What the colors do
From the remote to the browser
I built the stoplight for my office because getting a stretch of quiet work takes more than silencing my phone. There are still notifications, messages, and the browser tab I can open whenever I hit a hard part. With the stoplight, I pick how reachable I want to be from one physical remote. The face on the wall tells me which mode I picked.
An ESP32 uses ESP-NOW and Bluetooth to communicate with the remote, my laptop, and my other devices. The browser extension and a small mobile companion app receive status updates and apply the rules automatically. When I set it to red, my phone goes quiet and the sites I’m trying to stay off become unavailable on my laptop.
Building the light
I modeled the enclosure in Fusion around three RGB LED rings. The ring size drives the lens seats and spacing, with room behind them for the ESP32 and wiring. The housing, face, and lenses are separate parts so I could work on the electronics and the printed pieces independently.
I originally modeled arcade-style buttons with printed plungers and small switches behind them. The mounts looked too fragile, and the buttons didn’t have a good way to stay put. I revised the model for threaded panel buttons that could clamp to the housing with a nut. That turned a handful of moving parts into a hole and a piece of hardware designed for the job.
Was a light, a remote, a browser extension, and an app an overbuilt way to stay off social media? Absolutely. But I can set the boundary in one move, and I can see it from across the room.