rgb-matrix-visualizer

RGB Matrix Visualizer

Render various content to various output devices.

Quick Start

Just run:

./manager.py

and go from there.

Dependencies

You always need:

pip install Pillow bdfparser "qrcode[pil]" evdev wetterdienst

For evdev to find all devices you may need to add your user to the input group or run the scripts as root.

To install wetterdienst on a Raspberry Pi 4 you first need to get a Rust toolchain (install it for root, because the visualizer has to run as root as well):

sudo su
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
# select arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf manually
apt-get install gfortran libopenblas-base libopenblas-dev libatlas-base-dev python3-lxml python3-scipy python3-numpy python3-venv
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

pip install wetterdienst>=0.59.1 polars

The rest depends on the output device chosen. For debugging on your host PC you can use the TestGUI interface with pygame:

pip install pygame

Setup

The other currently supported option is using a Raspberry Pi with the Adafruit RGB Matrix Bonnet and a matching LED Matrix. The tutorial suggests using the Adafruit Raspberry Pi Installer Script for the RGB matrix. This will give you the hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix project which includes the Python bindings used in this project.

Use the included systemd unit to auto-start the script on Raspberry Pi:

sudo cp tools/led.service /etc/systemd/system/led.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now led.service

Adding your own visualizations

Take a look how others are implemented. You can chain the different screens together using Manager and also check for conditions, as seen in CheckHTTP. This should enable you to quickly create something usable.

One goal is to run this project on public events. If this is the case, and you want your own message to appear, simply open up a PR or send an email with a patch. Because of different versions between host PCs and the Raspbian OS, things may look slightly different, especially regarding stuff like animated GIF viewing.

Licensing

This project is licensed as beer-ware:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42):
<xythobuz@xythobuz.de> wrote this file.  As long as you retain this notice
you can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you
think this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return.   Thomas Buck
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The included fonts from farsil/ibmfonts are licensed as CC-BY-SA-4.0.

The fonts from cmvnd/fonts are licensed as GPLv3.

The tiny font is from robey and licensed as CC0.

The included GIFs are from GifCities.

The included DWD weather API documentation is from their website.