Another 8 buildings connected (including outdoor WiFi in the park, and in the shared indoor spaces).

This is my first time working with Hugo, and I must say, it’s quite impressive. I'm using the seamless integration with Cloudflare Pages, allowing for automatic deployment from a git push. Makes it super easy. Having it all in git also allows Nik to post something without having to worry about deploying.

While the export/import process mostly relatively smoothly, it required quite a bit of editing. I’ve saved the most crucial scripts here for historical reference. These should help you get started on migrating HTML to Markdown files. Note that the Tumblr IDs are used as titles, which isn’t ideal, but it’s a starting point.

Thrilled to have the new blog live at blog.FlatTurtle.com. Check it out!

Picture this: you decide to get a custom meeting room table made. You scout around, and a small studio in East Vancouver catches your eye. You meet up, exchange ideas, and decide on a superelliptical rectangle design. They nail it.

Now, you might be wondering why this table-making venture was smooth sailing. Was it because the craftspeople were top-notch? Nope. Did they charge an arm and a leg? Nope. The secret sauce was they (apparently) gave a shit.

This isn't just a furniture saga. It holds true whether you're in a tiny carpentry workshop or a buzzing software studio. When someone's genuinely invests in the work, it's a different ball game. They aren’t just selling you a commodity; they’re offering you a piece of their passion, expertise, and genuine care.

Ever noticed how you’re drawn towards businesses or individuals that show they care? You ask for a quote from four software studios. Three shoot back with a quote, no questions asked. The fourth one, however, throws in some questions, shows concerns, wants to understand the nitty-gritty before talking money. Now, who would you trust more?

I'm 100% sure this is why people are working with FlatTurtle. We solve problems, we do it with the customer in mind (and I assume, we're cheaper than the rest).

Show you care about your work and craft, your customers, and what you do... And people will see the passion and want to work with you.

FlatTurtle has a new site, and there's been some fine-tuning here and there that led to a few typos creeping in. I wanted a quick tool to plug in a page, and that would highlight possible mistakes.

I've been a personal (paying) user of LanguageTool for a few years now (European, and less spammy and dodgy than Grammarly)

Started off with a terminal tool, but in the end that wasn't working out (hard to get the colouring to work and make it clear enough).

Figured a website would be easier:

• Insert a site
• Let it go through the LanguageTool API for mistakes*
• Show what is potentially wrong and explain why so I can go and edit it

(*) Surprisingly hard because it needs to trim all HTML and js and other crap. And it has issues detecting headers (without punctuation) from paragraph text, etc).

It's far from perfect, but it works well enough for half a day of fiddling around.

You can hover your mouse over the red words to get some information as to why something is wrong.

The code, provided as-is, is here, and you can run it using:

python3 -m pip install flask selenium beautifulsoup4 geckodriver-autoinstaller requests
python3 web_check.py --api-key KEY --username EMAIL

And opening http://localhost:5000.

EMAIL is your login, the KEY can be found here.

Have fun.

Mostly made out of plastic (hardened polyester) and metal, unlike the wooden version.

3D render:

Actual design:

Pictures at the office (non photoshoot):

Disassembling the Ilyama display:

End design created by Seendesign. Parts laser cut by Maakbaar.

More at FlatTurtle’s blog.

LCD panel:

Made inhouse by my dad. ;)

Pictures while making the frame:

Added plexi cover (with black bezel) at a later stage.

See prototype v2.0, published tomorrow.

More at FlatTurtle’s blog.

We first opted for wired internet to the cabin (TurtleBox being on top of the cabin, with HDMI to the display in the cabin – the idea was to cover the TurtleBox inside the roof/under some protection in case something would fall, and for moist and dust – this was quickly abandoned due to space & time constraints).

The TurtleBox in this case was again an Intel NUC (Celeron for the first two “tests”, Atom afterwards due to fanless design).

After the first initial test, wired internet was not feasible after our first two cabins:

• pricing of cable (~€450)
• Kone provided wrong cable (some weird color codes, not the regular STP/UTP, coating was too big for STP plugs)
• Test lift one tore the cable (probably got stuck somewhere between the cabin and the wall)
• In test lift two, during a controlled shut down of the lift (due to other repairs by Kone Refurbishments), Kone Emergencies got called by the customer to start up the shut downed lift (customer not being aware of the shutdown reason). Kone Services didn't recognise the new wiring as native or normal, and decided to cut down the cable.

=> So wiring is more (expensive) hassle than anything else.

We realized we didn’t want to go through this mess 10 more times.

I can also tell you lifts are way less ‘clean’ than I would have expected.

The idea my technician (can greatly recommend him for doing an amazing, detailed & clean job) had was to try with WiFi. I was skeptic (10ish floors, lots of metal and other crap inside the shaft)… But it would definitely be cheaper and easier to maintain.

NUCs are mounted on top of the cabin for a clear line of sight. However, after testing this was deemed unnecessary and they got lowered/mounted to the side to provide additional protection.

In the end, I have to say due to all the metal and concrete, signal went WAY further than I’d imagine (we could do two entirely separated shafts with one AP, just the -1 and -2 floors had troubles to have a stable signal). Signal is strong enough to have working WiFi in the (metal) lift cabin, and people working not too far from the (metal) lift doors on the floors can still use WiFi as well (albeit not with the best signal).

WiFi (Ubiquiti unifi, again) uses Power-over-Ethernet and remotely managed using Auki making it very easy to manage and install.

The 12 lifts now have FlatTurtle displays in them, using WiFi as internet connection… And it’s working like a charm!

Oh, and on a plus side, Kone technicians (all of them) were a charm to work with, doing a great job!!

More at FlatTurtle’s blog.

More at FlatTurtle’s blog.

Came out very nicely, and it’s quite solid.

3D renders:

Actual printed design:

Opened up unifi:

Design by Seendesign.

More at FlatTurtle’s blog.

Picture enhanced by Google Plus to add dramatic effect. ;)

Original picture here.

Hardened glass and metal frame.

Indoor use only (not water proof). 32" Samsung display + Intel NUC inside.

Point to Point receiver (Loco M2)

Boxes with power, PoE and switches

Outdoor Access Point (UAP Outdoor+)

This is the effect, of giving a WiFi hotspot (near a window at traffic lights) two additional SSID; by coincidence the same used by the two biggest local ISPs. You can clearly see when I made the change.

Edit (07/09/2014):

Basically, it’s four screw you can easily drill in a wall (using a paper plan/mold, you know the correct distance depending on your display mounting system). 4 others are screwed in the display, and you then click them together. This is more easily done if you’re two (I don’t encourage doing this alone ;)).

This solution comes with pretty much every size of screw you’ll need, so it’s a one box-fits-all solution.

Lately I’ve been using them to keep my doors open (when it’s windy or when my Roomba is cleaning the place).

Price: €30/piece (invoice possible)

(zoom in)

And you’re all very welcome at 12 (Brussels) and 17 (Antwerp).

(The corners are a bit damaged because I had it in my pocket all night yesterday)

I'm sure I have plenty of cards to hand out now. -.-)

Our 46" Samsung screen with a Genesi’s Efika at our (temporary) o-f-f-f-i-c-e, next to L’Oreal in St. Agatha Berchem.

Still lots and lots to do, but we’re slowly starting to deploy InfoScreens all over Brussels.

Be sure to provide feedback and to connect to the wireless Access Point “FlatTurtle.com” (unless our customer explicitly asked not to provide free WiFi ;)) near every screen.

Soon in every building ! ;)