The primary purpose of this project was for me to gain some experience with Python and the Raspberry Pi. Over time the project has grown and bits have been added on and packaged in a wooden case.
Besides a Raspberry Pi this project uses two Yoctopuce modules, a maxi display and the meteo module:
The Elecfreak GSM/GPRS module is used to send SMS-es
Quite a few, typically configurable, functions have now been included. The following chapters describe these functions in a bit more detail.
For navigation the buttons on the maxi-display module are used. From left to right, the buttons are used as follows:
- The first button moves to the next left menu
- The second button moves to the next right menu
- The third button moves up in the menu hierarchy
- The fourth button moves down in the menu hierarchy
- The fifth button is a select button, when supported by the chosen menu the up and down buttons can be used to view additional data for the chosen options such as weather forecasts and loadshedding schedules for the next days on the chosen location. Pressing the select button a second time returns the up and down buttons tho their normal functions
- The sixth button is now used to terminate the info-display program, except when in the "radio" menu, then it is used to turn the radio on and off.
The image below shows the start-up screen, the buttons highlighted.
Note: In the final version as shown in the image at the top of this readme external push buttons are used which are normally closed and wired to 0V. The code has been adapted to accomodate this, further changes were made to reduce the "sensitivity" of the pushbuttons to eliminate spurious signals. To use the internal buttons on the display itself change the code on line 172 of y_button.py from:
if int(value) > 700 and not delayTooShort:
#button pressed
message = configuration.MESSAGE('BUTTON','BUTTON','BUTTON','PRESSED',userData['button'])
...to:
if int(value) < 10 and not delayTooShort:
#button pressed
message = configuration.MESSAGE('BUTTON','BUTTON','BUTTON','PRESSED',userData['button'])
...Using the output from the meteo module temprature, humidity and barometric pressure information is aggragated and shown in in the form of graphs on the display module. Not much to configure here
The system is setup in such a way that one full graph shows just over 24 hours of measurements, if memory serves a sample is taken about once every thirteen minutes.
###Wheather forecast Using the rss feed from yr.no weather forecasts are displayed.
The locations for which weather forecasts are available can be configured in the config.ini configuration file under
the section [weather_yr] as shown in the snippet below:
[weather_yr]
location.0=Langebaan,http://www.yr.no/place/South_Africa/Western_Cape/Langebaan_Lagoon/varsel.rss
location.1=Jeffrey's Bay,http://www.yr.no/place/South_Africa/Eastern_Cape/Jeffreys Bay/varsel.rss
location.2=Buchs,http://www.yr.no/place/Switzerland/Aargau/Buchs/varsel.rss
location.3=Prague,http://www.yr.no/place/Czech_Republic/Prague/Prague/varsel.rss
location.4=Best,http://www.yr.no/place/Netherlands/North_Brabant/Best/varsel.rss
location.5=Slagnäs,http://www.yr.no/place/Sweden/Norrbotten/Slagnäs/varsel.rss
location.6=Karlstad,http://www.yr.no/place/Sweden/Värmland/Karlstad/varsel.rss
location.7=Warsaw,http://www.yr.no/place/Poland/Masovia/Warsaw/varsel.rss
location.8=Newbridge,http://www.yr.no/place/Ireland/Leinster/Droichead_Nua/varsel.rss
Using the up and down buttons will move the menu to the next / previous location. After pressing the select button the up and down buttons move us through the advance forecast for the selected location. Pressing the select button again returns the up and down buttons to their normal function.
Yahoo's finance api is used to visualise exchange rates over time, the graph shown captures
about 2 hours of data, queurying Yahoo about once a minute. Using the up and down buttons one can move through the available
conversions. The conversions shown are configured in the config.ini file under the heading exchange_rates_yahoo as shown
below
As Yahoo's api has become somewhat erratic in providing data the provider can now be changed to xe.com by setting the provider configuration to 'XE'
[exchange_rates_yahoo]
rate.0=CHF,ZAR
rate.1=USD,ZAR
rate.2=EUR,CHF
rate.3=CHF,USD
rate.4=CHF,SEK
rate.5=CHF,CZK
provider=XE
Load-shedding is a concept not everyone, in particular in first world, may be familiar with. But in South Africa due to years of under investment in the state owned electricty company ESKOM the country finds it self in a position where ESKOM is not always able to meet the demand for electricity. In order to avoid a nation-wide black-out ESKOM uses rolling black-outs turning off suburbs based on a rota system for about two and a half hours at a time. Depending on the lack of capacity it may shed 1000MW, 2000MW or 4000MW wich corresponds with stage 1, 2 or 3 load-shedding. The current load-shedding stage and the load-shedding schedules are published on loadshedding.eskom.co.za, The actual load on the system can be viewed on MyEskom, whether to expect load-shedding on any given day and when is published on Twitter
Data from all three sources is pulled together to provide as accurate loadshedding information, for a suburb, as possible. Using the up and down buttons one can view the current schedule and status for the configured suburbs. Pressing the select button changes the function of the up and down buttons so one can move through the load-shedding schedules of the chosen suburb for the following days and current load-shedding stage. Pressing the select button again returns the function of the up and down buttons to normal.
