PyPortal NASA Image of the Day Viewer

by John Park

published April 05, 2019, last edited March 27, 2025

posted in Internet of Things - IOT LCDs & Displays/ Graphic LCDs Programming/ MicroPython / CircuitPython

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Beginner

Project guide

Overview

SPAAAAAACE! Who doesn't want to look endlessly fascinating photos of space? !

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website provides just what the title says, a new, incredible space photo each day. Now, you can set up your PyPortal to be a dedicated viewer for these glorious images!

You'll use CircuitPython to code it, and the PyPortal library will make it simple to query the NASA Open API for the image.

Parts

Adafruit PyPortal - CircuitPython Powered Internet Display

PyPortal, our easy-to-use IoT device that allows you to create all the things for the “Internet of Things” in minutes. Make custom touch screen interface...

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$54.95

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Adafruit PyPortal Desktop Stand Enclosure Kit

PyPortal is our easy-to-use IoT device that allows you to create all the things for the “Internet of Things” in minutes. Create little pocket...

$9.95

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Fully Reversible Pink/Purple USB A to micro B Cable - 1m long

This cable is not only super-fashionable, with a woven pink and purple Blinka-like pattern, it's also fully reversible! That's right, you will save seconds a day by...

$3.95

In Stock

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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!

Set up CircuitPython Quick Start!

Follow this quick step-by-step for super-fast Python power :)

Download the latest version of CircuitPython for the PyPortal via CircuitPython.org

Download the latest version of CircuitPython for the PyPortal Pynt via CircuitPython.org

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.

PyPortal Default Files

PyPortal Pynt Default Files

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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:

Latest Adafruit CircuitPython Library Bundle

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.

Your settings.toml file should be stored in the main directory of your CIRCUITPY drive. It should not be in a folder.

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_ssid
your_wifi_password

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CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID = "your_wifi_ssid"
CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD = "your_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_ssid
your_wifi_password
your_aio_username
your_aio_key

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CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID = "your_wifi_ssid"
CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD = "your_wifi_password"
ADAFRUIT_AIO_USERNAME = "your_aio_username"
ADAFRUIT_AIO_KEY = "your_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.

Not every project uses the same variable name for each entry in the settings.toml file! Always verify it matches the code.

settings.toml File Tips

Here is an example settings.toml file.

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# 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"

# 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, octal (0o567) and binary (0b11011) are not supported.
Use \u escapes for weird characters, \x and \ooo escapes are not available in .toml files
- Example: \U0001f44d for 👍 (thumbs up emoji) and \u20ac for € (EUR sign)
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.

Accessing Your settings.toml Information in code.py

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.

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import os

print(os.getenv("test_variable"))

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:

Update to CircuitPython 9.2.x or later to use this example.

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# 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

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("%02X" % byte for byte in esp.MAC_address))

for ap in esp.scan_networks():
    print("\t%-23s RSSI: %d" % (ap.ssid, 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("IP lookup adafruit.com: %s" % esp.pretty_ip(esp.get_host_by_name("adafruit.com")))
print("Ping google.com: %d ms" % esp.ping("google.com"))

# 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!")

# 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

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("%02X" % byte for byte in esp.MAC_address))

for ap in esp.scan_networks():
    print("\t%-23s RSSI: %d" % (ap.ssid, 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("IP lookup adafruit.com: %s" % esp.pretty_ip(esp.get_host_by_name("adafruit.com")))
print("Ping google.com: %d ms" % esp.ping("google.com"))

# 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.

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>>> 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!

>>> 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:

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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)

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_requests library about them.

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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)

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

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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))

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.

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for ap in esp.scan_networks():
    print("\t%-23s RSSI: %d" % (ap.ssid, ap.rssi))

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.)

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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"))
)

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.

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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()

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_requests library will parse the JSON into a Python dictionary whose structure is the same as the structure of the JSON.

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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()

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.

