Raspberry Pi Scoreboard

This is a simple project that  tries to use the Raspberry Pi as a Scoreboard.. on a character LCD
What we will do in this project is write a python script that will use httplib and rplcd to connect to the internet and display the score..
if you are not aware of Raspberry Pi or the Python programming language, there are plenty of resources on-line. I personally learned python from the python monk and learnpython
It is a matter of a few hours before you are well versed in both.
I was making a Cricket  scoreboard as part of the Google Hackathon, you can use the same method to do many other tasks, from facebook notifications to tweeter.
make sure that your RPi has a running OS and is connected to the INTERNET. refer to my  1 minute RPi setup blog post for instructions on the same
The Score:
      First of all i needed a web API provider who does it for free. (not easy to find).  google helped me here and i was lucky..
I found this somewhat immature API that gives out some basic scores at [embed]http://cricscore-api.appspot.com/[/embed]
please bear in mind that this was my first python program so i was happy that it worked, there may be some mistakes but it worked.
the way this works is I create a connection to the website and read the response.

Con = httplib.HTTPConnection('cricscore-api.appspot.com')

Con.request("GET", "/csa")

Response = Con.getresponse()

return eval(Response.read()) ## Disputed

and once the score was recorded i decode it according to the format that the API provided the result in. Now this part is highly API specific and would vary from API to API, so i do not think that it will be a great idea to go through that mess, as you would end up doing that all over again for your set of API.

Just remember that you have recorded the response and would have to act on it accordingly.

In my case i had to get the Match ID for my favorite teams, and then get the score string in the type i required (detailed or short) and then display it on to the LCD "periodically".

The LCD:

for using the LCD i used he RPLCD library.. its available on GITHUB [embed]https://github.com/dbrgn/RPLCD[/embed]

you can clone this library, follow the README  and install it using pip. (comment if facing any difficulties)

This command has to be run on your RPi, if you are facing difficulties connecting to your RPI , have a look at my 1 minute RPi setup blog post, that would seriously help.

 sudo pip install RPLCD

as for the connections of the character LCD on the Pi this is the schematic..

connect the Vcc, Ground and other connections to the 5v and ground pins that are available on the GPIO. use the 3.3 v pin for connecting the LED pins. as you can see you are not out of pins here.

Setting up the layout of the display is finally your choice.

for a start you can use my script.

change the Favorite Teams list and add your cricket team , if there is a match on a particular day, it will show up.

if you look at the display i have added Date and time display too.

here is the script (I would seriously advice against copying it from here, use the link)

# Python script to display the latest scores

# Arun Kumar @ArunMKumar

# Varun Gupta varun90gupta@gmail.com

# Anish Tambe @atdaemon

# 01.06.2014

######################## Libraries ##############################

from __future__ import print_function, division, absolute_import, unicode_literals

from RPLCD import *

import httplib

import time

import re

####################### Constatnts #############################

teams = ["England", "India", "Sri Lanka", "West Indies", "Punjab T", "Chennai T", "Yorkshire", "Hampshire", "Surrey", "Sussex" ]

rows = {"time" : 0 , "team1" : 1 , "team2" : 2 , "player" : 3}

colm = {"teamname": 0 ,"score": 12, "time": 11}

namelen = 7

###################### functions ##############################

display = None

def initLCD():

global display

display =CharLCD()

display.clear()

display.cursor_mode = CursorMode.blink

def getMatchList():

Con = httplib.HTTPConnection('cricscore-api.appspot.com')

Con.request("GET", "/csa")

Response = Con.getresponse()

return eval(Response.read()) ## Disputed

def getFavsIds(matchesList,favTeams) :

favs = []

for match in matchesList :

if match['t1'] in favTeams or match['t2'] in favTeams :

favs.append(match['id'])

return favs

def getMatchScore(matchId):

Con = httplib.HTTPConnection('cricscore-api.appspot.com')

Con.request("GET", "/csa?id="+"+".join(map(str,matchId)))

Response = Con.getresponse()

return eval(Response.read()) ## Disputed

def getTeamNameandScores(status):

Result = re.search("([a-zA-Z\ ]+).*([0-9]+\/[0-9]+)*[\ \*]*v([a-zA-Z\ ]+).*([0-9]+\/[0-9]+)*",status)

names = [Result.group(1), Result.group(2), Result.group(3), Result.group(4)]

return names

def displaytime():

global display

display.cursor_pos = (0,0)

Current_Time =time.strftime("%d %b %y")

display.write_string(Current_Time)

display.cursor_pos = (rows['time'], colm['time'])

Current_Time = time.strftime(" %H:%M:%S")

display.write_string(Current_Time)

###############################################################################

initLCD()

#Get list of matches

matches = getMatchList()

#Get the Match ID

matchIds = getFavsIds(matches, teams)

#get the status for all matches

statuses = getMatchScore(matchIds) # all scores

print(statuses)

# Display Scores

for status in statuses:

         nameAndScore = getTeamNameandScores(status['si'])

         display.clear()

         displaytime()

         if nameAndScore[0]:

         display.cursor_pos = (rows["team1"],colm['teamname'])

         display.write_string(nameAndScore[0].strip()[:namelen])

         if nameAndScore[1]:

                display.cursor_pos = (rows["team1"],colm['score'])

                display.write_string(nameAndScore[1].strip())

         if nameAndScore[2]:

                display.cursor_pos = (rows["team2"],colm['teamname'])

                display.write_string(nameAndScore[2].strip()[:namelen])

        if nameAndScore[3]:

                display.cursor_pos = (rows["team2"],colm['score'])

                display.write_string(nameAndScore[3].strip())

time.sleep(60/len(matchIds)) # sleep accordingly

The task is not over yet...

we need to add this to the periodic tasks.. for which we shall use crontab

and as this script requires root permissions it is best to include it on the crontab of the root.

run

sudo crontab -e

you will be greeted by a script ready to be modified.

Please not all of these commands have to be running on the RPi and not the PC you are connected with.

in the crontab add the full path of this file  add the command to the last line

1  * * * * pyhton <absolute path to ypur script>

make sure you called the crontab command as sudo. otherwise this wont work and you wont know why.

if you carefully look at the crontab command this means that the script have to be called once per minute.

you can modify this by taking a little help from the crontab prompt. once this is done.. you are good to go.

Also make sure that the LCD is cleared before displaying and not after it, because if it is cleared after displaying, you will never see a thing as it will be cleared immediately.

Leave comments in case of any difficulties, i will be glad to help.

Happy hacking.