The suburbs for which data is collected is configured in config.ini under the heading [eskom_loadshedding], take note
I've not tested this with multiple suburbs configured, it should work but no guarantees...
[eskom_loadshedding]
schedule.0=Western Cape,Saldanha Bay,Langebaan
A simple MPD (Music Player Daemon) client has been integrated, specifically to tune in to internet radio stations. Using the up and down buttons one can step through the available stations. The select button changes the function of the left and right buttons to volume control, pressing the select button again reverts the function of the left and right buttons to normal. When the radio menu is chosen the radio is on by default and remains on even when navigated away from the radio menu. To turn the radio of use the on/off button in the radio menu (i.e. the sixth button)
The available radio stations are configured in config.ini under the heading [radio_playlist] as shown in the example below.
[radio_playlist]
playlist.3=http://sj128.hnux.com/,Smoothjazz.com - Montereye Bay
playlist.4=http://pianosolo.streamguys.net/live,Radio Solo Piano
playlist.6=http://bbcmedia.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bbcmedia_radio1_mf_p,BBC1
playlist.7=http://bbcmedia.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bbcmedia_radio2_mf_p,BBC2
playlist.8=http://bbcmedia.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bbcmedia_radio3_mf_p,BBC3
playlist.9=http://bbcmedia.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bbcmedia_radio4fm_mf_p,BBC4
playlist.10=http://http-live.sr.se/p1-mp3-192,Sveriges Radio P1 - Swedish
playlist.11=http://http-live.sr.se/p2-mp3-192,Sveriges Radio P2 - Swedish
playlist.12=http://http-live.sr.se/p3-mp3-192,Sveriges Radio P3 - Swedish
playlist.13=http://http-live.sr.se/p4sport-mp3-192,Sveriges Radio P4 sport - Swedish
playlist.14=http://icecast.omroep.nl:80/radio1-bb-mp3,Radio 1 - Dutch
playlist.15=http://icecast.omroep.nl:80/radio2-bb-mp3,Radio 2 - Dutch
Playlist.16=http://icecast.omroep.nl:80/3fm-bb-mp3, 3FM - Dutch
playlist.17=http://icecast4.play.cz:80/frekvence1-128.mp3,Frekvence 1 - Czech
playlist.18=http://pool.cdn.lagardere.cz:80/web-f1-legendy,Frekvence 1 Legendy - Czech
playlist.19=http://pool.cdn.lagardere.cz:80/web-80,Frekvence 1 Osmdesatky - Czech
playlist.20=http://icecast8.play.cz/cro1-128.mp3,ČRo Radiozurnal - Czech
playlist.21=http://icecast2.play.cz/cro2-128aac,ČRo 2 - Czech
playlist.22=http://icecast2.play.cz/cro3-128aac,ČRo 3 - Czech
playlist.23=mms://dms-cl-022.skypro-media.net/argovia-128,Radio Argovia - Swiss
playlist.24=http://stream.srg-ssr.ch/m/drs1/mp3_128,Radio SRF1 - Swiss
playlist.25=http://stream.srg-ssr.ch/m/drs2/mp3_128,Radio SRF2 - Swiss
playlist.26=http://stream.srg-ssr.ch/m/drs3/mp3_128,Radio SRF3 - Swiss
A clock which shows the time in words, implemented in a configurable fashion allowing additional languages to be added.
At present an English and a Ducth clock have been configured. The clocks are configured in clocks.ini under a heading
indicative of the language such as [english] and [dutch]. A dot at the bottom of the screens shows the passing of seconds.
A SMS service is provided through the EFComPro GSM/GPRS module. Each time the loadshedding status changes or the
forecasted loadshedding status changes all subscribers are notified by means of a SMS. Sofar only a load-shedding
SMS service has been implemented. For now the subscribers to the SMS service are configured in sms_service.ini under
the heading [eskom_loadshedding] as shown in the snippet below. I plan to rework the configuration in such a fashion
the subscribers are configured in [config.ini] and the sms_service.ini will be created as required. The data in
sms_service.ini and eskom_db.ini are used to detected whether a load-shedding SMS need to be sent.
[eskom_loadshedding]
subscriber.0 = +27xxxxxxxxx,langebaan
subscriber.1 = +27xxxxxxxxx,langebaan
This installation manual may not be entirely correct or complete so be warned. I will in time test this description and complete/correct as required.
I'm using the 2014-09-09 wheezy Raspbian release, anything of a later date should work too and can be downloaded from the Raspberry Pi website.
