You can now build your own "Netflix and chill" button
You can now build your own "Netflix and chill" button
Netflix is all for taking a euphemism too far. The online content provider made a step-by-step online guide for building a functional “Netflix and Chill” button, called The Switch, with a primary function of firing up your Netflix app on your smart television, while concurrently dimming your smart light bulbs in a single press. Adventurous builders who want The Switch to do more can code it to deliver food and silence your smart devices for a convenient, uninterrupted evening indoors.
Netflix provides the 14 general steps to getting the basic version of The Switch ready. To make the D.I.Y. process easier, they have also provided their preferred materials and programs used for building and coding the one-press miracle. Most of the design files provided are in SLDPRT file format for SolidWorks (3D computer-aided design software). The source code for turning the television on, and lights off, is written in a format compatible with a specific micro-controller - the Particle Core.
If you’re particularly proficient with coding, you can extend the functionalities by referring to their optional “Do More” steps, which includes bestowing Internet access to your button, opening up options such as ordering delivery food and silencing your mobile phones. The Internet capability requires you to get a Raspberry Pi (single-board computer), and the phone-silencing functionality requires you to install and configure an Android app on your mobile device, with the APK files provided on Netflix’s guide.
It is important to note that all the other components that makes your Netflix-and-chill evening possible – from the comical arcade button, Wi-Fi controlled lights, soldering iron for building, implementation of the code, Netflix subscription on a smart television, and date for the evening – will have to be supplied by yourself.
If you’re interested in building your own button, you can start by finding all the necessary schematics and materials list here. If you’re still not entirely sure what “Netflix and Chill” really means, you can read this detailed post about the phrase and what it has become.