Window Covering
I&#x27;d like to cover my windows. Goal:<p>- Block out light at night (neighbors have rather aggressive lights)<p>- Allow light in during the day, and not block too much sun (normal curtains cover a bunch of the side of the window)<p>- Insulate during the winter<p>- Cleanable (cheap blinds just get thrown away and replaced once covered with dust, since they&#x27;re basically impossible to clean properly). Ideally, it&#x27;d go in the washing machine.<p>- Maintainable. Pure mechanical is great. Arduino &#x2F; micro:bit with fixed firmware is fine. Something running in node on my desktop WILL break when node node 35 comes out running on Ubuntu 2034, and I hate projects which break. I have projects in my house from decades ago which work. NOTHING from that era which requires software works. Even one FPGA project needs to be reflashed, and there&#x27;s no way to do that without some discontinued proprietary tool on Windows 98 or something.<p>Bonus: Automatically (and quietly) have these open to let sun in during the morning, and (quietly) close at night.<p>I don&#x27;t like pull-to-the-side, since they cover up a lot of the window during the day, and take up a lot of space.<p>Resources:<p>- I have a nice sewing machine<p>- I have a basic machine &#x2F; woodworking shop<p>- I have a very nice EE lab<p>- I have time (I can&#x27;t say I have too much time, but I don&#x27;t need this today, and working for a few hours each week for a few months, projects eventually get done)<p>I&#x27;m not rich by HN standards. I can afford normal stuff, but I can&#x27;t afford e.g. a $1000 contraption engineered in Japan for rich folks. I&#x27;m much more in the &quot;rig something up with a used car window motor&quot; camp than the &quot;buy something nice&quot; camp.