Fun scrollphathd example

Hi all,

I purchased a scrollphathd as a part of the “Robot” kit and set about writing a fun example python script for it. After a bit of experimentation and tweaking, I came up with an idea to retrieve live weather conditions from wunderground, using a free API key, and display it on the scrollphathd.

The script allows you to easily do the same, and it also has some fun little extras like a “Knight Rider” style pulsing activity bar (used to show that the script is running), a temperature indicator which is customizable to F or C, a relative temperature arrow that shows if the temperature is moving up or down, and a line graph that displays current and gust wind speed.

All you need is a Raspberry Pi (I used the Pi Zero-w), a scrollphathd, and a free wunderground API key.

I tried to paste the Python source code here but the forum made a mess of it. If anyone would like the source, feel free to email me: mark at ehrtech dot com. Enjoy!

PS - Pimoroni folks - if you’d like to add this to your examples on Github, please do so. I’m happy to place this in the public domain for all to enjoy.

Trying the tip to see if I can get the code to display correctly. Thanks!

# wunderground-temp-display.py
#
# Python script to grab Wunderground temperature data and display on scrollphathd. This script shows the current temperature along with an indicator of
#  the temperature trend (same, going up, going down), averaged over a given period of time. It also shows a small line at the bottom which indicates current 
#  wind speed and gusts. Current speed is shown using a brighter color and gusts are show using a dimmer color.
#
# Development environment: Python v2.7.13 on a Raspberry Pi Zero-W running Raspbian "stretch" and default scrollphathd libraries
#
# By Mark Ehr, 1/12/18. Released to the public domain with no warranties expressed or implied. Or something along those lines. Feel free to use
#	this code any way that you'd like. If you want to give me credit, that's great. 
#
# Note: if you want this to auto-run upon boot, add this line to the bottom of /etc/rc.local just above the "exit 0" line:
#	sudo python {path}/wunderground-temp-display.py &
#
# Also note that if you receive an odd "Remote I/O" error, that's the scrollphathd's odd way of saying that it can't 
#	communicate with the display. Check the hardware connection to make sure all of the pins are seated. In my case, it
#	happened randomly until I re-soldered the header connections on the RPi as well as the hat.
#
#!/usr/bin/env python

import scrollphathd #default scrollphathd library
from scrollphathd.fonts import font3x5
import urllib2	#used to make web calls to Wunderground
import json 	#used to parse Wunderground JSON data
import time	#returns time values

#Comment the below if your display is upside down
scrollphathd.rotate(180)

# Wunderground API key
WGND_API_KEY = "paste your key here" 	#make sure to put your unique wunderground key in here

#Customize this for your desired location. Easiest way to figure it out is to do a wunderground location search and copy/paste the tail end of the URL
#	Note that some locations are a bit wonky. If a specific location has a hypen "-" in it and it doesn't work, try substituting an underscore "_" instead
#	Even then, I couldn't get some locations to work properly. Seems like a possible bug in the wunderground API.

WGND_STATION = "gb/london"					#London, UK

# Some other fun stations to try
#WGND_STATION = "ru/yakutsk" 				#Yakutsk, Russia - one of the coldest places on earth
#WGND_STATION = "au/sydney" 				#Sydney, Australia
#WGND_STATION = "gr/athens"					#Athens, Greece
#WGND_STATION = "ae/dubai"					#Dubai, UAE
#WGND_STATION = "us/nh/mount_washington"	#Mount Washington, NH, US - one of the windiest places on earth
 

# Weather polling interval (seconds). Free Wunderground API accounts allow 500 calls/day, so min interval of 172 (every ~2.88 min), assuming you're only making 1 call at a time.
POLL_INTERVAL = 180

# Interval after which the average temp is reset. Used to make sure that the temp trending indicator stays accurate. Default is 60 min.
AVG_TEMP_RESET_INTERVAL = 60

# Flags used to specify whether to display actual or "feels like" temperature.
# Change CURRENT_TEMP_DISPLAY to 1 for actual temp and anything other than 1 for feels like temperature
CURRENT_TEMP_DISPLAY = 0 #feels like

# Display settings
BRIGHT = 0.2
DIM = 0.1
GUST_BRIGHTNESS = 0.2 #show gusts as a bright dot
WIND_BRIGHTNESS = 0.1 #show current speed as a slightly dimmer line

# "Knight Rider" pulse delay. See comments below for description of what this is.
#	Note that this loop uses the lion's share of CPU, so if your goal is to minimize CPU usage, increase the delay.
#	Of course, increasing the delay results in a slightly less cool KR pulse. In practice, a value of 0.05 results in ~16% Python CPU utilization on
#	a Raspberry Pi Zero-W. Increasing this to 0.1 drops CPU to ~10%, of course YMMV. 
KR_PULSE_DELAY = 0.05

