UK Train Departure Display

NOW UPDATED TO USE Real Time Trains API !!

This has been done because Transport API now has draconian usage limitations, the free tier is now down to 30 API calls a day from 1000!

You can still use the Transport API but you will need a commercial agreement.

A set of python scripts to display replica near real-time UK railway station departure data on SSD13xx style screens. Uses the publicly available Real Time Trains API

• Installation
• Configuration
• Running

Installation

To run this code, you will need Python 3.6+

To install the latest version of Python (3.7 at time of writing) on Raspbian, go here.

You will likely need to set up an alias so that when you type Python you get the latest installed version, a handy guide on how to do this on Raspbin is here. If you used the above guide to install the latest Python your path to the executable will be /usr/local/bin/python3.x

Raspbian Lite

If you're using Raspbian Lite, you'll also need to install:

• libopenjp2-7 with:

$ sudo apt-get install libopenjp2-7

Clone this repo

Install dependencies

$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

If you installed Python using the above guide you will need to use pip3 instead of pip to install the requirements, if not or if your pip is aliased to python 3.6+ you can just use pip

Configuration

Sign up for the Real Time Trains API, and get your username and password.

You can still use the old transportAPI (fill in the details and change apiMethod to 'transport') as an alternative but you will either need to have a commercial agreement as the limits on API calls are now so small it is not pratical to use in a real time way.

Copy config.sample.json to config.json and complete.

{
    "journey": {
      "departureStation": "",
      "destinationStation": null,
      "stationAbbr": {
        "International": "Intl."
      }
    },
    "refreshTime": 180,
    "transportApi": {
      "appId": "",
      "apiKey": "",
      "operatingHours": "0-23"
    },
    "rttApi":{
        "username": "",
        "password": "",
        "operatingHours": "6-23"
      },
      "apiMethod": "rtt"    
  }

General Settings

refreshTime - how frequently it asks for new data from the chosen api, there will be two api calls each time this time elapses, be aware the free tier of transport api (not used by default) has 30 calls a day.

Journey Settings

departureStation - the short code for the starting station

destinationStation - the optional short code for the destination station

stationAbbr - a list of words and their abbreviations that can be used to shorten station names, useful for small displays.

Real Time Trains API Settings (Default)

username - your real time trains username

password - your real time trains password

operating hours - the range of hours you wish the display to actively request train times, be aware the free tier API has a limit of 1000 calls a day.

Transport API Settings (DONT USE)

appId - your transport api application ID

apiKey - your transport api key

operating hours - the range of hours you wish the display to actively request train times, be aware the free tier API has a limit of 1000 calls a day.

Setting The Live API

apiMethod - By default this is set to 'rtt' to use the Real Time Trains API, to chnage to the transport api set this to 'transport'

Running

There is an example run.sh script in the root directory that will start the application and attempt to talk to a SSD1322 display via SPI. You will need to adjust this to suit your own requirements

For example

Change the --display flag to alter the output mechanism (a list of options can be found in this README: https://github.com/rm-hull/luma.examples). Use capture to save to images, and pygame to run a visual emulator.

Pass --interface spi if you are using SPI to communicate with your screen. Otherwise, the default of i2c should suffice.

$ python ./src/main.py --display ssd1322 --width 256 --height 64 --interface spi

Example Output

Normal Operating Hours

Out Of Hours / No Trains

Video demo

Chris Hutchinson tweeted a video demo of the original software running on a real device: https://twitter.com/chrishutchinson/status/1136743837244768257 I will update this with a video of the modified version at some point in the future.

Thanks

A big thanks to Chris Hutchinson who originally built this code! He can be found on GitHub at https://github.com/chrishutchinson/

The fonts used were painstakingly put together by DanielHartUK and can be found on GitHub at https://github.com/DanielHartUK/Dot-Matrix-Typeface - A huge thanks for making that resource available!