The "main" branch is my "beta" branch. It's where I commit my nightly work and can be unstable. Please use the "production" branch for your own projects.
This is a complete rewrite of my METARMap Project. It was inspired by others who have created a similar project. I wanted it to be easy enough to set up so that a complete beginner could do it!
I wanted this to be so easy, a complete beginner could set it up. See my YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/eBfOBHSns-k?si=zkOn1fk1ZZcP1HTu
Once the map is set up it should be easy to play with! Part of the fun of this project is building on it and adding more features. The novice user should be able to click the "update" button in the settings website and get all the new features "just like that".
It should be fun to change the settings, update the weather and see what is happening in your area!
I hope people find this project and collaborate on it. I'm not here to make money as this is a passion project. Please submit bug reports and feature requests! If you notice anything wonky in the code, let me know!
There is now a batch script that will guide you through the setup. After first boot of the pi, copy over setup.sh to /home/pi and run "sudo bash setup.sh" the script will walk you through everything.
After writing the OS to the SD card, a window should pop up. If you copy setup.sh to that folder, you can then connect via SSH and run sudo mv /boot/firmware/setup.sh /home/pi/.
This will move setup.sh to the home/pi folder, where you can then run sudo bash setup.sh
If you get an error run sed -i 's/\r$//' setup.sh
I suggest using a Pi zero 2 w. It's cheap enough and more than powerful enough for this project. a pi zero w will work it's just a little slower.
- Download the Pi imiger https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/
- I use a 16gb micro sd card but 8 will work as well.
- Choose whichever device you're using (i.e. pi zero 2 w)
- Choose your OS. Go to Raspberry Pi OS (other) then Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32-bit)
- Choose your storage (your SD card)
- Click Next then "edit settings". Set the HOSTNAME and username to "pi" and configure you WiFi setup. Also enter a password that you'll use to log into your pi.
- Go to the "services" tab and Check the box for "enable SSH" and choose "Use Password Authentication"
- Go to the Options tab. Choose "Eject media when finished"
Allow the the card to be written and varified. It can take 5-10 min for this process. While this is happeneing you can download putty (https://www.putty.org/) and install it. When the SD card is finished you can remove it and put it into your Pi. Plug your Pi into a power source and let it boot. It can take 5-10 min for the frist boot and for the pi to show up on your wifi.
- Go to your WiFi routers settings and find the pi and it's local IP address.
- Open putty and in the Hostname (or IP) box, enter [email protected] <-- the local IP address of your Pi that you got from your router. The port should be 22 and "connection type" is SSH.
- Click "open". You should get a pop up asking if you trust this device. Click Yes. You should then have a black terminal window asking for a password. Enter the password you set up earlier. NOTE: nothing will show up as your type your password. Hit enter.
- You sould now see pi@pi:~ $
NOTE: When i say "run sudo apt update" that means type the command "sudo apt update" (without the quotes) into the terminal window and hit enter. Some of these commands can take anywhere from a second to a few minutes to run. Be patient! Also, using ctrl+v to past into putty dones't work, simply copy the code snipit from here, then right click in putty. This should past the command.
- run
sudo apt update<-- This updates the list of packages the pi can see - run
sudo apt upgrade -y<-- this now updates any packages on the pi that need it. This can take some time. - We now need to create a virtual environment for some of our libraries to run inside. This is updated to work with the newest version of Pi OS - Bookworm.