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# 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("Fetching JSON data from %s..." % 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)

# 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("Fetching JSON data from %s..." % 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.

Download Project Bundle

Copy Code

# 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

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 = "http://worldtimeapi.org/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)

# 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

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 = "http://worldtimeapi.org/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:

Networking in CircuitPython

By Anne Barela

View Guide

Page last edited March 08, 2024

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Code PyPortal NASA Image Viewer

NASA Open API Key

We'll use the NASA API to make our queries and retrieve our image of the day. In order to do so, you'll need to register for a free account with api.nasa.gov and get your API key.

It's easy to do, just head to this link and enter your name and email address. That's all there is to it! Your API key will be generated and sent to you via email, as well as showing up immediately in the browser. Keep that key (or the email containing it) handy, we'll need to copy and paste it into our code in a moment.

Adafruit IO Time Server

In order to get use the Adafruit image converter, this project will require you to have an Adafruit IO username and key. 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:

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CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID = "your_wifi_ssid"
CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD = "your_wifi_password"
AIO_USERNAME = "your_aio_username"
AIO_KEY = "your_aio_key"

CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID = "your_wifi_ssid"
CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD = "your_wifi_password"
AIO_USERNAME = "your_aio_username"
AIO_KEY = "your_aio_key"

The CIRCUITPY_PYSTACK_SIZE addition to settings.toml below is required to avoid an error.

Increase CIRCUITPY_PYSTACK_SIZE in settings.toml

This program requires an increase in the stack size to run. Otherwise you will get a "Pystack exhausted" error message. Add this line to settings.toml:

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CIRCUITPY_PYSTACK_SIZE = 2048

CIRCUITPY_PYSTACK_SIZE = 2048

Add CircuitPython Code and Assets

In the Project Code section further down this page, 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_NASA.

Copy the contents of the PyPortal_NASA directory to your PyPortal CIRCUITPY drive.

Editing the Code

You can edit the code.py file with any text editor you like. Adafruit suggests installing the free Mu Python editor as it's super handy, recognizes Adafruit boards, and has a built in serial monitor/REPL to interact with the board. Find out more about Mu here.

Add NASA API Key

Open up code.py in Mu and then copy and paste your API key from NASA that we got earlier in to the DATA_SOURCE url, getting rid of the words DEMO_KEY and replacing it with your actual API key.

That line will look something like this:

DATA_SOURCE = "https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=your_actual_really_long_key_here"

When you're done, save the code.py file again to your PyPortal's CIRCUITPY drive.

boot.py

We're using a special file to ensure the .bmp cache writes to the flash properly. This is the unsafe_boot.py file you copied to the drive. Rename it to boot.py now.

Note that you'll see this scary looking text appear during restart, don't worry, it's supposed to say that!

**************** WARNING ******************
Using the filesystem as a write-able cache!
This is risky behavior, backup your files!
**************** WARNING ******************

This is what the final contents of the CIRCUITPY drive will look like:

Project Code

Download Project Bundle

Copy Code

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2019 Limor Fried for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

import time
import board
from adafruit_pyportal import PyPortal

# Set up where we'll be fetching data from
DATA_SOURCE = "https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=DEMO_KEY"
# There's a few different places we look for data in the photo of the day
IMAGE_LOCATION = ["url"]
TITLE_LOCATION = ["title"]
DATE_LOCATION = ["date"]

