Overview
Have a special event coming up and you're counting the days? Perhaps a convention is happening? Or maybe your looking forward to your vacation to Iceland? The PyPortal Event Countdown Clock has got you covered!
Build your own PyPortal Event Countdown Clock and then customize it for the event of your choice. All coded in CircuitPython, it gets the precise time from the internet using built-in WiFi, then draws the display with the days, hours, and minutes until that special event!
Once the event day arrives, you'll be treated to a celebratory graphic on the PyPortal display!
Additional Tools & Materials
You may want to create the optional desk stand for your PyPortal Event Countdown Clock. For this you'll need:
If you don't have access to a 3D printer you can optionally use an online service such as 3D Hubs to have it printed for you on demand.
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Install CircuitPython
CircuitPython is a derivative of MicroPython designed to simplify experimentation and education on low-cost microcontrollers. It makes it easier than ever to get prototyping by requiring no upfront desktop software downloads. Simply copy and edit files on the CIRCUITPY "flash" drive to iterate.
The following instructions will show you how to install CircuitPython. If you've already installed CircuitPython but are looking to update it or reinstall it, the same steps work for that as well!
Click the link above to download the latest version of CircuitPython for the PyPortal.
Download and save it to your desktop (or wherever is handy).
Plug your PyPortal into your computer using a known-good USB cable.
A lot of people end up using charge-only USB cables and it is very frustrating! So make sure you have a USB cable you know is good for data sync.
Double-click the Reset button on the top in the middle (magenta arrow) on your board, and you will see the NeoPixel RGB LED (green arrow) turn green. If it turns red, check the USB cable, try another USB port, etc. Note: The little red LED next to the USB connector will pulse red. That's ok!
If double-clicking doesn't work the first time, try again. Sometimes it can take a few tries to get the rhythm right!
You will see a new disk drive appear called PORTALBOOT.
Drag the adafruit-circuitpython-pyportal-<whatever>.uf2 file to PORTALBOOT.
The LED will flash. Then, the PORTALBOOT drive will disappear and a new disk drive called CIRCUITPY will appear.
If you haven't added any code to your board, the only file that will be present is boot_out.txt. This is absolutely normal! It's time for you to add your code.py and get started!
That's it, you're done! :)
PyPortal Default Files
Click below to download a zip of the files that shipped on the PyPortal or PyPortal Pynt.
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PyPortal CircuitPython Setup
To use all the amazing features of your PyPortal with CircuitPython, you must first install a number of libraries. This page covers that process.
Adafruit CircuitPython Bundle
Download the Adafruit CircuitPython Library Bundle. You can find the latest release here:
Download the adafruit-circuitpython-bundle-*.x-mpy-*.zip bundle zip file where *.x MATCHES THE VERSION OF CIRCUITPYTHON YOU INSTALLED, and unzip a folder of the same name. Inside you'll find a lib folder. You have two options:
- You can add the lib folder to your CIRCUITPY drive. This will ensure you have all the drivers. But it will take a bunch of space on the 8 MB disk
- Add each library as you need it, this will reduce the space usage but you'll need to put in a little more effort.
At a minimum we recommend the following libraries, in fact we more than recommend. They're basically required. So grab them and install them into CIRCUITPY/lib now!
- adafruit_esp32spi - This is the library that gives you internet access via the ESP32 using (you guessed it!) SPI transport. You need this for anything Internet
- adafruit_requests - This library allows us to perform HTTP requests and get responses back from servers. GET/POST/PUT/PATCH - they're all in here!
- adafruit_connection_manager - used by adafruit_requests.
- adafruit_pyportal - This is our friendly wrapper library that does a lot of our projects, displays graphics and text, fetches data from the internet. Nearly all of our projects depend on it!
- adafruit_portalbase - This library is the base library that adafruit_pyportal library is built on top of.
- adafruit_touchscreen - a library for reading touches from the resistive touchscreen. Handles all the analog noodling, rotation and calibration for you.
- adafruit_io - this library helps connect the PyPortal to our free datalogging and viewing service
- adafruit_imageload - an image display helper, required for any graphics!
- adafruit_display_text - not surprisingly, it displays text on the screen
- adafruit_bitmap_font - we have fancy font support, and its easy to make new fonts. This library reads and parses font files.