# Temperature scale (C or F). MUST USE UPPERCASE.
TEMP_SCALE = "F"

# Max wind speed. Used to calculate the wind speed bar graph (17 "x" pixels / max wind speed = ratio to multiply current wind speed by in order to
#	determine much much of a line to draw)
if TEMP_SCALE == "F": #set max wind speed according to scale
	MAX_WIND_SPEED = 75.0 #MPH; default 75.0
else:
	MAX_WIND_SPEED = 100.0 #KPH; default 100.0

# Debug flag  - set to 1 if you want to print informative console messages
DEBUG = 0

#Initialize global variables before use
current_temp = 0.0
average_temp = 0.0
wind_chill = 0.0
average_temp_counter = 0
average_temp_cumulative = 0.0
total_poll_time = 0 #used to reset the average temp after a defined amount of time has passed
wind_speed = 0.0
wind_gusts = 0
actual_str = " "
feels_like_str = " "
feels_like = 0

#
# get_weather_data() - Retrieves and parses the weather data we want to display from Wunderground. Returns a formatted temperature string
#	using the specified scale. To request a free API key, go here: https://www.wunderground.com/weather/api/d/pricing.html
#

def get_weather_data():
	# Make sure that the module updates the global variables instead of creating local copies
	global current_temp
	global average_temp_cumulative

	global average_temp_counter
	global average_temp
	global wind_speed
	global wind_gusts
	global current_str
	global actual_str
	global feels_like_str
	global feels_like

	#Get current conditions. Substitute your personal Wunderground API key and the desired weather station code
	# Build Wunderground URL using api key and station specified at top.
	# This code retrieves a complete set of current weather conditions and loads them up into a JSON catalog.
	# Note that JSON, while very powerful, can also be very confusing to decode. I'd recommend you do a little reading on
	#	it if you plan on playing around with this code much. It took me quite a while to figure out. 
	url_str = "http://api.wunderground.com/api/" + WGND_API_KEY + "/conditions/q/" + WGND_STATION + ".json"
	conditions = urllib2.urlopen(url_str)
	json_string = conditions.read() 		#load into a json string
	parsed_cond = json.loads(json_string) 	#parse the string into a json catalog
	conditions.close()

	#build current temperature string

	# Check to see if average temp counters need to be reset
	if (average_temp_counter * POLL_INTERVAL / 60) > AVG_TEMP_RESET_INTERVAL:
		average_temp_cumulative = 0.0
		average_temp_counter = 0
		if DEBUG:
			print "Resetting average temp counters"
	# parse out the current temperature and wind speeds from the json catalog based on which temperature scale is being used
	# assumption was made that if C is being used for temp, kph is also in use. Apologies if that is not the case everywhere. :-)
	if TEMP_SCALE == "F": #Fahrenheit
		temperature = str(parsed_cond['current_observation']['temp_f']) #string used for display purposes
		current_temp = parsed_cond['current_observation']['temp_f']	#string used for calculations
		wind_speed = float(parsed_cond['current_observation']['wind_mph'])
		wind_gusts = float(parsed_cond['current_observation']['wind_gust_mph'])
		feels_like = float(parsed_cond['current_observation']['feelslike_f'])
	else: # Celsius
		temperature = str(parsed_cond['current_observation']['temp_c'])
		current_temp = parsed_cond['current_observation']['temp_c']
		wind_speed = float(parsed_cond['current_observation']['wind_kph'])
		wind_gusts = float(parsed_cond['current_observation']['wind_gust_kph'])
		feels_like = float(parsed_cond['current_observation']['feelslike_c'])
	
	# Calculate average temperature, which is used to determine temperature trending (same, up, down)
	average_temp_cumulative = average_temp_cumulative + current_temp
	average_temp_counter = average_temp_counter + 1
	average_temp = average_temp_cumulative / average_temp_counter
	fl_int = int(feels_like) #convert to integer from float. For some reason you can't cast the above directly as an int, so need to take an extra step. I'm sure there is a more elegant way to doing this, but it works. :-)
	fl_str = str(fl_int)
	as_int = int(current_temp)
	actual_str = str(as_int)
	if DEBUG:
		print "get_weather_data()"
		print "Current temp", current_temp, TEMP_SCALE
		print "Average temp" , average_temp , TEMP_SCALE
		print "Feels like", feels_like, TEMP_SCALE
		print "Wind speed: ", wind_speed
		print "Wind gusts: ", wind_gusts
		print "Feels like string: [", fl_str, "]"
		print "Temperature string: [", actual_str, "]"

