Fun with the Staples Easy Button
Staples is selling big red "easy" buttons. They're large red buttons that sit on your desk. When you push down on the button, it says "That was easy!" They cost a whole 5 bucks. And the proceeds go to the Boys & Girls Club of America.
They're fun just to have sitting around. But some folks have been hacking them, trying to find a way to modify the audio or create their own messages. And that's cool. Hard, but cool.
But when I look at the easy button, I see a big-ass momentary switch. Go browse around Radio Shack and see how big a switch you can get for $5. Maybe an inch across? And probably not surface-mountable. But this sucker is more than 3 inches across. And bright red. And it says "easy" in big white letters.
See, here's my problem: The crappy little doorbell push-button thingy that opens our garage door just isn't up to the task. It doesn't work reliably. It falls apart. It's hard to find in dim light. In short, it sucks.
So I decided to replace it with an easy button. Granted this isn't the greatest hack in the world. But for 5 bucks, I have this big red button on the garage wall. (Well, plus another $1.29 for a little baggie of alligator clips.)
Anyway, I took lots of photos along the way and they're all up on Flickr.