- adafruit_slideshow - for making image slideshows - handy for quick display of graphics and sound
- neopixel - for controlling the onboard neopixel
- adafruit_adt7410 - library to read the temperature from the on-board Analog Devices ADT7410 precision temperature sensor (not necessary for Titano or Pynt)
- adafruit_bus_device - low level support for I2C/SPI
- adafruit_fakerequests - This library allows you to create fake HTTP requests by using local files.
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Create Your settings.toml File
CircuitPython works with WiFi-capable boards to enable you to make projects that have network connectivity. This means working with various passwords and API keys. As of CircuitPython 8, there is support for a settings.toml file. This is a file that is stored on your CIRCUITPY drive, that contains all of your secret network information, such as your SSID, SSID password and any API keys for IoT services. It is designed to separate your sensitive information from your code.py file so you are able to share your code without sharing your credentials.
CircuitPython previously used a secrets.py file for this purpose. The settings.toml file is quite similar.
CircuitPython settings.toml File
This section will provide a couple of examples of what your settings.toml file should look like, specifically for CircuitPython WiFi projects in general.
The most minimal settings.toml file must contain your WiFi SSID and password, as that is the minimum required to connect to WiFi. Copy this example, paste it into your settings.toml, and update:
your_wifi_ssidyour_wifi_password
CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID = "your_wifi_ssid" CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD = "your_wifi_password"
Many CircuitPython network-connected projects on the Adafruit Learn System involve using Adafruit IO. For these projects, you must also include your Adafruit IO username and key. Copy the following example, paste it into your settings.toml file, and update:
your_wifi_ssidyour_wifi_passwordyour_aio_usernameyour_aio_key
CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID = "your_wifi_ssid" CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD = "your_wifi_password" ADAFRUIT_AIO_USERNAME = "your_aio_username" ADAFRUIT_AIO_KEY = "your_aio_key"
Some projects use different variable names for the entries in the settings.toml file. For example, a project might use ADAFRUIT_AIO_ID in the place of ADAFRUIT_AIO_USERNAME. If you run into connectivity issues, one of the first things to check is that the names in the settings.toml file match the names in the code.
Here is an example settings.toml file.
# Comments are supported CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID = "guest wifi" CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD = "guessable" CIRCUITPY_WEB_API_PORT = 80 CIRCUITPY_WEB_API_PASSWORD = "passw0rd" test_variable = "this is a test" thumbs_up = "\U0001f44d"
In a settings.toml file, it's important to keep these factors in mind:
- Strings are wrapped in double quotes; ex:
"your-string-here" - Integers are not quoted and may be written in decimal with optional sign (
+1,-1,1000) or hexadecimal (0xabcd).- Floats (decimal numbers), octal (
0o567) and binary (0b11011) are not supported.
- Floats (decimal numbers), octal (
- Use
\uescapes for weird characters,\xand\oooescapes are not available in .toml files- Example:
\U0001f44dfor 👍 (thumbs up emoji) and\u20acfor € (EUR sign)
- Example:
- Unicode emoji, and non-ASCII characters, stand for themselves as long as you're careful to save in "UTF-8 without BOM" format
When your settings.toml file is ready, you can save it in your text editor with the .toml extension.
In your code.py file, you'll need to import the os library to access the settings.toml file. Your settings are accessed with the os.getenv() function. You'll pass your settings entry to the function to import it into the code.py file.
import os
print(os.getenv("test_variable"))
In the upcoming CircuitPython WiFi examples, you'll see how the settings.toml file is used for connecting to your SSID and accessing your API keys.
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Internet Connect!
Connect to WiFi
OK, now that you have your settings.toml file set up - you can connect to the Internet.
To do this, you need to first install a few libraries, into the lib folder on your CIRCUITPY drive. Then you need to update code.py with the example script.
Thankfully, we can do this in one go. In the example below, click the Download Project Bundle button below to download the necessary libraries and the code.py file in a zip file. Extract the contents of the zip file, open the directory examples/ and then click on the directory that matches the version of CircuitPython you're using and copy the contents of that directory to your CIRCUITPY drive.
