Side Pulse

Ambient display for the MacBook Pro SD Card slot. Show AI Agent Status

[Peter Kuhar @pkuhar]

Cant stop watching this.

[Peter Kuhar @pkuhar]

The agent working and agent waiting for input.

[Peter Kuhar @pkuhar]

Christmas came early. @DHLUS delivered 6 days ahead of schedule.

[Peter Kuhar @pkuhar]

I don’t know, but sticking out might be better.

today i had them both show agent status.
and the usb-c on the left was glanceable, and you could notice agent completion…
while flush mounted sd card slot version was not.
the slight protrusion on the right photo might be the way to go. its sticking out just a bit. and look good even when off in this fully translucent material.

will do some more experimenting tomorrow.

* dont compare the brightness between them. its just a setting.

[Peter Kuhar @pkuhar]

A bit of behind the scenes.

there is the device in its cradle of pogo pins.

on the left is a chopped of microsd adapter, on the right a rp pico 2 clone acting as an SWD debug probe.

[Peter Kuhar @pkuhar]

One of my goals for the SidePulse Dot (the usb-c one) was to make it as small as possible.

One of the benchmarks of what's doable was the Yubikey Nano 5c.

Missing accomplished. I could make it even a bit thiner, but it would hurt light diffusion. Life and engineering are about balance and compromises.

Width 12mm (vs 12.25 for Yubikey)

[Peter Kuhar @pkuhar]

What would you do with this tiny usb-c RGB LED?

Original idea was to show the status of the AI agent after the lid is closed.

but could so anything.

You controlled it by writing an animation pattern to a file.

echo ‘#00ff00 600ms pulse’ > /Volumes/SidePulse/LEDS.LED

[Peter Kuhar @pkuhar]

This RGB LED thingie for the SD Card slot was originally intended for when you grab and close your laptop to show if AI Agents are running when lid is closed.

But it looks as satisfying when docked.

* this animation shows an agent working.

[Peter Kuhar @pkuhar]

The website for pre-orders is up, it'll ship in 2-4weeks. There are 200 units of SidePulse (sd-card slot) and 200 units of PulseDot (usb-c) available.

https://t.co/dh7cOQj9oW

[Side Pulse @SidePulse]

Link to preorder in bio.

[Side Pulse @SidePulse]

You know that SD Card slot on the MacBook pro that 99% of vibe coders never use.

I had a task running, I closed the lid on my MacBook than wondered, will it complete or pause.

Then I noticed the SD Card slot. What if we put some LEDs in there.

[Side Pulse @SidePulse]

How it works: an app on the mac monitors agent session.
if a session is running, it does not let the mac sleep, even with lid closed.
the led shows a breathing pattern.

after all agents are done, the light turn green and the mac is allowed to sleep.

never wonder.

[Side Pulse @SidePulse]

Hello World

The AI Agent status ambient display for the SD Card slot on the MacBook Pro is ready for pre-order

https://t.co/tIDs4xnYIQ