https://github.com/justinh-rahb/piclock
A simple clock for Raspberry Pi + Adafruit 16x2 Character LCD Plate
https://github.com/justinh-rahb/piclock
adafruit flask pi-plate python raspberry-pi
Last synced: about 2 months ago
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A simple clock for Raspberry Pi + Adafruit 16x2 Character LCD Plate
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/justinh-rahb/piclock
- Owner: justinh-rahb
- License: mit
- Created: 2025-05-11T16:33:35.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2025-05-26T05:16:54.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-05-26T06:30:25.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: adafruit, flask, pi-plate, python, raspberry-pi
- Language: Python
- Homepage:
- Size: 1.9 MB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# 🕰️ PiClock 2.0
A minimalist, web-controlled information clock for Raspberry Pi with an Adafruit Character LCD Plate. Designed for household use and inspired by embedded systems UI simplicity.
---
## ✨ Features
- ⌚ Displays time and date on a 16x2 LCD
- 🌤️ Shows local weather (Open-Meteo API)
- 📝 Custom message display (e.g. reminders, greetings)
- 💡 Backlight color selection via physical buttons or web interface
- 🌐 Simple Flask-based web UI for remote control
- 📁 Local file-based state persistence
- 🔁 Runs persistently with systemd
---
## 📦 Requirements
- Raspberry Pi with Python 3
- [Adafruit_CharLCDPlate](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_CharLCD)
- Flask
- Requests
Install dependencies:
```bash
pip install flask requests
````
---
## 📂 Project Structure
```
/opt/piclock/
├── main.py # Main clock loop
├── web_control.py # Flask-based web controller
├── backlight.txt # Persisted color state
├── msg.txt # Optional user message
├── location.txt # Location string for weather
├── weather_cache.json # 1-hour weather cache
├── static/
│ └── style.css # Web UI styles
├── templates/
│ └── index.html # Web UI layout
```
---
## 🚀 Usage
### Start the clock
```bash
python3 main.py
```
### Start the web UI
```bash
python3 web_control.py
```
### Systemd (example)
Create `/etc/systemd/system/piclock.service`:
```ini
[Unit]
Description=PiClock Service
After=network.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/piclock/start_all.sh
WorkingDirectory=/opt/piclock
StandardOutput=inherit
StandardError=inherit
Restart=on-failure
User=pi
Environment=PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
```
---
## 🌐 Web Interface
Access via:
```
http://:8080
```
* Set or clear the custom display message
* Select a backlight color
* Changes persist across reboots
---
## ⚙️ Configuration
* **Message file**: `/opt/piclock/msg.txt`
* **Color file**: `/opt/piclock/backlight.txt`
* **Weather**: Automatically geocoded from `/opt/piclock/location.txt`
---
## 🧰 Customization Ideas
* Live ambient sensor display (temperature, CO₂, etc)
* Scheduled messages via cron
* OTA updates using Git
* Light/dark mode switch for web UI
* PiCamera snapshot and upload panel
---
## 📜 License
MIT License. See [LICENSE](LICENSE) for details.