Your CIRCUITPY drive should now look similar to the following image:
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2019 ladyada for Adafruit Industries
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
from os import getenv
import adafruit_connection_manager
import adafruit_requests
import board
import busio
from digitalio import DigitalInOut
# Use this import for adafruit_esp32spi version 11.0.0 and up.
# Note that frozen libraries may not be up to date.
# import adafruit_esp32spi
from adafruit_esp32spi import adafruit_esp32spi
# Get wifi details and more from a settings.toml file
# tokens used by this Demo: CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID, CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD
ssid = getenv("CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID")
password = getenv("CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD")
print("ESP32 SPI webclient test")
TEXT_URL = "http://wifitest.adafruit.com/testwifi/index.html"
JSON_URL = "http://wifitest.adafruit.com/testwifi/sample.json"
# If you are using a board with pre-defined ESP32 Pins:
esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_CS)
esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_BUSY)
esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_RESET)
# If you have an AirLift Shield:
# esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D10)
# esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D7)
# esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D5)
# If you have an AirLift Featherwing or ItsyBitsy Airlift:
# esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D13)
# esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D11)
# esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D12)
# If you have an externally connected ESP32:
# NOTE: You may need to change the pins to reflect your wiring
# esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D9)
# esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D10)
# esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D5)
# Secondary (SCK1) SPI used to connect to WiFi board on Arduino Nano Connect RP2040
if "SCK1" in dir(board):
spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK1, board.MOSI1, board.MISO1)
else:
spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK, board.MOSI, board.MISO)
esp = adafruit_esp32spi.ESP_SPIcontrol(spi, esp32_cs, esp32_ready, esp32_reset)
pool = adafruit_connection_manager.get_radio_socketpool(esp)
ssl_context = adafruit_connection_manager.get_radio_ssl_context(esp)
requests = adafruit_requests.Session(pool, ssl_context)
if esp.status == adafruit_esp32spi.WL_IDLE_STATUS:
print("ESP32 found and in idle mode")
print("Firmware vers.", esp.firmware_version)
print("MAC addr:", ":".join(f"{byte:02X}" for byte in esp.MAC_address))
for ap in esp.scan_networks():
print(f"\t{ap.ssid:<23} RSSI: {ap.rssi}")
print("Connecting to AP...")
while not esp.is_connected:
try:
esp.connect_AP(ssid, password)
except OSError as e:
print("could not connect to AP, retrying: ", e)
continue
print("Connected to", esp.ap_info.ssid, "\tRSSI:", esp.ap_info.rssi)
print("My IP address is", esp.ipv4_address)
print(f"IP lookup adafruit.com: {esp.pretty_ip(esp.get_host_by_name('adafruit.com'))}")
print(f"Ping google.com: {esp.ping('google.com')} ms")
# esp._debug = True
print("Fetching text from", TEXT_URL)
r = requests.get(TEXT_URL)
print("-" * 40)
print(r.text)
print("-" * 40)
r.close()
print()
print("Fetching json from", JSON_URL)
r = requests.get(JSON_URL)
print("-" * 40)
print(r.json())
print("-" * 40)
r.close()
print("Done!")
And save it to your board, with the name code.py.
Don't forget you'll also need to create the settings.toml file as seen above, with your WiFi ssid and password.
In a serial console, you should see something like the following. For more information about connecting with a serial console, view the guide Connecting to the Serial Console.
>>> import wifitest
ESP32 SPI webclient test
ESP32 found and in idle mode
Firmware vers. 1.7.5
MAC addr: 24:C9:DC:BD:0F:3F
HomeNetwork RSSI: -46
HomeNetwork RSSI: -76
Fios-12345 RSSI: -92
FiOS-AB123 RSSI: -92
NETGEAR53 RSSI: -93
Connecting to AP...
Connected to HomeNetwork RSSI: -45
My IP address is 192.168.1.245
IP lookup adafruit.com: 104.20.39.240
Ping google.com: 30 ms
Fetching text from http://wifitest.adafruit.com/testwifi/index.html
----------------------------------------
This is a test of Adafruit WiFi!
If you can read this, its working :)
----------------------------------------
Fetching json from http://wifitest.adafruit.com/testwifi/sample.json
----------------------------------------
{'fun': True, 'company': 'Adafruit', 'founded': 2005, 'primes': [2, 3, 5], 'pi': 3.14, 'mixed': [False, None, 3, True, 2.7, 'cheese']}
----------------------------------------
Done!
