Text Editor

Adafruit recommends using the Mu editor for editing your CircuitPython code. You can get more info in this guide.

Alternatively, you can use any text editor that saves simple text files.

Code

Click the Download Project Bundle button below in the code window to get a zip file with all the files needed for the project. Copy code.py from the zip file and place on the CIRCUITPY drive.

Copy the /fonts directory from the zip file linked below and place and its contents it on the CIRCUITPY drive.

Once all the files are on the MagTag CIRCUITPY drive, the directory structure should be the same as the listing below. If not, ensure you've got all the files noted in prior steps.

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Melissa LeBlanc-Williams and John Park for Adafruit Industries
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

# MagTag Sports Schedule Viewer
# Be sure to add your wifi credentials to the secrets.py file

# Press D to advance to next game
# Press C to go back one game
# Press B to refresh the schedule (this takes a minute)
# Press A to advance to next sport (this takes a minute)


import time
import json
from adafruit_datetime import datetime, timedelta
from adafruit_magtag.magtag import MagTag

USE_24HR_TIME = False
TIME_ZONE_OFFSET = -8  # hours ahead or behind Zulu time, e.g. Pacific is -8
TIME_ZONE_NAME = "PST"

#  API info here https://www.gpwa.org/forum/espns-hidden-api-scores-stats-json-endpoints-251149.html
#  Note, these will only work when the sport is in season.

SPORTS = [
    {
        "name": "NCAA Men's Basketball",
        # pylint: disable=line-too-long
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/basketball/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "NCAA Wmn's Basketball",
        # pylint: disable=line-too-long
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/basketball/womens-college-basketball/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "NHL Hockey",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/hockey/nhl/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "NFL Football",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/football/nfl/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "MLB Baseball",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/baseball/mlb/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "College Baseball",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/baseball/college-baseball/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "NBA Basketball",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/basketball/nba/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "WNBA Basketball",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/basketball/wnba/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "College Football",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/football/college-football/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "MLS Soccer",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/soccer/usa.1/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "Premiere League",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/soccer/eng.1/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "Italian Serie A",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/soccer/ita.1/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "German Bundesliga",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/soccer/ger.1/scoreboard",
    },
]


current_game = 0
#  You can cycle among different sports with the A button, or set it here:
current_sport = 0
sports_data = []

EVENTS_LOCATION = ["events"]
STATUS_LOCATION = ["status", "type", "description"]
BROADCAST_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "broadcasts"]
IS_FINAL_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "status", "type", "id"]
SCORES_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "competitors"]
SCORE_0_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "competitors", 0, "score"]
SCORE_1_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "competitors", 1, "score"]

months = [
    "Jan",
    "Feb",
    "March",
    "April",
    "May",
    "June",
    "July",
    "Aug",
    "Sept",
    "Oct",
    "Nov",
    "Dec",
]

# Set up the MagTag with the JSON data parameters
magtag = MagTag(
    url=SPORTS[current_sport]["url"],
)


def format_date(iso_formatted_date):
    if iso_formatted_date is None:
        return "When: Unavailable"
    date = datetime.fromisoformat(iso_formatted_date[:-1])
    date += timedelta(hours=TIME_ZONE_OFFSET)

    if USE_24HR_TIME:
        timestring = "%d:%02d %s" % (date.hour, date.minute, TIME_ZONE_NAME)
    elif date.hour > 12:
        timestring = "%d:%02d pm %s" % (
            abs((date.hour - 12) % 12),
            date.minute,
            TIME_ZONE_NAME,
        )
    else:
        timestring = "%d:%02d am %s" % (date.hour, date.minute, TIME_ZONE_NAME)

    return "%s %d, %s" % (months[date.month - 1], date.day, timestring)


def format_score(scores, is_final):
    home_score = scores[0]["score"]
    away_score = scores[1]["score"]
    if not home_score or not away_score:
        return "Unavailable"
    if int(is_final) == 3:
        return "%s - %s" % (home_score, away_score)
    return " "


