-mood API as the claim puck. It does not sense temperature. Setup: thermaltrace.dev/alert-beacon.
Do I still need a claim puck?
Use a claim puck (or CLI) once to bind the bay. The beacon can share the mood-drive serial path afterward.
Can the beacon replace Alerts SMS or email?
No. It is a glanceable mood light. Freeze and flood notifications still come from Dashboard → Alerts channels.