# the current working directory (where this file is)
cwd = ("/"+__file__).rsplit('/', 1)[0]
pyportal = PyPortal(url=DATA_SOURCE,
                    json_path=(TITLE_LOCATION, DATE_LOCATION),
                    status_neopixel=board.NEOPIXEL,
                    default_bg=cwd+"/nasa_background.bmp",
                    text_font=cwd+"/fonts/Arial-12.bdf",
                    text_position=((5, 220), (5, 200)),
                    text_color=(0xFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFF),
                    text_maxlen=(50, 50), # cut off characters
                    image_json_path=IMAGE_LOCATION,
                    image_resize=(320, 240),
                    image_position=(0, 0))

while True:
    response = None
    try:
        response = pyportal.fetch()
        print("Response is", response)
    except RuntimeError as e:
        print("Some error occured, retrying! -", e)

    time.sleep(30*60)  # 30 minutes till next check

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2019 Limor Fried for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

import time
import board
from adafruit_pyportal import PyPortal

# Set up where we'll be fetching data from
DATA_SOURCE = "https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=DEMO_KEY"
# There's a few different places we look for data in the photo of the day
IMAGE_LOCATION = ["url"]
TITLE_LOCATION = ["title"]
DATE_LOCATION = ["date"]

# the current working directory (where this file is)
cwd = ("/"+__file__).rsplit('/', 1)[0]
pyportal = PyPortal(url=DATA_SOURCE,
                    json_path=(TITLE_LOCATION, DATE_LOCATION),
                    status_neopixel=board.NEOPIXEL,
                    default_bg=cwd+"/nasa_background.bmp",
                    text_font=cwd+"/fonts/Arial-12.bdf",
                    text_position=((5, 220), (5, 200)),
                    text_color=(0xFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFF),
                    text_maxlen=(50, 50), # cut off characters
                    image_json_path=IMAGE_LOCATION,
                    image_resize=(320, 240),
                    image_position=(0, 0))

while True:
    response = None
    try:
        response = pyportal.fetch()
        print("Response is", response)
    except RuntimeError as e:
        print("Some error occured, retrying! -", e)

    time.sleep(30*60)  # 30 minutes till next check

If you run into any errors, such as "ImportError: no module named `adafruit_display_text.label`" be sure to update your libraries to the latest release bundle!

How It Works

The NASA Image Viewer is doing a few cool things using CircuitPython and the PyPortal:

Background Splash Screen

First, we'll display a splash screen with the NASA logo. This is a 320x240 pixel RGB 16-bit raster graphic in .bmp format.

Font

We'll be displaying the image title and today's date as text created with a bitmapped font to overlay on top of the background image once that's loaded. The font used here is a bitmap font made from an oblique Arial typeface. You can learn more about converting type in this guide.

JSON

In order to retrieve the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), we'll be making a query to the NASA API.

When you make a request of the APOD server with your API key added, you'll get a JSON file returned as the response.

In fact, you can run the same query as the PyPortal does to see the result. Copy and paste this link https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=DEMO_KEY

into your browser, except replace DEMO_KEY with your own API key that NASA sent in the registration email.

When you enter this in your web browser, you'll see a result returned like this:

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{
  "copyright": "Mario Zauner",
  "date": "2019-04-03",
  "explanation": "The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone.  A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shaped indentation, visible just below center, is part of a vast complex of absorbing dust and glowing gas.  To bring out details of the  Horsehead's pasture, an amateur astronomer used a backyard telescope in Austria to accumulate and artistically combine 7.5 hours of images in the light of Hydrogen (red), Oxygen (green), and Sulfur (blue). The resulting spectacular picture details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and dust-laden filaments that were created and sculpted over eons by stellar winds and ancient supernovas.  The Flame Nebula is visible just to the left of the Horsehead, while the bright star on the upper left is Alnilam, the central star in Orion's Belt. The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500 light years distant towards the constellation of Orion.    Bounce around the Universe: Random APOD Generator",
  "hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1904/HorseheadFlame_Zauner_4404.jpg",
  "media_type": "image",
  "service_version": "v1",
  "title": "Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula",
  "url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1904/HorseheadFlame_Zauner_960.jpg"
}