Going over the example above, here's a breakdown of what the program is doing:
- Initialize the ESP32 over SPI using the SPI port and 3 control pins:
esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_CS)
esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_BUSY)
esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_RESET)
#...
else:
spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK, board.MOSI, board.MISO)
esp = adafruit_esp32spi.ESP_SPIcontrol(spi, esp32_cs, esp32_ready, esp32_reset)
- Get the socket pool and the SSL context, and then tell the
adafruit_requestslibrary about them.
pool = adafruit_connection_manager.get_radio_socketpool(esp) ssl_context = adafruit_connection_manager.get_radio_ssl_context(esp) requests = adafruit_requests.Session(pool, ssl_context)
- Verify an ESP32 is found, checks the firmware and MAC address
if esp.status == adafruit_esp32spi.WL_IDLE_STATUS:
print("ESP32 found and in idle mode")
print("Firmware vers.", esp.firmware_version)
print("MAC addr:", ":".join("%02X" % byte for byte in esp.MAC_address))
- Perform a scan of all access points it can see and print out the name and signal strength.
for ap in esp.scan_networks():
print("\t%-23s RSSI: %d" % (ap.ssid, ap.rssi))
- Connect to the AP we've defined here, then print out the local IP address. Then attempt to do a domain name lookup and ping google.com to check network connectivity. (Note sometimes the ping fails or takes a while; this isn't a big deal.)
print("Connecting to AP...")
while not esp.is_connected:
try:
esp.connect_AP(ssid, password)
except OSError as e:
print("could not connect to AP, retrying: ", e)
continue
print("Connected to", esp.ap_info.ssid, "\tRSSI:", esp.ap_info.rssi)
print("My IP address is", esp.ipv4_address)
print(
"IP lookup adafruit.com: %s" % esp.pretty_ip(esp.get_host_by_name("adafruit.com"))
)
Now we're getting to the really interesting part of the example program. We've written a library for web fetching web data, named adafruit_requests. It is a lot like the regular Python library named requests. This library allows you to send HTTP and HTTPS requests easily and provides helpful methods for parsing the response from the server.
- Here is the part of the example program is fetching text data from a URL.
TEXT_URL = "http://wifitest.adafruit.com/testwifi/index.html" # Further up in the program
# ...
print("Fetching text from", TEXT_URL)
r = requests.get(TEXT_URL)
print('-' * 40)
print(r.text)
print('-' * 40)
r.close()
- Finally, here the program is fetching some JSON data. The
adafruit_requestslibrary will parse the JSON into a Python dictionary whose structure is the same as the structure of the JSON.
JSON_URL = "http://wifitest.adafruit.com/testwifi/sample.json" # Further up in the program
# ...
print("Fetching json from", JSON_URL)
r = requests.get(JSON_URL)
print('-' * 40)
print(r.json())
print('-' * 40)
r.close()
Advanced Requests Usage
Want to send custom HTTP headers, parse the response as raw bytes, or handle a response's http status code in your CircuitPython code?
We've written an example to show advanced usage of the requests module below.
To use with CircuitPython, you need to first install a few libraries, into the lib folder on your CIRCUITPY drive. Then you need to update code.py with the example script.
Thankfully, we can do this in one go. In the example below, click the Download Project Bundle button below to download the necessary libraries and the code.py file in a zip file. Extract the contents of the zip file, open the directory examples/ and then click on the directory that matches the version of CircuitPython you're using and copy the contents of that directory to your CIRCUITPY drive.
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 ladyada for Adafruit Industries
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
import os
import adafruit_connection_manager
import board
import busio
from adafruit_esp32spi import adafruit_esp32spi
from digitalio import DigitalInOut
import adafruit_requests
# Get WiFi details, ensure these are setup in settings.toml
ssid = os.getenv("CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID")
password = os.getenv("CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD")
# If you are using a board with pre-defined ESP32 Pins:
esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_CS)
esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_BUSY)
esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_RESET)
# If you have an externally connected ESP32:
# esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D9)
# esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D10)
# esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D5)
# If you have an AirLift Featherwing or ItsyBitsy Airlift:
# esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D13)
# esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D11)
# esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D12)
spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK, board.MOSI, board.MISO)
radio = adafruit_esp32spi.ESP_SPIcontrol(spi, esp32_cs, esp32_ready, esp32_reset)
print("Connecting to AP...")