def format_available(value):
    if value is None:
        return "Unavailable"
    return value


def format_broadcast(value):
    if not value:
        value = "N/A"
    else:
        value = magtag.network.json_traverse(value, [0, "names", 0])
    return "Airing on: " + value


def get_game_number():
    return "Game %d of %d" % (current_game + 1, len(sports_data))


def play_tone(frequency, color=None):
    magtag.peripherals.neopixel_disable = False
    if color:
        magtag.peripherals.neopixels.fill(color)
    magtag.peripherals.play_tone(frequency, 0.2)
    magtag.peripherals.neopixel_disable = True


def update_labels():
    # Set the labels for the current game data
    magtag.set_text(SPORTS[current_sport]["name"], 0, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["name"], 1, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["date"], 2, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["broadcast"], 3, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["status"], 4, False)
    magtag.set_text(get_game_number(), 5, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["score"], 6)
    # wait 2 seconds for display to complete
    time.sleep(2)


def fetch_sports_data(reset_game_number=True):
    # Fetches and parses data for all games for the current sport
    # pylint: disable=global-statement
    global sports_data, current_game, current_sport
    magtag.url = SPORTS[current_sport]["url"]
    sports_data.clear()
    raw_data = json.loads(magtag.fetch(auto_refresh=False))
    events = raw_data["events"]
    for event in events:
        game_data = {}
        game_data["name"] = format_available(event["name"])
        game_data["date"] = format_date(event["date"])
        game_data["status"] = "Game status: " + format_available(
            magtag.network.json_traverse(event, STATUS_LOCATION)
        )
        game_data["broadcast"] = format_broadcast(
            magtag.network.json_traverse(event, BROADCAST_LOCATION)
        )
        scores = magtag.network.json_traverse(event, SCORES_LOCATION)
        is_final = magtag.network.json_traverse(event, IS_FINAL_LOCATION)
        game_data["score"] = format_score(scores, is_final)
        sports_data.append(game_data)
    if reset_game_number or current_game > len(sports_data):
        current_game = 0
    update_labels()


# Sports Name
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Lato-Bold-ltd-25.bdf", text_position=(10, 15), is_data=False
)

# Game Name
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Bold-12.pcf",
    text_wrap=35,
    line_spacing=0.75,
    text_position=(10, 70),
    is_data=False,
)

# Date
magtag.add_text(text_font="/fonts/Arial-12.bdf", text_position=(10, 40), is_data=False)

# Broadcast Information
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Italic-12.bdf", text_position=(10, 98), is_data=False
)

# Game Status
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Italic-12.bdf", text_position=(10, 116), is_data=False
)

# Game Number
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Italic-12.bdf", text_position=(190, 38), is_data=False
)

# Score
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Bold-24.bdf", text_position=(170, 94), is_data=False
)

fetch_sports_data()

while True:
    if magtag.peripherals.button_a_pressed:  # switch to next sport
        play_tone(620, 0x000033)
        current_sport += 1
        if current_sport >= len(SPORTS):
            current_sport = 0
        fetch_sports_data()
    elif magtag.peripherals.button_b_pressed:  # re-fetch data
        play_tone(220, 0x330000)
        fetch_sports_data(False)
    elif magtag.peripherals.button_c_pressed:  # display previous game
        play_tone(350, 0x330000)
        current_game -= 1
        if current_game < 0:
            current_game = len(sports_data) - 1
        update_labels()
    elif magtag.peripherals.button_d_pressed:  # display next game
        play_tone(440, 0x003300)
        current_game += 1
        if current_game >= len(sports_data):
            current_game = 0
        update_labels()

    time.sleep(0.01)

How It Works

When you start it up, the MagTag will get online using your WiFi access point credentials you entered in the secrets.py file. It will then take a minute to download the entire json file from the ESPN API for the sport selected (initially NCAA Men's Basketball, but you can switch sports with the MagTag's A button, or with the current_sport variable in the code).

