Father Ted Kilnettle Shrine Tape Dispenser
64 comments
·June 1, 2025austinallegro
Padriac
I never get sick of this https://youtu.be/jzYzVMcgWhg?si=95fQL3PMCFt2ZtN-
kefabean
One of my favourites https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4fBbhyzE9A
butz
We have to lose that sax solo!
theamk
One of the hardest things in Arduino-based designs is power savings, and this one is not an exception.
This design has no power saving, which means it will only last few hours tops on the batteries. This could be improved, but the current design (ESP8266 + analog IR sensor) does not really work with low power.
A good start would be to put a 2nd low-power micro on IR encoder that'd (1) count pulses (2) wake up ESP8266. This will allow one to keep complex stuff (audio out) using Arduino libraries, while small piece of hand-written code will take care low power stuff.
A more advanced design would be to get rid of ESP8266 and switch to low power MCU. If you keep audio uncompressed, a small MCU (STM8 or AVR8) is perfectly capable of playing some speech... and it will only take microamps in sleep/sense mode. You likely won't be able to use as many pre-made libraries however, so this is substantially more development time.
dTal
I think you can do even better and make one that draws no power when not in use - since the activation is a physical movement, you could design it in such a way that it closes a physical switch.
FionnMc
I genuinely never thought I'd see Father Ted, let alone the lourdes tape dispenser on the front page of HN. What a great day.
mywacaday
Sitting have a lazy late breakfast, sun is shining and this comes up, great start to the day. Showed my wife and she had the great idea that we should watch Fr. Ted from the start again. Fr. Ted first came out when I was in college in the 90s, Thursday night was the big night out for students and as new episodes of Fr Ted would air at 9pm our night out would start in a jammed pub with everyone watching it on a big screen. On a side note, not sure if this would be a sacrilegious or an ecumenical matter but having voice options for Ted, Dougal, Fr Jack, Mrs Doyle, Bishop Brennan, Fr Noel Furlong, Fr Stone, Fr Fintan Stack, Tom, Henry Sellers. That's just off the top of my head, there are many more.It was such magnificent writing and acting that characters that only appeared in one episode would still be mentioned as a joke or reference among my generation. Fond fond memories.
esperent
> Fr. Ted first came out when I was in college in the 90s
I was a teenager, and some of the episodes were filmed at my school. The lovely horse video is the field behind my school where we used to sneak out during break. They even stopped class one day to film a scene at the front of the school - they used the school building as the outside of the craggy island sports center.
sandworm101
I don't believe it.
nabla9
Talk about Baader–Meinhof phenomenon.
Just a week ago I became aware of Father Ted and watched only the show with the tape dispenser because it was recommended to me by Youtube. This article is year old, and shows up now in my feed.
stavros
Yesterday I found out about the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and now I see it mentioned! Must be the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon phenomenon.
gizajob
I’ve never heard of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon so I’m now wondering what the week ahead holds for me and the gang.
dymk
That's actually now the Baader-Metahof phenomenon
vgeek
This seems to be an ecumenical matter.
vmilner
Did Father Ted have much impact in the US? - it always seems v British/Irish in its humour (but that’s true of Monty Python of course and that obviously made it over there)
kadoban
It didn't have the cultural impact of many other shows, though certainly some people know of and have seen it. It's less well known/referenced than even Red Dwarf and other fairly niche shows in my experience.
dylan604
BBC America is a thing since 1998
vmilner
I forget that shows from non-BBC channels in the Uk can get shown on BBC America.
Padriac
We loved it in Australia.
zeristor
They could do a Mrs Doyle on that:
“Go on, go on, go on, go on, goes on”
Or that gives you a coup of tea instead
anonzzzies
It's a microcake! You won't feel it going in!
Ylpertnodi
Does it have cocaine in it? I mean 'raisins'. I love cinnamon.
Macha
> a coup of tea
I mean, I wouldn't put it past Mrs Doyle if some government got in the way of her serving tea, I suppose.
userbinator
The logic runs on an ESP8266 microcontroller instead of a Raspberry Pi Zero, all of which means the electronics inside can be purchased for less than €10.
This looks like the type of application which, if mass-produced, would have the electronics done on a $0.10 mask-programmed COB.
scottlamb
Neat project!
> Instead of a rotary encoder to measure the tape rotation, it now uses an IR led and sensor.
I don't get it; how does this work? Are there openings at certain positions in the reel that it detects the light through? Why is this better than the rotary encoder design?
stephencoyle
Thanks!
> Are there openings at certain positions in the reel
Yes, that's exactly it! The spool has holes, and there's an IR emitter/detector on either side. You can view the STLs on the GitHub repo or Printables and see for yourself.
It's better than the rotary encoder [for this project specifically] because it's cheaper and doesn't require the sensor to be a load-bearing part.
null
anonzzzies
Father, what's it all about?
austinallegro
That money was just resting in my account. Ask Pat Mustard.
10yearsalurker
Shoddy shoddy shoddy
(My lovely, lovely, lovely horse)
My lovely horse (My lovely horse) Running through the field (Running through the field) Where are you going, with your fetlocks blowing in the wind? (All Summer)
I want to shower you with sugar lumps And ride you over fences Polish your hooves every single day And bring you to the horse dentist
(My lovely, lovely, lovely horse)
My lovely horse, (My lovely horse) You're a pony no more (You're a pony no more) Running around with a man on your back Like a train in the night... like a train in the night (I Love You Anyway) My lovely, lovely, lovely horse