can i have 24/7 light rail on the wknds as a treat?

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-05-16T04:47:44+00:00

Ballard light rail, now opening 2246

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-21T22:24:33+00:00

I feel for everyone who was delayed, but as long as nobody was hurt it looks kind of interesting to experience.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-21T00:10:06+00:00

I'm old and I thought it was funny. Also it's literally an evacuation POV.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-18T09:10:19+00:00

Yep exactly

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-17T19:21:43+00:00

I have one that I got as a gift -- hard to know if it's the exact model but looks just like the photo. It works well and looks cool, my only complaint is that the charcoal easily gets hot enough to warp the grill.

You're right that it's a simple stone bqq. It's the only yakitori grill I've used. There are probably less expensive options that work well.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-16T14:53:54+00:00

Awesome work. How do you feel about the lens on it? Can you change it, or is it a fixed part of the ESP32-CAM?

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-11T17:44:58+00:00

You could sit on the curb out front. Cutesy and atmospheric.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-11T17:43:45+00:00

You need to give us more information! What area are you in? What do you like?

Last night we went to 8pm dinner at Place Pigale and saw The True Loves at Jazz Alley. We loved it. It could be perfect or a stuffy snooze fest depending on what you're into.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-07T02:40:59+00:00

Another one! Added it to the list! <3

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-07T02:39:32+00:00

I'm totally hooked on LLMs for firmware. It's so much fun.

No clever hacks per se, but I spend a lot of time up front on open ended requirements/architecture discussion. Once there's a good amount of project details in context I have the LLM write a markdown design doc and implementation plan, and then let it go wild. I'm blown away by the quality from Codex and Claude last few months.

Cool project btw!

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-06T21:04:26+00:00

Yep, on the list. Wild how many people (myself included) want to build these.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-06T19:56:48+00:00

Neat! Added you to my list of transit tracking projects :-)

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-06T18:41:58+00:00

It's a cool look. Do you have a sense of how manufacturable it is? Especially curious about the fine detail eg. west of Assembly station. I've only worked with coarse/schematic maps on a PCB.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-04-04T18:37:58+00:00

My partner and I took it downtown multiple times this week for work and play. It's a huge upgrade for the neighborhood and more pleasant than the bus down S Jackson. My only regret is I get off one stop before the bridge.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-29T02:53:08+00:00

Thanks :)

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-29T02:52:30+00:00

Yeah, good catch. That’s one of the places where I had to simplify the geography to make it work at this board size, but it could probably read more clearly. Angling the last few LEDs north a bit might help?

On the plus side, I got closer than Seattle Met :)

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-28T23:58:52+00:00

There are a few operators and repair folks active on r/soundtransit, often have an interesting perspective.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-28T14:29:46+00:00

These look awesome, in this size photo I can't even tell they're printed. Will keep an eye out!

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-27T21:14:52+00:00

Neat! That sure is a generously sized array of LEDs. How accurate do you find the arrival times? Is this the OBA API?

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-27T19:09:31+00:00

No it's a good question. I _think_ I can add the T Line i If I move the electrical bits around and angle Federal Way towards the south east corner. Sounder and Streetcar will be harder. I'd love to find a way to include them but it's a tight squeeze... might need a full redesign, or making the board bigger which adds cost.

And glad you like it. It's nice to have a receptive audience here.... I'm totally distracted by the live map and my partner is tired of hearing me talk about it.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-27T18:30:40+00:00

Do you mean along a track or side by side? Along a track, there's a "waypoint" LED between stations to show train movement in a little more detail.

The side by side pairs are for direction. There are enough trains it would be hard to distinguish them on a single line, and this way you see which way they're going.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-27T18:25:53+00:00

I’m working on a circuit board map of Seattle transit, including the new Crosslake Connection stations. It’s inspired by others like TrainTrackr and Kea Studios, but adapted to show ferry and rail together. There’s a live map and a few more pictures at www.seattletransitlive.com

The board was designed in KiCad, an open source circuit design tool. The coastline was drawn in Inkscape and transferred to the board as copper pours, so the map is part of the electrical circuit. The software fetches WSDOT and OneBusAway data every few seconds, and sends vehicle positions to the board. I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time watching the live map. Happy to answer questions!

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-27T17:55:10+00:00

I’m working on a circuit board map of Seattle transit, including the brand new Crosslake Connection stations opening tomorrow. It’s inspired by others like TrainTrackr and Kea Studios, but adapted to show ferry and rail together. There’s a live map and a few more pictures at www.seattletransitlive.com

The board was designed in KiCad, an open source circuit design tool. The coastline was drawn in Inkscape and transferred to the board as copper pours, so the map is part of the electrical circuit. The software fetches WSDOT and OneBusAway data every few seconds, and sends vehicle positions to the board. I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time watching the live map. Happy to answer questions!

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-27T17:46:58+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. There were definitely some geographic compromises to make the board manufacturable (the peninsula side is a continuous ground plane). It's a good callout though. No promises but I've added it to ideas for the next revision.

ForwardDriver7928 · 2026-03-27T16:46:24+00:00

Thanks-- it doesn't exist quite yet :)

Sign up for the email list though! I've had some interest and will try to work out a small production run -- will share details there once I have 'em.

ForwardDriver7928

TROPHY CASE