Press the D button to advance to the next game in the schedule, Press C to go back one game, in case you missed some important details!

If you want to refresh the json data for the day, press the B button.

Libraries

You'll first import the libraries time, json, adafruit_datetime (to deal with timezone/dateline conversion, since your timezone may differ from the Zulu time in the API), and adafruit_magtag.

Next, you'll set some variables related to timezone:

USE_24HR_TIME = False
TIME_ZONE_OFFSET = -8  # hours ahead or behind Zulu time, e.g. Pacific is -8
TIME_ZONE_NAME = "PST"

API JSON URLs

These are a number of the sports available from the ESPN API. You can read more details and get more sports here.

SPORTS = [
    {
        "name": "NCAA Men's Basketball",
        #pylint: disable=line-too-long
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/basketball/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "NCAA Wmn's Basketball",
        #pylint: disable=line-too-long
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/basketball/womens-college-basketball/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "NHL Hockey",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/hockey/nhl/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "NFL Football",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/football/nfl/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "MLB Baseball",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/baseball/mlb/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "College Baseball",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/baseball/college-baseball/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "NBA Basketball",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/basketball/nba/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "WNBA Basketball",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/basketball/wnba/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "College Football",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/football/college-football/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "MLS Soccer",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/soccer/usa.1/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "Premiere League",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/soccer/eng.1/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "Italian Serie A",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/soccer/ita.1/scoreboard",
    },
    {
        "name": "German Bundesliga",
        "url": "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/soccer/ger.1/scoreboard",
    },
]

Game Variables

These variables are used to track which sport is being used and which game is currently displayed, as well as setting up the variable that will be used to parse the json date. The json files in the ESPN API are very consistent, so the locations of, say, the event scores for a final are consistent from game to game and sport to sport. Yay for standards!

current_game = 0
#  You can cycle among different sports with the A button, or set it here:
current_sport = 0
sports_data = []

EVENTS_LOCATION = ["events"]
STATUS_LOCATION = ["status", "type", "description"]
BROADCAST_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "broadcasts"]
IS_FINAL_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "status", "type", "id"]
SCORES_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "competitors"]
SCORE_0_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "competitors", 0, "score"]
SCORE_1_LOCATION = ["competitions", 0, "competitors", 1, "score"]

MagTag Setup & Date Time Function

You'll set up the MagTag device, with the URL argument, and then create a function to format the date and time.

magtag = MagTag(
    url=SPORTS[current_sport]["url"],
)


def format_date(iso_formatted_date):
    if iso_formatted_date is None:
        return "When: Unavailable"
    date = datetime.fromisoformat(iso_formatted_date[:-1])
    date += timedelta(hours=TIME_ZONE_OFFSET)

    if USE_24HR_TIME:
        timestring = "%d:%02d %s" % (date.hour, date.minute, TIME_ZONE_NAME)
    elif date.hour > 12:
        timestring = "%d:%02d pm %s" % (
            abs((date.hour - 12) % 12),
            date.minute,
            TIME_ZONE_NAME,
        )
    else:
        timestring = "%d:%02d am %s" % (date.hour, date.minute, TIME_ZONE_NAME)

    return "%s %d, %s" % (months[date.month - 1], date.day, timestring)

Functions, Functions, Functions

The next few functions are the dark inner workings for formatting all the little bits of data we need to display.

