The Ballmerlyser

Inspiration

Anyone who's anyone knows about the Ballmer Peak, the optimal blood alcohol concentration level for peak programming ability. But after one too many drunk programming sessions turned into drunk party sessions, we decided we needed a more concrete way to get to, and stay at, this mysterious peak. Enter, The BALLMERLYSER...

What it does

It's simple. You breathe firmly onto the MQ3 alcohol sensor, and look at the 3 LED lights. If you're below the Ballmer Peak, yellow will be lit up. If you're above the Ballmer Peak, red will light up. If you're in the sweet spot, it's green. Shrimple as that!

How we built it

The MQ3 sensor gives an analogue output to the ESP8266 board, which turns on the LEDs accordingly. The Raspberry Pi is literally only for 5V power to the sensor. The powerbank is for power, and wait... We're goated...

Challenges we ran into

We'd like to declare the MQ3 alcohol sensor as our largest enemy. Here is a small list of the problems it caused:

Our Raspberry Pi 2B was USELESS since it won't take analogue input from the sensor (and had busted GPIO pins anyway),
Once we had analogue input to the ESP8266, it would cycle from 0 to the max value about every second,
Then the analogue output would behave digitally, i.e. switch from 0 for 0 to the max value for 1,
It would also settle on a seemingly arbitrary number instead of 0, often annoyingly in the range of the Ballmer Peak.

And now, a moment of silence...

Project Graveyard

...for the scrapped ideas.

12pm to 3am: Raspberry Pi
12pm to 6pm: LCD Screen
4pm to 4am: 7-segment display
4am to 5am: Tiny generic button

Gone but never forgotten. As much as we wish otherwise.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our costumes,
Our project,
Managing to find our non-participating third-party to test on off campus without totally breaking The Ballmerlyser.

What we learned

We mastered the art of plugging stuff in to breadboards, taping things together, and knowing when to go home and nap.

What's next for The Ballmerlyser

Distribution to all Computer Science departments across the UK, and, once programming literacy inevitably skyrockets thanks to us, across the world. Humans will overtake AI once more. You're welcome.

Steve Ballmer going wild on stage.