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open source · macOS / windows · MIT
Rattleboard icon — six split-flap tiles in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet on a black rounded square.now showing
v0.1.3 · free

Rattleboard

A split-flap desktop mirror and virtual board for Vestaboard. It waits in the menu bar or the system tray. When the message on your board changes, a live replica flips into view, rattles through every letter on the way, and tucks away again.

No Vestaboard? It can be one. Turn on the built-in API server and point your existing scripts at it instead.

Rattleboard Flagship board flipping through messages — GOOD MORNING, COFFEE IS READY, a departure for gate B12, then IT'S FRIDAY, SEE YOU MONDAY framed in colour chips.
flagship · 6 × 22
Rattleboard Note board, three rows of fifteen tiles, flipping to GOOD MORNING, COFFEE READY, FRI 64°F.
note · 3 × 15

departures · where the messages come from

LOCAL APIReads the board directly over Wi-Fi.ON TIME
CLOUD APIReads it through cloud.vestaboard.com.ON TIME
DEMOSample messages. No board needed.BOARDING
VIRTUAL BOARDNo real board. Shows only what your apps send to its API.NO BOARD

what it does

IT WAITS

Rattleboard sits in the macOS menu bar or the Windows system tray. When the message on your Vestaboard changes, a replica flips into view, then tucks itself away again.

IT RATTLES

The flaps cycle through the real drum order: blank, A to Z, 0 to 9, punctuation, then the colour chips. A synthesized mechanical clatter plays along, if you want it to.

IT STAYS PUT

Pin it as a desktop widget and it stays wherever you drop it. Drag the corner to resize it.

BOTH BOARDS

Flagship (6 × 22) and Note (3 × 15), in a black or white finish.

IT REMEMBERS

A short history of recent changes. Pick one and press Flip again to watch it arrive a second time.

IT KEEPS QUIET

Keys live only in the macOS Keychain or Windows Credential Manager and go nowhere except the Vestaboard endpoint you chose. No analytics, no accounts.

a board of your own

Rattleboard has an optional built-in API server. It speaks Vestaboard: it accepts the Local API, Read/Write API and Cloud API request formats, so scripts and apps written for a real board can drive the virtual one without changes.

It uses a random key kept in the OS credential store. By default it only accepts requests from this computer; there is an option to accept them from your local network as well.

terminal
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:7070/local-api/message \
  -H "X-Vestaboard-Local-Api-Key: <key>" \
  -d '{"text": "Build passed"}'

Get it

Free and MIT licensed. Version 0.1.3. On macOS 11 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel; signed and notarized), install it with Homebrew or download the DMG. On Windows 10 or 11, download the setup .exe or the .msi from the same releases page.

$ brew install --cask slastrina/tap/rattleboard
Releasesdmg · exe · msi ↗GitHubsource ↗

Coming later: iPhone and Android apps with home-screen widgets. They are in development and not released yet.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Vestaboard, Inc.