I use Futura Book or Bold as my main signage font on the Chromecast slides and Laser bulletin board.
It’s classic and telegraphs over long distances.
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The DMS standard for most stuff was calibri for a very long time. That’s what the signs outside are made of.
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if they are lit in some one It would be great to have a clight that tells folks
if a class is is session
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One of the planned renovations is glass windows in the classroom doors. Requested by John Gorman, chair of Classroom. There would be no need to walk into a classroom to see what was happening.
I recall someone (cough @PearceDunlap) who used a blow torch on the metal door at Ladybird to put a window in the doorway between the workshop and front area because it was a constant point of accidents. The window was much better.
I like the idea of a blinking sign or lighted in red to show that a classroom was “in use”.
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There are sometimes impromptu gatherings in rooms hard to tell if it is class
or a meeting or just friends hanging out
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Woah there. It was a sawzall. But yes I was tired of hitting ralph with the door.
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I could see the “light to show a class” system being either hard to implement or too inconsistent with cancelled classes and instructors just forgetting to turn the switch on. This would lead to inconsistency and eventual removal of a system.
laser cut and lighted was what I was thinking. Especally if I got the scrap purple materials i was eyeballing at goodwill last week for the purple classroom.
as for laser cut. what type of material is getting cut here? type 5 plastic? full on acrylic? glass?
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I would go for a manual switch. Easy Peazy.
Tied to the calendar is more elegant and problematic.
@pearcedunlap. I like the idea of a blowtorch, I will change the story to Sawzall if pressed…lol
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I painted over the lines. I ruined makerspace. Moving on.
Here’s a link to the creative arts sign I had designed but it never materialized. I wanted it kinda french bistro-ish - hanging out and down from the wall. (illustrator file)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-9lwxsfTaRgMjl2QW1Kd2tCSFk/view?usp=sharing
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Something like this should work well. Probably could do it with an Arduino and small section of neopixel strip.
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IT WAS YOU, I KNEW IT! 
On goes the organic growth of makerspace.
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I do. Simple 1.5" Aluminum Angle bar from Home Depot, Clear Red Acrylic, Mylar, another piece of Clear Red Acrylic. Riveted or screwed together. About 10" tall and 12" out from the wall.
Attach along the door frame up high above every door. Removable, as we will be shifting many rooms around.
Something like this:
A Stencil font as I would be cutting thru the acrylic. The Mylar would provide an inexpensive mirror backing.
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My other idea uses LEDs (they do make everything better), Power is the problem. Using something like 18650 batteries would help the lights last for a while, but they would need to be replaced and recharged every xx days. That’s a lot of maintenance for us.
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Internally lighted and powered off of AC wall current.
Talk with @StanSimmons, he is looking at ways to discreetly power the tablets outside each classroom. Having 2 things needing a little more power ain’t no thing.
Keeping the 18650s charged would be a huge PITA.
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POE, lower voltage lower electrical shock risk.
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So is running cat 5 through the ceiling. If that’s what is going to happen I’d love to know now so I can just run the cable while I’m doing the cat 5 to the tablets. I think a large "you are here’ map instead of just the building floor plan on the front cork board and vinyl stickers on the doors and above the tablets should be sufficient?
Edit: this reads very snarky and isn’t what I was going for. I’m happy to help get the tablets running and such, I just meant efficiency wise doing them at the same time would be great.
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If we can put signs directly above the Raspberry Pi screens, we can pull power for a few LED’s to light signs from the RPi.
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Stan and I talked last night. His preference is to pull power from the lights.
POE is limited and not really good at feeding power 24x7 on all ports.
I’m real confused because you’re replying to Stan about talking to Stan…so is there anything else I can be doing while I’m already in the ceiling? I was going to try and knock out a couple on Monday the 30th(tomorrow) if I can find the time, I am going to be dealing with places 10 times worse than the DMV though so i may just spend all day listening to hold music 
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