while not radio.is_connected:
try:
radio.connect_AP(ssid, password)
except RuntimeError as e:
print("could not connect to AP, retrying: ", e)
continue
print("Connected to", str(radio.ap_info.ssid, "utf-8"), "\tRSSI:", radio.ap_info.rssi)
# Initialize a requests session
pool = adafruit_connection_manager.get_radio_socketpool(radio)
ssl_context = adafruit_connection_manager.get_radio_ssl_context(radio)
requests = adafruit_requests.Session(pool, ssl_context)
JSON_GET_URL = "https://httpbin.org/get"
# Define a custom header as a dict.
headers = {"user-agent": "blinka/1.0.0"}
print(f"Fetching JSON data from {JSON_GET_URL}...")
with requests.get(JSON_GET_URL, headers=headers) as response:
print("-" * 60)
json_data = response.json()
headers = json_data["headers"]
print("Response's Custom User-Agent Header: {0}".format(headers["User-Agent"]))
print("-" * 60)
# Read Response's HTTP status code
print("Response HTTP Status Code: ", response.status_code)
print("-" * 60)
Your CIRCUITPY drive should now look similar to the following image:
WiFi Manager
The way the examples above connect to WiFi works but it's a little finicky. Since WiFi is not necessarily so reliable, you may have disconnects and need to reconnect. For more advanced uses, we recommend using the WiFiManager class. It will wrap the connection/status/requests loop for you - reconnecting if WiFi drops, resetting the ESP32 if it gets into a bad state, etc.
Here's a more advanced example that shows using the WiFiManager and also how to fetch the current time from a web source.
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2019 ladyada for Adafruit Industries
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
import time
from os import getenv
import board
import busio
import neopixel
import rtc
from digitalio import DigitalInOut
# Use these imports for adafruit_esp32spi version 11.0.0 and up.
# Note that frozen libraries may not be up to date.
# import adafruit_esp32spi
# from adafruit_esp32spi.wifimanager import WiFiManager
from adafruit_esp32spi import adafruit_esp32spi
from adafruit_esp32spi.adafruit_esp32spi_wifimanager import WiFiManager
# Get wifi details and more from a settings.toml file
# tokens used by this Demo: CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID, CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD
ssid = getenv("CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID")
password = getenv("CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD")
print("ESP32 local time")
TIME_API = "https://time.now/developer/api/ip"
# If you are using a board with pre-defined ESP32 Pins:
esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_CS)
esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_BUSY)
esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_RESET)
# If you have an externally connected ESP32:
# esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D9)
# esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D10)
# esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D5)
# Secondary (SCK1) SPI used to connect to WiFi board on Arduino Nano Connect RP2040
if "SCK1" in dir(board):
spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK1, board.MOSI1, board.MISO1)
else:
spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK, board.MOSI, board.MISO)
esp = adafruit_esp32spi.ESP_SPIcontrol(spi, esp32_cs, esp32_ready, esp32_reset)
"""Use below for Most Boards"""
status_pixel = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.NEOPIXEL, 1, brightness=0.2)
"""Uncomment below for ItsyBitsy M4"""
# status_pixel = dotstar.DotStar(board.APA102_SCK, board.APA102_MOSI, 1, brightness=0.2)
"""Uncomment below for an externally defined RGB LED (including Arduino Nano Connect)"""
# import adafruit_rgbled
# from adafruit_esp32spi import PWMOut
# RED_LED = PWMOut.PWMOut(esp, 26)
# GREEN_LED = PWMOut.PWMOut(esp, 27)
# BLUE_LED = PWMOut.PWMOut(esp, 25)
# status_pixel = adafruit_rgbled.RGBLED(RED_LED, BLUE_LED, GREEN_LED)
wifi = WiFiManager(esp, ssid, password, status_pixel=status_pixel)
the_rtc = rtc.RTC()
response = None
while True:
try:
print("Fetching json from", TIME_API)
response = wifi.get(TIME_API)
break
except OSError as e:
print("Failed to get data, retrying\n", e)
continue
json = response.json()
current_time = json["datetime"]
the_date, the_time = current_time.split("T")
year, month, mday = (int(x) for x in the_date.split("-"))
the_time = the_time.split(".")[0]
hours, minutes, seconds = (int(x) for x in the_time.split(":"))
# We can also fill in these extra nice things
year_day = json["day_of_year"]
week_day = json["day_of_week"]
is_dst = json["dst"]
now = time.struct_time((year, month, mday, hours, minutes, seconds, week_day, year_day, is_dst))
print(now)
the_rtc.datetime = now
while True:
print(time.localtime())
time.sleep(1)
Further Information
For more information on the basics of doing networking in CircuitPython, see this guide:
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Code PyPortal with CircuitPython
Event Countdown
With the PyPortal coded in CircuitPython, we can set the date and time of a one-time occurrence, such as a conference, convention, or movie release date.
