BellGuardian

BellGuardian is an open-source implementation of BellMinder, a school bell system created by Techenz. This repo is a work in progress.

Why?

The original software is 20 years old and doesn't run on Windows 11 without a lot of messing around due to it being written in Visual C++ 5 or 6. Some schools still use the bell system, so an open-source implementation of the software is pretty much a necessity at this point.

What's left to do?

• Implement a UI
  • Way to set term times (e.g. pick start date, pick end date, click "Add", repeat)
  • Import dates and times from CSV, JSON etc.
• Test on actual hardware and make sure all features are 1:1

Contributing

There's a few ways you can help:

• Pull Requests to add new features and fix bugs
• Create issues for feature requests or bugs you come across
• Test this on actual hardware. We've got three controllers boxes, but only cables for two of them, meaning I can only do non-disruptive testing outside of work hours.
  • Load up a schedule and send the plan to the controller, then do the same using the official software and compare the results using serial port capture software.
• Let me know if you use this product and what your experiences with it are.

Building

BellGuardian was made using Visual Studio 2022, so build with that.

Learn more about BellMinder

Check the Wiki for all the information I have about the BellMinder software and hardware.