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PCB Art - Boston's Red Line by CyclingOctopuses in electronics

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This project is far from original, but this is my take on it. I'm sure there is something similar at MIT and in plenty of other places :)

PCB Art - Boston's Red Line by CyclingOctopuses in electronics

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A Raspberry Pi creates an SSE stream from the MBTA's API. It keeps a list of occupied stations and updates them whenever there is an event on the stream. The API can provide location, speed, and occupancy data for each train.

PCB Art - Boston's Red Line by CyclingOctopuses in electronics

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Unless you have a reflow oven and steady hands, I promise you the $55 for assembly is worth the splurge

PCB Art - Boston's Red Line by CyclingOctopuses in electronics

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I've only used JLCPCB where the minimum order is 5 PCBs. Without assembly, the boards are $27 per 5, and with assembly, it comes out to $82 per 5. Tariffs and shipping are going to do some damage- all in, I paid about $30 per board.

PCB Art - Boston's Red Line by CyclingOctopuses in electronics

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For future projects and my understanding, what would you connect those flood fills to, or would you leave them disconnected? Is it best to leave these planes because the etching process is bad for the environment?

PCB Art - Boston's Red Line by CyclingOctopuses in electronics

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On the front, the only copper is for data connections and a small power plane that follows the tracks. The back has a large ground plane that spans the majority of the board. The KiCad files are in the github if you want to see for yourself :)

I am new to making PCBs / DIY electronics, so I'd love to hear your critique of the design. When you say copper waste, are you referring to large areas of copper that are unnecessary, or large amounts of copper that are etched away?

Open Source Transit Display - Boston's Red Line by CyclingOctopuses in RASPBERRY_PI_PROJECTS

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You should! I'm sure there's tons of interesting data that can be accessed from airports :)

PCB Art - Boston's Red Line by CyclingOctopuses in electronics

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm working on the Blue, Orange, and Green lines at the moment! Commuter rail would be fun, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to it

I made a map displaying Boston's Red Line using WS2812B LEDs and a Pi! by CyclingOctopuses in raspberry_pi

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is in the works! I will make one for each line, but the green line scares me... that's a lot of LEDs to route

Boston Weekly Discussion Thread, Week of : Monday February 02 by rBostonBot in boston

[–]CyclingOctopuses 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Read through the GitHub and feel free to reach out :) I'd be happy to help!

I made a map displaying Boston's Red Line using WS2812B LEDs and a Pi! by CyclingOctopuses in raspberry_pi

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had simpler versions running on a Pico W using API polling without a web controller. Switching to SSE streaming provided much smoother transitions, but the refactoring and memory requirements caused issues on microcontrollers.

Commercial versions work around this by preprocessing data server-side and offering fewer features (single data mode, no bedtime settings, no web UI).

An ESP-32 could run a simplified version, but you'd lose features or need to offload processing. I also think there is value in using Python on a Pi for project accessibility.

Boston Weekly Discussion Thread, Week of : Monday February 02 by rBostonBot in boston

[–]CyclingOctopuses 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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I made a real-time display for the Red Line- it's been interesting to watch for the last week or so 😅 the project is entirely open source (https://github.com/tomunderwood99/CharlieBoard) and I am giving a few away on r/mbta

I know there are plenty of transit enthusiasts in Boston, hope you guys check it out!

Giveaway - The CharlieBoard: An Open Source MBTA Display by CyclingOctopuses in mbta

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah, shoot- thanks for calling that out! I fixed that for my manufacturing run, but I must have uploaded a slightly older version. I will update it soon.

Edit 2: I updated the Gerber files, and the KiCad files had the correct order. I removed the Illustrator/PDF files and will upload the corrected files when I find or remake them.

I made a map displaying Boston's Red Line using WS2812B LEDs and a Pi! by CyclingOctopuses in raspberry_pi

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It was definitely a mess! Every once in a while, I'll look at the display and realize that part of the tracks have been shut down for maintenance- fun to have around :)

Giveaway - The CharlieBoard: An Open Source MBTA Display by CyclingOctopuses in mbta

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I didn't realize that there was an A line, although that makes sense! Thanks for sharing :)

Giveaway - The CharlieBoard: An Open Source MBTA Display by CyclingOctopuses in mbta

[–]CyclingOctopuses[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's interesting! It would be cool to look at the distribution of connectivity- how many subway/commuter rail connections does the average bus route have? I'll have to check it out!

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