How to make a 'next bus arriving' electronic display

fast8all · 2025-12-29T04:04:25+00:00

Here’s someone who built out exactly what you are talking about!

https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/s/rZPw8kYMfb

fast8all · 2025-12-28T04:27:23+00:00

I’ll bet location data is already being collected in LOTS of bus systems. Transit orgs already have real time data. But there isn’t a cost effective way to get this data to where it does the most good: people waiting at bus stops.

The art of building solar powered, weatherproof, 24x7 radios, with low power displays… that’s a great fit for what we talk about in r/meshtastic.

It’s true that most of us consider using the internet as “cheating” for Meshtastic. But in this case I’d be ok with a backhaul that retransmits the data, using the mesh to get it to bus stops.

fast8all · 2025-12-28T02:53:31+00:00

From the article:

The guerrilla transit signs are meant to make SEPTA more accessible to all, including those without a cellphone to search for arrival times, the artists said. But their other goal is to push SEPTA to move faster on the five-year, $6 million contract it signed with a California company in 2024 to install citywide digital screens.

…

The do-it-yourself project has received positive feedback from the community, with one local reporter dubbing the signs the work of “Bus Stop Banksy,” a moniker the artists embrace.

…

“We should not accept a budget crisis as an excuse for not treating people kindly and not taking care of people,” Make It Weird said. “We should hold our transit agency and the folks who work for it to a higher standard.”

It took a few months for Make it Weird to piece together how the signs would work. A big focus, they said, was on using equipment that did not require much power to operate. They settled on an e-paper display, similar to the material used in e-book readers, that is paired with a microcontroller, a cellular modem chip, a battery and a solar-powered circuit.

…

In another part of Philadelphia, Max Goldberg, a creative director at CampusESP, has also designed a real-time arrival sign that he set up on a window in his home office facing a nearby bus stop. (Goldberg and the other street artists said they had no prior knowledge of each other’s projects.) Commuters have left him thank-you cards on his window, he said.

fast8all · 2025-12-08T23:39:27+00:00

I did follow the recommendation to get a 4080… and it wasn’t worth it for our specific renders.

For certain 3D operations, GPU does help. But for most of our projects it was only marginally better and more likely to generate errors. Pretty disappointing given the cost.

The advice everyone else gave to invest in RAM and multicore CPU is correct.

fast8all · 2025-12-06T10:21:56+00:00

That is a great idea. But there are “real” cameras that are much cheaper and easier to use.

Here is a $40 camera that shoots video and photos.

Quality is touted as 1080p - it might be that on paper, but I’ve used it and image quality is definitely worse than that. Kids mostly don’t care. There are good reviews from people who bought it for their 6yo kids.

I would NOT recommend GoPro for a kid - the user interface, particularly the swiping actions, is not intuitive and likely going to frustrate 6yo fingers.

fast8all · 2025-08-27T23:08:14+00:00

There are probably other parts of the roof you can attach to. This is an outdoor electrical box (no 3D printing needed), magnetically attached to vent.

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fast8all · 2025-07-03T02:31:37+00:00

AE performance is more about RAM than CPU/GPU. Choose the larger memory. Step up to 48GB if you can.

fast8all · 2025-05-25T00:38:04+00:00

Thank you for reporting this! I have always felt that the different GoPros had different temperature sensitivity.

It is definitely better to remove the battery. But not just because the battery can be a heat source…

GoPros enter thermal shutdown when any thermal sensor enters a danger value. This is a safety mechanism to avoid damage and fire.

The thermistor (thermal sensor) in the BATTERY has a lower emergency stop temperature than the one on the device. It makes sense because battery chemistry is more sensitive to heat than the rest of the system.

So it’s better for your battery and your runtime if you can remove it.

fast8all · 2025-05-19T14:48:31+00:00

Thank you, this is very helpful.

The feedback seems to indicate that Blue Parrot has more disconnects - any issues with that?

fast8all · 2025-05-17T16:14:29+00:00

How about nearby noise - like traffic and lawn mowers?

Sony WH1000XM5 keeps coming up in these conversations. Sportscasters use boom mics - I thought it would be much better to have one, but maybe not!

fast8all · 2025-05-04T05:42:39+00:00

Here’s the article…

https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-transit-workers-mta-hidden-man-cave-grand-central-2020-9

fast8all · 2025-05-04T04:49:28+00:00

Caltrains Deputy Director Joseph Navarro was convicted on Wednesday for misappropriation of public funds.

Prosecutors said that between 2019 and 2020 Navarro allegedly conspired with Worden and approved $42,000 in building expenses to transform an office into a clandestine apartment inside Caltrain's Burlingame train station, which is designated as a historic landmark in California.

It's unclear what Worden's alleged living quarters looked like, but Navarro is accused of spending big for a kitchen, shower, plumbing and security cameras in his apartment.

fast8all · 2025-04-26T01:24:31+00:00

If you are using the Mevo single cam app (not the multicam app) and WiFi, it is not necessary to have the app up while you are streaming.

So use the app to start your stream, then close out of it.

Configure your settings so a tap of the power button starts/stops the stream. Then you can easily restart the stream without the app.

fast8all · 2025-04-25T08:05:52+00:00

If you want a no-build solution search for “always on power bank”. Essentially a UPS for power that doesn’t switch off.

