PiClock

What?

Code that drives the Pimoroni Micro Dot pHAT with a current time display

Why?

1. Retro 5x7 LED dot matrix display is cool
2. Clocks should have cool displays
3. Raspberry Pi should display useful information

Where?

In my Raspberry Pi.

Setup

Library Installation

curl https://get.pimoroni.com/microdotphat | bash

Clock Source Code

Put clock source code in: /home/volumio/clock.py

import time
import datetime
from microdotphat import write_string, set_decimal, clear, show

while True:
    clear()
    t = datetime.datetime.now()
    if t.second % 2 == 0:
        set_decimal(2, 1)
        set_decimal(4, 1)
    else:
        set_decimal(2, 0)
        set_decimal(4, 0)
    write_string(t.strftime('%H%M%S'), kerning=False)
    show()
    time.sleep(0.05)

Make Clock Automatically Run on Boot

In /etc/systemd/system Make clock.service file.

Put in following:

[Unit]
Description=Get clock service running at boot
After=mosquitto.service mysql.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/volumio/clock.py
Restart=always
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=clock
User=volumio
Group=volumio

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable service:

sudo systemctl enable clock.service

Start clock for current boot only:

sudo systemctl start clock.service

Check if it's running:

systemctl status clock.service

To select differnt time zone:

tzselect

About

Daniel is a web developer seeking opportunities, beverage socials, and late-night taco runs. dandydanny.github.io