	#
	# If you want to play around with displaying other measurements, here are a few you can use. You can view the entire menu by pasting the wunderground
	#	URL above into a web browser, which will return the raw json output. 
	#

	#humidity = parsed_cond['current_observation']['relative_humidity']
	#precip = parsed_cond['current_observation']['precip_today_in']
	#wind_dir = str(parsed_cond['current_observation']['wind_dir'])

	actual_str = actual_str + TEMP_SCALE # remove unneeded trailing data and append temperature scale (C or F) to the end
	feels_like_str = fl_str + TEMP_SCALE # remove unneeded trailing data and append temperature scale (C or F) to the end
	if DEBUG:
		print "Actual str: ", actual_str
		print "Feels like str: ", feels_like_str
	return;
# 
# draw_kr_pulse(position, direction) - draws a Knight Rider-style pulsing pixel. I put this in so that I could tell that the app was running, since weather
# 	data sometimes doesn't change very frequently. Plus it's cool. In a geeky sort of way. :-)
#
# 	position = 1,2,3,4,5 (eg which position on the line you want to illuminate)
#	direction = -1,1 (-1 = left, 1 = right). This is used so we know which previous pixel to turn off
#
def draw_kr_pulse(pos,dir):
	# clear 5 pixel line (easier than keeping track of where the previous illuminated pixel was)
	scrollphathd.clear_rect(12,5,5,1)
	x = pos + 11 #increase position to the actual x offset we need
	scrollphathd.set_pixel(x, 5, 0.2) #turn on the current pixel
	scrollphathd.show()
	time.sleep(KR_PULSE_DELAY)

	return;
#
# draw_temp_trend(dir)
# Draws an up arrow, down arrow, or equal sign on the rightmost 3 pixels of the display. Also show wind speed/gusts as a bar on the bottom.
#	dir = 0 (equal), 1 (increasing), -1 (decreasing)
#
def draw_temp_trend(dir):

	if dir == 0: #equal - don't display anything. Clear the area where direction arrow is shown
		scrollphathd.clear_rect(14,0,3,6)
	elif dir == 1: #increasing = up arrow. Draw an up arrow symbol on the right side of the display
		for y in range(0,5):
			scrollphathd.set_pixel(15,y,BRIGHT) #draw middle line of arrow
		scrollphathd.set_pixel(14,1,BRIGHT) #draw the 'wings' of the arrow
		scrollphathd.set_pixel(16,1,BRIGHT) 
	elif dir == -1: #decreasing = down arrow
		for y in range(0,5):
			scrollphathd.set_pixel(15,y,BRIGHT) #draw middle line of arrow
		scrollphathd.set_pixel(14,3,BRIGHT)
		scrollphathd.set_pixel(16,3,BRIGHT)

	return;

#
# draw_wind_line() - draws a single line indicator of wind speed and wind gusts on the bottom of the display
# Current wind speed is shown as as bright line and gusts as as dim line. 
#
# Calculation: calculate a ratio (17 pixels / max wind speed) and multiply by actual wind speed, rounding
#	to integer, yielding the number of pixels on 'x' axis to illuminate. 
 
def draw_wind_line():
	global wind_speed
	global wind_gusts
	wind_multiplier = (17.0 / MAX_WIND_SPEED)
	if DEBUG:
		print "Wind multiplier: ", wind_multiplier
	wind_calc = wind_multiplier * wind_speed
	if DEBUG:
		print "wind calc: ", wind_calc
	wind_calc = int(wind_calc) #convert to int
	if wind_calc > 17: #just in case something goes haywire, like a hurricane :-)
		wind_calc = 17
	gust_calc = wind_multiplier * wind_gusts
	if DEBUG:
		print "gust calc: ", gust_calc
	gust_calc = int(gust_calc)
	if gust_calc > 17:
		gust_calc = 17
	if DEBUG:
		print "Wind speed, calc", wind_speed, wind_calc
		print "wind gusts, calc", wind_gusts , gust_calc
	# Draw the wind speed first
	for x in range(0,wind_calc):
		scrollphathd.set_pixel(x, 6, WIND_BRIGHTNESS)
	# Now draw the gust indicator as a single pixel	
	if gust_calc: #only draw if non zero
		scrollphathd.set_pixel(gust_calc-1, 6, GUST_BRIGHTNESS)
	return;