- run
python3 -m venv --system-site-packages metar"metar" can be changed to whatever you want to call your VE. However, keep in mind that any of the aliases we set up later will have to be changed to match wahtever you call for virtual environment. - We need to activate the VE. Run
source metar/bin/activateYou should now see "(metar) pi@pi:~ $". Any packages/libraries we install here will now be separated from the rest of the OS. - We need to install the neopixel library, flask, requests and schedule libraries. Run each of the following commands. Remember to be patient as each installs. If they ask you in you want to install it, type "y" or "yes" as directed and hit enter.
pip3 install adafruit-circuitpython-neopixel<-- Neopixel library that controlls the LEDspip3 install flask<-- flask is what runs the settings websitepip3 install requests<-- required for the code to make requestspip3 install schedule<-- required for the lights to schedule an on and off time- We can now deactivate the VE. Run
deactivate
This is optional but helpful. If your pi ever drops off yoru WiFi network, it will broadcast its own wifi network that you can connect to so you can then add it back to your wifi. This runs in the background and is lightweight. When the Pi boots, it looks for any known networks. If it doesn't find one, it broadcasts its own. Or if you change your wifi password and the Pi is unable to connect, it will then broadcast its own network again. The project can be found here but the instructions are below: https://www.raspberryconnect.com/projects/65-raspberrypi-hotspot-accesspoints/203-automated-switching-accesspoint-wifi-network
- Run the following commands:
curl "https://www.raspberryconnect.com/images/scripts/AccessPopup.tar.gz" -o AccessPopup.tar.gz<-- Downloads the compressed file we need.tar -xvf ./AccessPopup.tar.gz<-- uncompresses the filecd AccessPopup<-- moves into the directory we just uncompressedsudo ./installconfig.sh<-- runs the install script for the software.- Choose option 1 to install. (type "1" then enter)
- After installing, you can customize the IP address, wifi network name and password if you wish. You can also force the Pi to drop off your wifi network and broadcast it's own network from this menu as well.
- After you exit the installer, go back to the home directory with
cd ~and hit enter. You should see "pi@pi:~ $"
Again, this is optional but will be mandatory to have if you want to use the "check for updates" button in the settings website. It's also the easiest way to get the files onto the pi that run the metar program.
- You should be in the home/pi directory (pi@pi:~ $)
sudo apt install git<-- installs gitgit init<-- initializes git in the /home/pi directorygit remote add origin https://github.com/Birdheezy/METARMap2.0<-- this adds the repogit fetch origin<-- fetches filesgit checkout -t origin/production<-- copies the files to the home/pi directory (replace "production" with "main" for the nightly build. Not recommended)- To ensure the files are now there, type
lsand hit enter. you should see a whole list of files like airports.txt, blanks.py, config.py etc
Services on the pi allow a script or program to run at an elevated level. We will create some services for different files that we have.
cd /etc/systemd/system/ <— change directoey
We will create 4 services. One for metar.py and one for scheduler.py one for wather.py and one for settings.py
sudo nano settings.service
When asked which editor you’d like to use, select nano (option 1) and hit enter. You should now be presented with a mostly blank screen. Copy over
[Unit]
Description=Run Flask App for Settings
After=network.target
[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/
ExecStart=sudo /home/pi/metar/bin/python3 /home/pi/settings.py
Restart=on-failure
User=pi
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
ctrl+x, y, enter to save.
sudo nano scheduler.service
[Unit]
Description=Scheduler Service
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi
ExecStart=sudo /home/pi/metar/bin/python3 /home/pi/scheduler.py
Restart=always
User=pi
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Ctrl+x, y, enter to save.
sudo nano metar.service
[Unit]
Description=Run Metar Service
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi
ExecStart=/home/pi/metar/bin/python3 /home/pi/metar.py
Restart=always
User=root
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
ctrl+x, y, enter to save
sudo nano weather.service
[Unit]
Description=Run Weather Service
After=network.target
[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/
ExecStart=sudo /home/pi/metar/bin/python3 /home/pi/weather.py
Restart=10
User=root
StandardOutput=append:/var/log/weather.log
StandardError=append:/var/log/weather.log
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
ctrl+x, y, enter to save
Run
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Thus will reload the services daemon so our changes will be seen by the system.