{
  "copyright": "Mario Zauner",
  "date": "2019-04-03",
  "explanation": "The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone.  A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shaped indentation, visible just below center, is part of a vast complex of absorbing dust and glowing gas.  To bring out details of the  Horsehead's pasture, an amateur astronomer used a backyard telescope in Austria to accumulate and artistically combine 7.5 hours of images in the light of Hydrogen (red), Oxygen (green), and Sulfur (blue). The resulting spectacular picture details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and dust-laden filaments that were created and sculpted over eons by stellar winds and ancient supernovas.  The Flame Nebula is visible just to the left of the Horsehead, while the bright star on the upper left is Alnilam, the central star in Orion's Belt. The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500 light years distant towards the constellation of Orion.    Bounce around the Universe: Random APOD Generator",
  "hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1904/HorseheadFlame_Zauner_4404.jpg",
  "media_type": "image",
  "service_version": "v1",
  "title": "Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula",
  "url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1904/HorseheadFlame_Zauner_960.jpg"
}

That result is a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) array. It is comprised of a single element with seven key:value pairs. For example, there is one key called date which has a value of 2019-04-03which is expressed this way:

"date": "2019-04-03"

And another we care about is the title key, which has a value of Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula

So that is expressed as:

"title": "Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula"

Another key we really care about is the url which has a value of the image location:

"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1904/HorseheadFlame_Zauner_960.jpg"

Since this JSON object array has a consistent way to return the results to us, the code we're running on the PyPortal can easily parse the data and display it!

Here's what the JSON file looks like in the "code beautifier" of Firefox.

You can see how it's done in this part of code.py:

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DATA_SOURCE = "https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=xxxxxxx" #put your api key here
IMAGE_LOCATION = ["url"]
TITLE_LOCATION = ["title"]
DATE_LOCATION = ["date"]

DATA_SOURCE = "https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=xxxxxxx" #put your api key here
IMAGE_LOCATION = ["url"]
TITLE_LOCATION = ["title"]
DATE_LOCATION = ["date"]

Then, in the pyportal query we ask for the date and title names from that URL, and then use the text_ arguments to set the font, position, color, wrap, and maxlen of the text when it is displayed.

We use the url name to get the path to the .jpeg image file.

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pyportal = PyPortal(url=DATA_SOURCE,
                    json_path=(TITLE_LOCATION, DATE_LOCATION),
                    status_neopixel=board.NEOPIXEL,
                    default_bg=cwd+"/nasa_background.bmp",
                    text_font=cwd+"/fonts/Arial-12.bdf",
                    text_position=((5, 220), (5, 200)),
                    text_color=(0xFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFF),
                    text_maxlen=(50, 50), # cut off characters
                    image_json_path=IMAGE_LOCATION,
                    image_resize=(320, 240),
                    image_position=(0, 0))

pyportal = PyPortal(url=DATA_SOURCE,
                    json_path=(TITLE_LOCATION, DATE_LOCATION),
                    status_neopixel=board.NEOPIXEL,
                    default_bg=cwd+"/nasa_background.bmp",
                    text_font=cwd+"/fonts/Arial-12.bdf",
                    text_position=((5, 220), (5, 200)),
                    text_color=(0xFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFF),
                    text_maxlen=(50, 50), # cut off characters
                    image_json_path=IMAGE_LOCATION,
                    image_resize=(320, 240),
                    image_position=(0, 0))

With all of this prepared, during the main loop of while True: the code will query the NASA page for the JSON data.

When it gets the path of the .jpeg file, the pyportal library passes it along to an Adafruit IO image converter server where the file is converted into the format the PyPortal can display, a 320x240 pixel RGB 16-bit .bmp.

original jpeg

converted and resized bmp

This image is then cached onto the PyPortal's storage and displayed on the PyPortal TFT screen.

Finally, the text will be displayed over the image.

This updates every thirty minutes. Be aware, you cannot make more than 50 queries per day to the NASA API!

One user reported problems related to a slow internet connection, which they resolved by increasing the timeout value in the adafruit_requests library from 1 second up to 5 seconds.

Page last edited March 08, 2024