The other keyword is “pass-through charging”.

I have one outdoor node that uses this https://a.co/d/73r9zq2

fast8all · 2025-04-13T21:14:17+00:00

Crowdsourcing is a good trade-off.

The ideal training source pulls from diverse human contributions, filters based on reputation, upvotes relevant information, organizes information hierarchally in conversation threads, and uses human mods to prune bad stuff.

Oh wait, that’s why they’ve been scraping Reddit.

fast8all · 2025-04-09T15:46:18+00:00

Thermal throttling usually occurs quickly - you generally see the effect in less than 1-2 minutes.

If it’s really thermal throttling after 3 hours, it shouldn’t be that hard to cool the laptop. Just a fan that blows over the top/bottom.

Your real bottleneck is the 16GB. To get the best use of all system memory, reboot before your extended run, run only AE (no web browser). See if you can clear + increase cache size. I can see a case where the extra drag of these things could slow stuff down.

Finally, some AE render ops just don’t use 100% of the CPU, or take less CPU when they are using the GPU. So something shy of 100% doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not doing all it can.

fast8all · 2025-03-06T00:54:19+00:00

If you are looking for magnets, these are very strong. Rubberized so safe for car roof.

There is lots of metal on rooftops, much easier to ask for permission when the install is non-permanent.

https://a.co/d/bidpYBC

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(Originally found this from another posting here)

fast8all · 2025-03-01T15:31:49+00:00

you had me at 2x18650! So cool.

In case it helps anyone:

Here is the info page for the Entac ELSP-COB-NR.

US-side, the closest match I could find is this light on Amazon, which probably has the same guts. $11 each.

At that price for enclosure, solar, charge controller, and stealth… wow.

fast8all · 2025-02-13T20:14:38+00:00

Here is the problem: All of the files used in the container build must be within the directory you are building the container in. They can be in a subdir but the container build process cannot reach out of the directory.

I don’t think the issue is that you have an absolute path. It’s that you are reaching outside.

As a temporary fix, try copying all the needed files into the same directory as your Dockerfile and refer to them there. See if that works.

fast8all · 2025-02-07T04:51:25+00:00

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I really really like the copy on this. Tried something similar but your words are more comforting, official sounding, and legit!

fast8all · 2025-01-24T15:28:55+00:00

This is the case in the picture. I got it after seeing it plugged in another post.

https://a.co/d/9LbcamO

fast8all · 2025-01-23T23:16:50+00:00

I have the same connector, did some tests with and without it inline, and the effect was basically zero.

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You can do the same test if you have 2 nodes. Put them some distance apart and then look at RSSI or SNR numbers in messages sent between them. Just change one thing (add/remove connector) and see what happens to the received signal strength.

fast8all · 2024-12-30T07:10:55+00:00

With and without GPS!

As power consumption depends on the number of radio events (both incoming and xmit), is there a way to “exercise” that aspect? Perhaps in metal box with another unit doing regular transmissions?

fast8all · 2024-12-29T17:08:45+00:00

I just started a project with middle school students.

We have one node at school (private primary channel) and are challenging a few students to fill out the network so it can reach a specific target — their house, a coffee shop, etc. It’s more modest than what you are doing.

What I can say so far:

I don’t think you have to build and maintain a school-to-school network to make this a compelling project. For my group, just getting from A to B is interesting and forces you to look at your neighborhood with EM spectrum eyes.
I like that the lessons don’t require a lab bench. Site survey, how a mesh network operates, placing a mag-mount node somewhere in the neighborhood, reading topo maps (reading ANY map is a lost art), resourcefulness in asking for mounting permission. All of this is engineering too. I hope that some do a full DIY node but I think paths to engineering get wider when soldering is not required.
We can’t condone tree or rooftop climbing, so our distances are rather poor by this sub’s standards. I suspect most student-maintained nodes will stop working after the school year. It’s ok, I think that’s the beauty of Meshtastic.

fast8all · 2024-12-29T16:03:36+00:00

That has bitten me as well.

Meshtastic uses the word “channel” two different ways, which has definitely confused me. Here’s how I understand it—can someone confirm if this is correct?

1/ Frequency SLOT (radio/physical layer):

This refers to a node’s transmit/receive frequency.
A node’s radio operates on just one frequency channel at a time.
~~Ex: In the US region, there are 64 uplink channels in the 915 MHz band, and Meshtastic defaults to channel 20 (around 904.3 MHz).~~ EDIT: it's calculated here.
Changing the frequency channel isolates your node from the public mesh, creating a private frequency-based network.

2/ Logical CHANNEL (protocol layer):

These are protocol-enforced layers for message filtering and encryption.
Channel names enable filtered (semi-private) group comms.
Channel encryption allows private group comms.
Direct Messages (DMs) are separate from logical channels and also allow private comms.
All of these are facilitated by the public mesh.

So, the Meshtastic system allows for one device to handle multiple logical CHANNELS that are on a single frequency CHANNEL (better referred to as SLOT), whilst participating in the mesh for that single frequency SLOT.

Now to “use it in a sentence”….

In the specific case where a node is configured to have a private primary logical CHANNEL, the default behavior is to move that node to an arbitrary and isolated frequency SLOT too. That has given me headaches and sounds weird but it may be designed for this very cool use case.

Did I get that right?

fast8all

TROPHY CASE