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pizero-weather

Display Time & Weather on Pi Zero e-Paper Display

Weather Forecast

This is a slight modification to my Holiday Greetings repo https://github.com/DennisFaucher/pizero-epaper-greetings. I built this beautiful e-Paper Pi Zero with battery to use as a pwnagotchi and then as an automagic holiday greetings badge. It was time for something new. How about the time and weather (alternating current and forecast) so large that maybe I could even make it out without my reading glasses? Sure, why not.

Hardware

Raspberry Pi Zero W. WITH PINS as I am terrible at soldering. I purchased mine here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32979703845.html

Waveshare 2.13" e-Paper Dsiplay HAT. I purchased mine here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32810080308.html

Software

Raspian

Install Raspbian OS from here https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/ and use these instructions: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/README.md

Connect your Raspberry Pi Zero (rPi) to keyboard, mouse, HDMI monitor and power to run through the usual Linux setup. I picked up all the necessary cable/power accesories here: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14298

e-Paper Drivers

Install the Waveshare e-Paper drivers using these instructions: https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/2.13inch_e-Paper_HAT. Rename the awfully named directory "RaspberryPi&JetsonNano" to just "Pi".

Weather Forecast

I'm using OpenWeatherMap JSON for my forecasts as the API is free for up to 1,000 calls a day.

I could have called the API directly from the Pi Zero with python, but I am lazy and Node-Red makes parsing JSON so easy. Install Node-Red from here and feel free to use my flow export which you can find here. Change the OpenWeatherMap API to your personal API. This flow writes a weather text file to my web server every 15 minutes which the python script running on the Pi Zero picks up for display.

Python Script

The script is pretty simple and based on the e-Paper examples. From a high level the script:

  • Initalized the e-Paper display
  • Gets the current time into a variable
  • Gets the current weather into a variable
  • Gets the weather forecast into a variable
  • Defines font sizes
  • Draws borders
  • Alternates between time + current conditions and time + forecast every 10 seconds

Not very elegant, but gets the job done

Copy files into place

Import my weather flow into your node-red. Change the OpenWeatherMap API as well as the fiel save location for einklarge.txt.

Copy my weatherbig.py to your rPi in the directory /home/pi/e-Paper/Pi/python/examples. Change as needed to pull your copy of einklarge.txt.

Autostart

Add this entry into /etc/rc.local on your rPi

python3 /home/pi/e-Paper/Pi/python/examples/weatherbig.py > /dev/null 2>&1 &

reboot

Enjoy!

Demo video here