The PyPortal Countdown Clock will do the following:
- Display a custom background .bmp for the event
- Determine the current local time using the WiFi connection to the Internet
- Draw out the countdown time in days, hours, and minutes
- Display a second custom background graphic once the day of the event arrives
Adafruit IO Time Server
In order to get the precise time, our project will query the Adafruit IO Internet of Things service for the time. Adafruit IO is absolutely free to use, but you'll need to log in with your Adafruit account to use it. If you don't already have an Adafruit login, create one here.
If you haven't used Adafruit IO before, check out this guide for more info.
Once you have logged into your account, there are two pieces of information you'll need to place in your settings.toml file: Adafruit IO username, and Adafruit IO key. Head to io.adafruit.com and simply click the View AIO Key link on the left hand side of the Adafruit IO page to get this information.
Then, add them to the settings.toml file like this:
CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID = "your_wifi_ssid" CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD = "your_wifi_password" AIO_USERNAME = "your_aio_username" AIO_KEY = "your_aio_key"
Install CircuitPython Code and Assets
In the embedded code element below, click on the Download Project Bundle button, and save the .zip archive file to your computer.
Then, uncompress the .zip file, it will unpack to a folder named PyPortal_EventCountdown.
Copy the contents of the PyPortal_EventCountdown directory to your PyPortal CIRCUITPY drive.
This is what the final contents of the CIRCUITPY drive will look like:
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2019 Limor Fried for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
"""
This example will figure out the current local time using the internet, and
then draw out a countdown clock until an event occurs!
Once the event is happening, a new graphic is shown
"""
import time
import board
from adafruit_pyportal import PyPortal
from adafruit_bitmap_font import bitmap_font
from adafruit_display_text.label import Label
# The time of the thing!
EVENT_YEAR = 2019
EVENT_MONTH = 4
EVENT_DAY = 15
EVENT_HOUR = 9
EVENT_MINUTE = 0
# we'll make a python-friendly structure
event_time = time.struct_time((EVENT_YEAR, EVENT_MONTH, EVENT_DAY,
EVENT_HOUR, EVENT_MINUTE, 0, # we don't track seconds
-1, -1, False)) # we dont know day of week/year or DST
# determine the current working directory
# needed so we know where to find files
cwd = ("/"+__file__).rsplit('/', 1)[0]
# Initialize the pyportal object and let us know what data to fetch and where
# to display it
pyportal = PyPortal(status_neopixel=board.NEOPIXEL,
default_bg=cwd+"/countdown_background.bmp")
big_font = bitmap_font.load_font(cwd+"/fonts/Helvetica-Bold-36.bdf")
big_font.load_glyphs(b'0123456789') # pre-load glyphs for fast printing
event_background = cwd+"/countdown_event.bmp"
days_position = (8, 207)
hours_position = (110, 207)
minutes_position = (220, 207)
text_color = 0xFFFFFF
text_areas = []
for pos in (days_position, hours_position, minutes_position):
textarea = Label(big_font)
textarea.x = pos[0]
textarea.y = pos[1]
textarea.color = text_color
pyportal.root_group.append(textarea)
text_areas.append(textarea)
refresh_time = None
while True:
# only query the online time once per hour (and on first run)
if (not refresh_time) or (time.monotonic() - refresh_time) > 3600:
try:
print("Getting time from internet!")
