Pico AlertDisplay

A CircuitPython project to integrate a simple P5 LED Panel with my Homenode automation system.

A Pi Pico W listens for MQTT messages and shows:

• timers from Google Home
• the weather
• other various alerts from the system as icons

Preview

alertdisplay-subtitled.mp4

Initial setup

Python venv

1. Install python3
2. Create a virtualenv using python -m venv .venv
3. Activate the virtualenv using .\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
4. Install the requirements using pip install -r host-requirements.txt

CircuitPython Device Deps

circup install -r device-requirements.txt

Developing

Using REPL is the best way to quickly test things. The displaytest.py file has rough code for quickly displaying things.

REPL

// Windows
plink -serial \\.\COM5 -sercfg 115200,8,1,N,N
// OSX
screen /dev/cu.xxxxxxx

Sample MQTT Invokes

mqtt publish -t alertdisplay/setTimer -m pan,60
mqtt publish -t alertdisplay/removeTimer -m pan
mqtt publish -t alertdisplay/setIcon -m chicken,true
mqtt publish -t alertdisplay/setPower -m true

Screen Item Layouts

I I W         // (x: (2, 22, 45), y: 1)
I I W         // (x: (2, 22, 45), y: 16)

T T T
I I I

T T T
T T T

Creating Icons

You can use Piskel and import the BMP files to edit them.

Piskel can export to PNG and you can use the command below (on OSX) to convert it to BMP.

sips -s format jpeg test.png --out test.jpg