Weatherbox

Weatherbox is a simple weather display built with a Raspberry Pi and a Waveshare ePaper display.

Installation and setup

Software Setup

First, install Node.js. Make sure to download the version of Node.js that corresponds to your Raspberry Pi's architecture.

For Raspberry Pi 4/3 B+ (armv7l):

$ wget https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v12.x/node-v12.6.0-linux-armv7l.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf node-v12.6.0-linux-armv7l.tar.gz
$ sudo cp -R node-v12.6.0-linux-armv7l/* /usr/local/

For Raspberry Pi Zero (armv61):

$ wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v11.15.0/node-v11.15.0-linux-armv6l.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf node-v11.15.0-linux-armv6l.tar.gz
$ sudo cp -R node-v11.15.0-linux-armv6l/* /usr/local/

Next, install the libraries required for the display:

$ sudo apt install python3-pip
$ sudo apt install python-imaging
$ sudo pip3 install spidev
$ sudo pip3 install RPi.GPIO
$ sudo pip3 install python-pil
$ sudo apt install fonts-roboto
$ pip install pyyaml

And install the libaries required for the server:

$ cd weatherbox-server
$ npm install

Now, go to Darksky and ipstack and get API keys for both. Insert them into weatherbox_server/src/internal/config/darksky-config.json and weatherbox_server/src/internal/config/ipstack-config.json respectively.

{
    "endpoint": "https://api.darksky.net/forecast/",
    "apiKey": "<darksky api key>"
}

{
    "endpoint": "http://api.ipstack.com/",
    "apiKey": "<ipstack api key>"
}

(Optional) You can set your location in weatherbox_client/config/weatherbox-config.yaml. Go here to get your location. If you choose not to set your location, the ipstack API will do a geolocation based on your ip address.

options:
    - location:
        latitude: <latitude>
        longitude: <longitude>

Finally, since the Waveshare display uses the SPI interface, it has to be enabled on the Raspberry Pi. You can find a guide to do that here.

Hardware Connection

ePaper	Raspberry Pi (GPIO)
3.3V	3.3V
GND	GND
DIN	19
CLK	23
CS	24
DC	22
RST	11
BUSY	18

Cronjob Setup

To have the display update automatically, schedule a cronjob:

$ cd cronjob
$ ./add_cronjob.sh

The display updates every hour, but you can edit to cronjob/weatherbox to have the display update at different frequencies.