extend openautolab blog post

input/blog/2023/2023_12_29_openautolab.md

 post: 'OpenAutoLab' by Kauzerei
 description: Open-Source automatic film development machine
 date: 2023-12-29
+update: 2024-01-02
 comments: false
+github: https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab
 ---
 
 My good friend [Kauzerei](https://github.com/kauzerei) has built [the automatic film development machine OpenAutoLab](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab).
 %-->
 
 Please also take a look at [the OpenAutoLab documentation](https://kauzerei.github.io/openautolab/) for detailed build and usage instructions.
+
+## Background
+
+I haven't really participated in the construction of this machine in any way.
+But we went to 37C3 together, where I fully saw the machine in action for the first time.
+While socializing we noticed that it is (or was) really hard to find the project by googling.
+Neither 'openautolab', 'kauzerei', 'github openautolab kauzerei', or any other combination of these words and quotation marks, no results at all came up.
+
+Therefore I decided to do some "SEO" in the hopes of making it easier for people remembering the name to find the project.
+I also wanted to play around a bit more with GitHub Actions, or CI in general, and GitHub Pages.
+So I came up with [the OpenAutoLab documentation](https://kauzerei.github.io/openautolab/).
+The job was actually pretty easy, because the hard work of writing most of the documentation was already done.
+I just had to find a suitable way of converting these markdown files to html, and host them on GitHub Pages, preferably automated.
+The result is [this GitHub Actions workflow](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/blob/main/.github/workflows/deploy.yml) using [mdBook](https://rust-lang.github.io/mdBook/).
+
+While thinking about making it easier for "normal users" to use this project, I decided to also test out making a web flashing utility.
+The main board of OpenAutoLab contains an Arduino Nano, so it can be updated via WebSerial using a [compatible browser](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Serial_API#browser_compatibility) (only Chromium based ones, unfortunately).
+To do this I used [avrgirl-arduino](https://github.com/sudevkrishnan/avrgirl-arduino) for the update process, and [zip.js](https://gildas-lormeau.github.io/zip.js/), and wrote some JavaScript to fetch binaries from GitHub releases or GitHub actions.
+The result it [this web flashing utility](https://kauzerei.github.io/openautolab/web_update.html).
+
+Of course I also had to add a [workflow to build the firmware hex](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/blob/main/.github/workflows/compile.yml) on each commit push and upload the artifact for new GitHub releases / tags.
+And I did the same for [generating the STL files from the OpenSCAD sources](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/blob/main/.github/workflows/scad.yml).
+
+![Firmware](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/actions/workflows/compile.yml/badge.svg)
+![STLs](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/actions/workflows/scad.yml/badge.svg)
+![Documentation](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/actions/workflows/deploy.yml/badge.svg)
+
+I'm quite happy with the results.
+So this was my small share of hacking on 37C3.