With the 2014-09-09 release of Raspbian I've found that the following change is not required, but on some earlier releases
the Yoctopuce hardware would not work correctly without the USB running in "full-speed" mode. Add dwc_otg.speed=1 to the
/boot/cmdline.txt file as shown below. Using 2016-11-25-raspbian-jessie I have found dwc_otg.speed=1 must be set.
dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 dwc_otg.speed=1 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait
To be able to use the UART as a serial interface to the EFComPro GSM/GPRS module we need to turn off the serial console, to do so
remove any references to ttyAMA0 from the /boot/cmdline.txt file, in the example below console=ttyAMA0,115200 and kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200
must be removed.
dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 dwc_otg.speed=1 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait
You'll also have to edit the /etc/inittab file, search for lines specifying the serial port ttyAMA0.
Use “#” at the start of the line to comment it out.
Having made the changes according to the previous chapters the cmdline.txt should now look this:
dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 dwc_otg.speed=1 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait
For the changes to take effect the the Raspberry Pi must be restarted sudo shutdown -r now
For the radio function to work MPD must be installed on the Raspberry Pi, the instructions below also install the Music Player Client which is optional, the radio function does not depend on this. It may help however to test correct installation of the MPD.
sudo apt-get install mpd
sudo apt-get install mpc
Ensure that the /etc/mpd.conf configuration file reflects the following values:
bind_to_address "any"
port "6600"
and
audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "My ALSA Device"
# device "hw:1,0" # optional
format "44100:16:2" # optional
mixer_type "software" # optional
mixer_device "default" # optional
mixer_control "PCM" # optional
mixer_index "0" # optional
}
The info display application uses the mpd2 library to communicate with MPD, to install:
sudo o pip-3.2 install python-mpd2
If Python Install tools are not isntalled, install them as follows:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-pip
To use usb audio by default (on 2016-11-25-raspbian-jessie) create a file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf with the following content
#This sets the index value of the cards but doesn't reorder.
options snd_usb_audio index=0
options snd_bcm2835 index=1
#Does the reordering.
options snd slots=snd_usb_audio,snd_bcm2835
To parse some of the load-shedding data we use the lxml library, to install on Raspberry Pi:
sudo apt-get install python3-lxml
If you would like to install lxml on a Windows environment then download the lxml package
and install it using pip in a command window, the example below assumes the command is executed in the directory where the lxml package
was downloaded to. Note: the latter is not required to make the application run on the Raspberry Pi
pip install lxml-3.4.1-cp34-none-win32.whl
A Python Twitter API, also used to collect load-shedding information (forecast), to install on Raspberry Pi:
sudo pip-3.2 install twython
If you would like to install Twython on a Windows environment then use pip in a command window, again this is not required to run
the info display application on a Raspberry Pi.
pip install twython
If running info_display in foreground gives following error
pi@raspberrypi:~/info_display $ sudo /usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/info_display/information_display.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/pi/info_display/information_display.py", line 34, in <module>
import y_maxi_display
File "/home/pi/info_display/y_maxi_display.py", line 32, in <module>
from loadshedding_eskom import STATUS2STAGE
File "/home/pi/info_display/loadshedding_eskom.py", line 37, in <module>
from twython import Twython
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/twython/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
from .api import Twython
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/twython/api.py", line 14, in <module>
from requests_oauthlib import OAuth1, OAuth2
ImportError: No module named 'requests_oauthlib'
Then install:
sudo apt-get install -y python3-oauth python3-oauth2client python3-oauthlib python3-requests-oauthlib
Python serial library used to communicate with the EFComPro GSM/GPRS module, to install on Raspberry Pi:
sudo pip-3.2 install pyserial
If you would like to install Pyserial on a Windows environment then use pip in a command window, again this is not required to run
the info display application on a Raspberry Pi.
pip install pyserial
Connect TXD pin 8 of the Raspberry Pi to the Rx pin of the EFComPro module, Raspberry Pi Pin 10, RXD is connected to the TX pin of the EFComPro module. If using a seperate powersupply for the EFComPro module then connect GND of the EfcompPro module's powersupply to GND of the Raspberry Pi i.e. pin 6. The numbering of the pins on the GPIO header of the Raspberry Pi can for instance be found on this cheatsheet
At present the Raspberry Pi does not control the Power and Reset pins on the EFComPro module, this means the module needs to be (re-)started manually using the Power button on the EFComPro module itself.
WARNING: the Raspberry Pi is a 3.3V device, connecting 5V to the GPIO pins may cause irreversible damage to the Raspberry Pi
This is the actual info display application, clone it from git:
git clone https://github.com/tarababa/info_display.git
To start the info display application on the Raspberry Pi so it will run in the background:
sudo nohup /usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/info_display/information_display.py &
You can also make the info display application start automatically when the Raspberry Pi starts.
- Make information_display.py executable:
chmod a+x information_display.py - Copy init.d configuration:
sudo cp /home/pi/info_display/etc/info_display /etc/init.d - Make info_display executable:
sudo chmod a+x /etc/init.d/info_display sudo update-rc.d info_display defaults
The next time you restart the Raspberry Pi the info display application will start automatically. You can also start, stop and restart the info display application using the following commands:
sudo service info_display start
sudo service info_display stop
sudo service info_display restart