Navigate back to the home directory
cd ~
To make running the services and scripts easier we will add some aliases
sudo nano ~/.bash_aliases
Copy over the following
alias blank='sudo /home/pi/metar/bin/python3 blank.py'
alias metar='sudo /home/pi/metar/bin/python3 '
alias startmetar='sudo systemctl start metar.service'
alias startweather='sudo systemctl start weather.service'
alias startscheduler='sudo systemctl start scheduler.service'
alias startsettings='sudo systemctl start settings.service'
alias stopmetar='sudo systemctl stop metar.service'
alias stopweather='sudo systemctl stop weather.service'
alias stopsettings='sudo systemctl stop settings.service'
alias stopscheduler='sudo systemctl stop scheduler.service'
alias restartmetar='sudo systemctl restart metar.service'
alias restartweather='sudo systemctl restart weather.service'
alias restartsettings='sudo systemctl restart settings.service'
alias restartscheduler='sudo systemctl restart scheduler.service'
alias metarstatus='sudo systemctl status metar.service'
alias weatherstatus='sudo systemctl status weather.service'
alias settingsstatus='sudo systemctl status settings.service'
alias schedulerstatus='sudo systemctl status scheduler.service'
ctrl+x, y, enter to save.
To reload the aliases file for our changes to take affect, run
source .bash_aliases
Now you can simply use any alias to run its respective command. For example, instead of running
sudo /home/pi/metar/bin/python3 metar.py
To run metar.py, you can run
metar metar.py
use ctrl+c to exit the script.
As you can see in the list if aliases we copied over, the 2nd alias is "alias metar=…"
The same is true for starting the metar service. Simply type startmetar and hit enter and the service will start in the background.
To have the metar.py script start at boot, run
sudo systemctl enable metar.service
And
sudo systemctl enable scheduler.service
and
sudo systemctl enable settings.service
This will enable scheduler.py, settings.py and metar.py at boot as well which handles LED on and off times if enabled in the settings.
CRON is a very simple and powerful scheduling language that we’ll use to trigger the weather update script. I have mine to run every 5 min. This will get the weather for your airports and parse the data every 5 min.
CRON tab -e<— opens the CRONtab file to edit.- Using the arrow keys, navigate to the bottom of the file. Paste in
*/5 * * * * sudo /home/pi/metar/bin/python3 weather.py- This will fetch weather every 5 minutes.
- If you want to learn more about CRON (hint, you do) check out https://crontab.guru/
Tailscale is an extremely simple vpn type service that will allow you to ssh into your raspberry pi from anywhere using a website. Go to Tailscale.com and create an account. Enter the commands
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https
curl -fsSL https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/debian/bookworm.noarmor.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/tailscale-archive-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
curl -fsSL https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/debian/bookworm.tailscale-keyring.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install tailscale -y
sudo tailscale set --auto-update
sudo tailscale up --ssh
You should now see a url in the terminal window. Highlighting it will copy it to your clipboard. Do that and enter it into your web browser. Follow the instructions to add the pi to your "tailnet". In the 3 dot menu next to your pi, Set key expiry to never. You can also ssh to your pi from that menu. Just ensure you change the username to "pi"
I use a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W for my projects. There is now a model with the header already soldered to the board or you can solder your own. It is capable to supporting up to 30 or so lights if you're using .5 for your default brightness. Anything more than than, I'd power inject. There are plenty of youtube videos on that.
I use GPIO pin 18 for data. A pinout can be found here: https://pinout.xyz/
I use WS2811 5v bullet style lights. The code is set up so you can use 1 strand and skip lights so you don't have to cut and solder the strand.
Be sure the pi is not plugged into power when you plug in your lights. You can use male to female jumper wires (search it on amazon) to make life easy, or you can solder.
LEDs https://tinyurl.com/yk879yje
Pi Zero 2 W with headers https://www.adafruit.com/product/6008
Pi Imaging software https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/
Jumper Wires (Amazon) https://tinyurl.com/2ea5j4t9
7mm Hole Punch https://tinyurl.com/46229c7f
Power Injection https://youtu.be/2_saSAf8hgo?t=328 This video is great for general LED practices and how-to, but I've linked right to the power injection portion.