MiniTron is a miniature jumbotron interface built for Raspberry Pi 3-compatible LED displays. It pulls data from a custom API using a web sraper to scrape game data from Baseball-Reference. Data displayed is currently the teams and scores plus wins/losses/saves for pitchers.
I recommend using products from Adafruit as that is where I sourced the hardware. Other sources may not be compatible with MiniTron.
- Raspberry Pi Model 3 -- 2 will most likely work but is untested
- LED board
- Adafruit RGB Matrix HAT
- 5V, 2A OR 4A Power cable for LED board -- Optional, but recommended to avoid overloading the Pi's power supply
The original version of MiniTron only gives consideration to LED screens consisting of a single 64x64 panel. Exact specifications of the panel I used can be found on Adafruit here.
The Adafruit HAT does require soldering connectors to the board. The LED matrix I used also requires additional soldering of a jumper pad to enable 64x64 display. You can find installation instructions for the HAT here. You will need to follow instructions to assemble the HAT specifically for your display.
MiniTron is only capable of displaying game data one day before the current date. This is a restriction from MLB requiring paid access to real-time data.
Step 1. -- Assemble Hardware
Assemble the HAT and LED matrix according to manufacturer specifications. You can find HAT assembly instructions here, and the LED panel I used required little assembly.
Step 2. -- Download Required Dependencies
MiniTron requires an RGB matrix library from Henner Zeller to drive the display. Install it from the terminal on the Pi:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts/master/rgb-matrix.sh >rgb-matrix.sh
sudo bash rgb-matrix.sh
According to installation instructions for the HAT, you will want to select Option 2 for the interface board type and Option 1 for Quality, following instructions for soldering for that option.
At this point you can test samples from
rpi-rgb-led-matrix/bindings/python/samples/
using
sudo ./{SAMPLE_FILE_NAME}.py --led-rows={MATRIX_WIDTH} --led-rows={MATRIX_HEIGHT}
A full list of commannd line arguments can be found here
Step 3. Fork Repo and Run!
Fork the repo, navigate to the project folder, and use
sudo ./baseball.py --led-rows=64 --led-cols=64
to run MiniTron on a 64x64 display.
- Feel free to submit a PR, or open an issue! Currently it would be very helpful to test the display on other matrix sizes!