#
#
# display_temp_value(which_temp)
#
# This module allows the user to specify if they want actual or "feels like" temperature displayed. Feels like includes things like wind and humidity.
# which_temp = ACTUAL or FEELS_LIKE
#
def display_temp_value():
	global actual_str
	global feels_like_str
	# clear the old temp reading. If temp > 100 then clear an extra digit's worth of pixels
	if current_temp < 100:
		scrollphathd.clear_rect(0, 0, 12, 5)
	else:
		scrollphathd.clear_rect(0, 0, 17, 5)
	if CURRENT_TEMP_DISPLAY == 1: # show actual temp
		scrollphathd.write_string(actual_str, x = 0, y = 0, font = font3x5, brightness = BRIGHT)
	else:	#show feels_like temp
		scrollphathd.write_string(feels_like_str, x = 0, y = 0, font = font3x5, brightness = BRIGHT)
	scrollphathd.show()
	time.sleep(1)
	return;

# BEGIN MAIN LOGIC

print "'Live' temperature and wind display using Wunderground data."
print "Uses Raspberry Pi-W and Scrollphathd display. Written by Mark Ehr, January 2018"
print "Press Ctrl-C to exit"
print  "Current weather station: " , WGND_STATION

# Initial weather data poll and write to display
get_weather_data()
display_temp_value() #change this to ACTUAL at the top if you want to display actual temp instead of feels like temp

draw_wind_line()

#
# Loop forever until user hits Ctrl-C
#

while True:
	if not (int(time.time()) % POLL_INTERVAL):
		prev_temp = current_temp
		get_weather_data()
		scrollphathd.clear()
		draw_wind_line()
		if current_temp < average_temp and (current_temp < 100 or current_temp < -9): #don't show temp trend arrow if > 100 degrees or < -10 degrees -- not enough room on the display.
			if DEBUG:
				print time.asctime(time.localtime(time.time())), "Actual temp", actual_str, "Feels like temp", feels_like_str, "-"
			draw_temp_trend(-1)
		elif current_temp == average_temp and (current_temp < 100 or current_temp < -9):
			if DEBUG:
				print time.asctime(time.localtime(time.time())), "Actual temp", actual_str, "Feels like temp", feels_like_str, "="
			draw_temp_trend(0)
		elif current_temp > average_temp and (current_temp < 100 or current_temp < -9):
			if DEBUG:
				print time.asctime(time.localtime(time.time())), "Actual temp", actual_str, "Feels like temp", feels_like_str, "+"
			draw_temp_trend(1)
		display_temp_value() #if you want actual temp, just change to ACTUAL

	# Pulse a pixel, Knight Rider style, just to show that everything is alive and working. Sleeps also keep Python from consuming 100% CPU
	# Use line 5, 14-17
	for pulse in range(1,5):
		draw_kr_pulse(pulse,1) #left to right
	for pulse in range(5,1,-1):
		draw_kr_pulse(pulse,-1) #back the other way

#termination code; clear the display
scrollphathd.clear()
scrollphathd.show()
print "Exiting...."
1 Like

If you put your code between ``` and another three of those it will show correctly. On my keyboard its the key right below the esc key with the ~ on it. Three each of what ever that character is below the ~. Three before and three after your code.

code here

@wild4gadgets you should have a go at forking the Scroll pHAT HD GitHub repository and submitting your example as a pull-request. I’m always happy to guide people through this process and feed back how to make their examples suitable for inclusion.

This then ensures that our repository history reflects the example as coming from you, and I’m always keen to keep credit where credit is due!

Cool - thanks. I’ll give that a go and will let you know if I have any issues figuring it out.

That worked–thanks for the tip!

Just to say I’ve been playing with this.
In the UK we of course use MPH & C.
So I split them apart and created a VELOCITY_UNIT and dropped wind_ from temp_scale into there.

Also finding a local station that has all the correct data can be a nightmare. London worked fine, but I had to go through quite a few places. There are loads of stations near me and I’ve not found a way to specify a specific station.

Anyway I added
print(url_str) at the start of the debug for wether bits n bobs. It’s easy to cut and paste the URL then, then type it all out.

The bit where you convert float to its to string for ave temps.
Is that just to get the whole number part?
actual_str = str(int(current_temp)) works fine for me. Or is that not what you mean in the casting comment?
Although that truncates and doesn’t round, so 2.9C would still be 2C when 3C would be the norm. So I need to alter that at some point to rounding.

And then I got distracted trying to make fade trails on the KR pulse …

This is a Good Thing to be distracted by :D

@bensimmo feel free to submit a GitHub PR with tweaks, if you think they’ll be useful to others! The code currently lives here: https://github.com/pimoroni/scroll-phat-hd/blob/master/examples/wunderground-temp-display.py

That’s the code I started with as it was Python3 compatible. Which is what I use.

I do have the trails working as I gave up clever ways and just loop through a long list of values.
Problem is timing, there is something that makes it go correct at the start and then slow down about 6 or seven lines in iirc.
All respects are choppy.
It’s not clever code though.

That is the KR with trails only and nothing else.
I’ll see if I can do PRs