pyportal.get_local_time()
refresh_time = time.monotonic()
except RuntimeError as e:
print("Some error occured, retrying! -", e)
continue
now = time.localtime()
print("Current time:", now)
remaining = time.mktime(event_time) - time.mktime(now)
print("Time remaining (s):", remaining)
if remaining < 0:
# oh, its event time!
pyportal.set_background(event_background)
while True: # that's all folks
pass
secs_remaining = remaining % 60
remaining //= 60
mins_remaining = remaining % 60
remaining //= 60
hours_remaining = remaining % 24
remaining //= 24
days_remaining = remaining
print("%d days, %d hours, %d minutes and %s seconds" %
(days_remaining, hours_remaining, mins_remaining, secs_remaining))
text_areas[0].text = '{:>2}'.format(days_remaining) # set days textarea
text_areas[1].text = '{:>2}'.format(hours_remaining) # set hours textarea
text_areas[2].text = '{:>2}'.format(mins_remaining) # set minutes textarea
# update every 10 seconds
time.sleep(10)
How it Works
The PyPortal Countdown is doing a couple of cool things to make your event display:
Background
First, it displays a bitmap graphic named countdown_background.bmp as the screen's background. This is a 320 x 240 pixel RGB 16-bit raster graphic in .bmp format.
Time
In order to calculate the countdown, the PyPortal's CircuitPython code determines the local time by checking the internet time via the WiFi connection. It uses your IP address information to determine the local time. The good news is that once you've set up your timezone (or if the IP is fine) you do not have to adjust for daylight savings, leap years, etc.
In some cases, the time may not appear correctly based on your IP address, but don't fear! You can override that by manually setting the timezone in your secrets.py file. Plus, you can explicitly set your PyPortal to display a different time zone in case you have travel plans or a friend in Tokyo or something!
To do this, you'll add this line to your settings.toml file:
TIMEZONE = "America/Los_Angeles"
Here's a great list of valid timezones from the IANA Timezone Database. Head there to find the name of the one you want. Simply find the nearest timezone to your desired location, and use that name as displayed in the TZ database name column.
Event Time
Since this is a one-time event, you'll need to tell the PyPortal when the event is, this is with respect to your local time so if its an event in another country or time zone, convert that to the local time where you are at. You can adjust the following variables to make this work:
EVENT_YEAREVENT_MONTHEVENT_DAYEVENT_HOUREVENT_MINUTE
For example, here's the countdown setting for PyCon:
# The time of the thing! EVENT_YEAR = 2019 EVENT_MONTH = 4 EVENT_DAY = 15 EVENT_HOUR = 9 EVENT_MINUTE = 0
Note that EVENT_HOUR is in 24-hour time so it will range from 00 to 23
Font
Then, it displays the info with bitmapped fonts to overlay on top of the background. You can learn more about converting type in this guide.
Now, the PyPortal will display the background and countdown until it reaches the event! When the event time arrives, you'll be treated with the other countdown_event.bmp image. Look, there's Dan, Kattni, and Scott just as they may appear at PyCon!*
*Blinka does not currently plan on attending the event. Some restrictions apply, see site for details.
Customization
If you like, you can also customize the background for a different event, by making your own 320x240 16-bit RGB color .bmp file. Then, adjust your setting to match the new event's time.
Graphics
Let's have a look at how the code places the elements on screen. Below, we can see the text items that are displayed.
Text Position
Depending on the design of your background bitmap and the length of the text you're displaying, you may want to reposition the text and caption.
The PyPortal's display is 320 pixels wide and 240 pixels high. In order to refer to those positions on the screen, we use an x/y coordinate system, where x is horizontal and y is vertical.
The origin of this coordinate system is the upper left corner. This means that a pixel placed at the upper left corner would be (0,0) and the lower right corner would be (320, 240).
Text Color
Another way to customize your display is to adjust the color of the text. The line text_color=0xFFFFFF in the constructor shows how. You will need to use the hexadecimal value for any color you want to display.
You can use something like https://htmlcolorcodes.com/ to pick your color and then copy the hex value, in this example it would be 0x0ED9EE
So, in order to customize the position and color of the text, you would adjust the values in these lines of code in code.py:
days_position = (8, 207) hours_position = (110, 207) minutes_position = (220, 207) text_color = 0xFFFFFF
3D Printed Stand
If you'd like to create a 3D printed stand for your PyPortal Countdown Clock, you can follow the general instructions in this guide, but use the horizontal PyPortal Stand model linked here.
Use the four sets of standoffs and screws to fasten them together as shown.
Page last edited March 08, 2024
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