def format_score(scores, is_final):
    home_score = scores[0]["score"]
    away_score = scores[1]["score"]
    if not home_score or not away_score:
        return "Unavailable"
    if int(is_final) == 3:
        return "%s - %s" % (home_score, away_score)
    return " "


def format_available(value):
    if value is None:
        return "Unavailable"
    return value


def format_broadcast(value):
    if not value:
        value = "N/A"
    else:
        value = magtag.network.json_traverse(value, [0, "names", 0])
    return "Airing on: " + value


def get_game_number():
    return "Game %d of %d" % (current_game + 1, len(sports_data))


def play_tone(frequency, color=None):
    magtag.peripherals.neopixel_disable = False
    if color:
        magtag.peripherals.neopixels.fill(color)
    magtag.peripherals.play_tone(frequency, 0.2)
    magtag.peripherals.neopixel_disable = True


def update_labels():
    # Set the labels for the current game data
    magtag.set_text(SPORTS[current_sport]["name"], 0, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["name"], 1, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["date"], 2, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["broadcast"], 3, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["status"], 4, False)
    magtag.set_text(get_game_number(), 5, False)
    magtag.set_text(sports_data[current_game]["score"], 6)
    # wait 2 seconds for display to complete
    time.sleep(2)


def fetch_sports_data(reset_game_number=True):
    # Fetches and parses data for all games for the current sport
    #pylint: disable=global-statement
    global sports_data, current_game, current_sport
    magtag.url = SPORTS[current_sport]["url"]
    sports_data.clear()
    raw_data = json.loads(magtag.fetch(auto_refresh=False))
    events = raw_data["events"]
    for event in events:
        game_data = {}
        game_data["name"] = format_available(event["name"])
        game_data["date"] = format_date(event["date"])
        game_data["status"] = "Game status: " + format_available(
            magtag.network.json_traverse(event, STATUS_LOCATION)
        )
        game_data["broadcast"] = format_broadcast(
            magtag.network.json_traverse(event, BROADCAST_LOCATION)
        )
        scores = magtag.network.json_traverse(event, SCORES_LOCATION)
        is_final = magtag.network.json_traverse(event, IS_FINAL_LOCATION)
        game_data["score"] = format_score(scores, is_final)
        sports_data.append(game_data)
    if reset_game_number or current_game > len(sports_data):
        current_game = 0
    update_labels()

Labels

The text to be displayed on the MagTag is set up next.

magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Lato-Bold-ltd-25.bdf", text_position=(10, 15), is_data=False
)

# Game Name
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Bold-12.pcf",
    text_wrap=35,
    line_spacing=0.75,
    text_position=(10, 70),
    is_data=False,
)

# Date
magtag.add_text(text_font="/fonts/Arial-12.bdf", text_position=(10, 40), is_data=False)

# Broadcast Information
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Italic-12.bdf", text_position=(10, 100), is_data=False
)

# Game Status
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Italic-12.bdf", text_position=(10, 120), is_data=False
)

# Game Number
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Italic-12.bdf", text_position=(190, 38), is_data=False
)

# Score
magtag.add_text(
    text_font="/fonts/Arial-Bold-24.bdf", text_position=(170, 94), is_data=False
)

Fetch

The last bit of setup is to fetch the sports data from the selected URL using fetch_sports_data()

This causes the data to be downloaded, parsed, formatted, and finally displayed on the MagTag screen!

Main Loop

The main loop of the program watches for button presses and changes or fetches new data depending on the button pressed.

while True:
    if magtag.peripherals.button_a_pressed:  # switch to next sport
        play_tone(620, 0x000033)
        current_sport += 1
        if current_sport >= len(SPORTS):
            current_sport = 0
        fetch_sports_data()
    elif magtag.peripherals.button_b_pressed:  # re-fetch data
        play_tone(220, 0x330000)
        fetch_sports_data(False)
    elif magtag.peripherals.button_c_pressed:  # display previous game
        play_tone(350, 0x330000)
        current_game -= 1
        if current_game < 0:
            current_game = len(sports_data) - 1
        update_labels()
    elif magtag.peripherals.button_d_pressed:  # display next game
        play_tone(440, 0x003300)
        current_game += 1
        if current_game >= len(sports_data):
            current_game = 0
        update_labels()

    time.sleep(0.01)

This guide was first published on Feb 24, 2021. It was last updated on Mar 29, 2024.

This page (Code the MagTag Sports Schedule Viewer) was last updated on Mar 28, 2024.

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